Sam Walton

Sam Walton Essay Proposal Thurs, Oct 13th, 2011

Robbie Epstein (Student #: 250520329)

History 2807: Professor K.R. Fleming

Sam Walton was a significant historical entrepreneur because the management innovations that he brought to Wal-Mart changed and influenced the way businesses function. Sam Walton grew up during the adversity of the Great Depression and was forced to work hard as a teenager to help make ends meet for his family. This work ethic carried through to his adult life, where he built from the ground up what is one of today's most successful businesses in the world. In 1962, Walton opened his first discount department store, named Wal-Mart, in the small town of Rogers, Arkansas. By 1967, Wal-Mart grew to a chain of 24 stores across the state of Arkansas and had already reached more than $10 million in sales. Today, the international company is one of the world's largest public corporations that have over 2 million employees and 8,500 stores in 15 countries. What made Wal-Mart such an extraordinary business was not its idea, but the way the company executed its business operations.

Walton was extremely successful as an entrepreneur because he differentiated his company from the competition through the management innovations of superior staff motivation, better customer relations, embracing new technology, and an incredible passion for his business. Walton cultivated staff motivation through many activities such as profit sharing and excellent communication among all employees. He created a corporate culture that strongly encouraged positive customer interaction (the Wal-Mart Rule #1 for employees was: ‘The customer is always right'. The Wal-Mart Rule #2 was: ‘In the case that the customer is wrong, refer back to Rule #1). And Walton ensured that the company was consistently innovating through technology,