The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World's Largest Company
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Description
The former senior vice chairman of the largest retailer in the world, Walmart, shares his business and personal philosophy, and describes how the outstanding success of Walmart owes much to the Christian values that were brought into a distinct management style. Read more
Publisher : Thomas Nelson Inc (January 1, 2005)
Language : English
Hardcover : 210 pages
ISBN-10 : 0785261192
ISBN-13 : 93
Item Weight : 14.7 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #551,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #597 in Christian Business & Professional Growth #932 in Company Business Profiles (Books) #6,106 in Leadership & Motivation
#597 in Christian Business & Professional Growth:
#932 in Company Business Profiles (Books):
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Top Amazon Reviews
Good reading. Had to write a paper on Walmart for a class project. This is a good prospective from a former CEO of Walmart. I will say that I read five books concerning Walmart. From reading this book, one can tell he was heavily influenced by Sam Walton.
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2015 by Tim
Excellent condition-very inspirational-a great read
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2015 by Amazon Customer
The condition of the book was as described. The contents of the book are excellent, I was expecting a somewhat dull read, but I found myself rereading this book simply because I enjoyed it so much.
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2015 by Scottreel11
Outstanding book! Very challenging and encouraging to read. Describes the "man" who had a clear purpose and vision, was able to focus on it, and communicate and motivate his team around him in achieving success.
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2005 by B. Mitchell
There's a lot to be learned from the story of Wal-Mart. A lot of it is in this book by a former Wal-Mart COO, a man who actually knew Sam Walton. And that's where the problems start. Sam Walton was one of the great entrepreneurs of all time. He created a great company with a culture that has survived his death in 1992. But he was not a saint and he wasn't always right, though this book treats Walton as if both of those things were true. For example, the Soderquist tells us about a truck driver who was fired for poor performance. The performance had been poor for a while and continued despite counseling. We're told that the driver's bosses did everything right, doing the right things, documenting the sub-standard performance, giving the man opportunities to correct behavior, etc. But once the fellow is fired, he goes in to see Sam Walton. Walton decides that the fellow should be kept on after all. He over-rules both Soderquist and the driver's immediate bosses. We're told that this is because Sam Walton wanted to send the message that "the open door policy works." We're told it was a good thing. There's no mention of other messages that might have been sent, such as "it doesn't matter if you don't perform, just go appeal any discipline to the big boss" or "It doesn't matter if you do everything right when you fire an underperformer because that person can appeal to the big boss and you'll be back on the job in no time." It seems, in this book, that if Sam Walton did it, it must be right by definition. Evidently the company didn't make any mistakes either. There is plenty of mention, for example, of everyday low prices, but no mention I could find of everyday low wages and benefits. Obviously this sets Wal-Mart apart from other, lesser creatures of business. Other retailers are clearly lesser creatures. They "just don't get it" and "use bait and switch tactics." Other companies are clearly lesser creatures. Read this book alone and you'd think that Wal-Mart single handedly created supply chain thinking, donation-matching programs, and every IT innovation from EDI to RFID. Even the vaunted "associates," though often explicitly praised as a group, are clearly lesser creatures. Soderquist says that he wants associates to communicate "with" management, but when management communicates it is "to" associates. If things like that bother you, then you may not want to buy this book. You'll just get upset and miss the very important lessons that are in the book. It starts with the importance of vision. The book points out that it's important to have a real vision and strong values to build a big and lasting company. It also shows that one of the particular strengths of Sam Walton's vision was that it didn't involve building a big company. Instead, Walton saw his company as creating an excellent shopping experience for customers in smaller cities and towns. That vision led Wal-Mart to see the customer as the boss. It led the company to view itself as the buyer for the customer, rather than as selling to the customer and all of that finds its way into culture. The most important lessons this book has to teach are about vision and culture. You'll learn about the importance of culture to a successful company, but that's old news. If you don't know by now that culture is a powerful driver of behavior, then you haven't been paying attention. But the book also outlines the mechanisms that Wal-Mart uses to re-enforce its culture and values. You'll learn about how this is done in regular meetings and through rituals and symbolic actions. You'll see many examples of Wal-Mart's cultural value of constantly seeking improvement. You'll see how Wal-Mart lives out the value of "everyday low prices." That value is a two-edged sword for Wal-Mart. On the one hand it's a source of both profitability and improvement. On the other, it's the source of the holier-than-everybody tone of this book and the salary and benefits decisions that have made such bad press for the company. The best thing about the book is that it shows how one very, very big and successful company has managed to maintain an entrepreneurial energy true to the spirit of its founder. The worst thing about this book is that the author is too proud of that to discuss Wal-Mart's flaws, failures or shortcomings and, it seems unwilling to give outsiders much credit for getting anything right.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2005 by Wally Bock
I purchased this book for an Economics course I was taking in school. While I had no expectations going in, I found myself very quickly wondering what the purpose of reading this was. It seemed to read more like a public relations release than it did an inside look at what made the largest retailer succesful. Completely devoid from the book are any in depth discussions of some of the more controversial topics surrounding Wal-Mart -- including labor relations and environmental impact. Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone looking to get an unbiased analysis of what made/makes Wal-Mart succesful.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2014 by chefjoe22
got it for my son, he loves it
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2017 by justjini
Sickeningly biased, generic, and of little value. I don't recommend this at all.
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2015 by Lalabakes