The pioneering vision set by Mr. Sam Walton continues to make a meaningful impact across the globe even today. With over 2.2m associates and with over 265m transactions each week, there is no doubt that the legacy create by Mr. Sam is built on timeless values that transcend geographical boundaries and generations even in this time and age. There is so much anyone can learn from the Walmart Way.
While Michael does a good job in capturing the key ideas that has made Walmart Walmart, I think the lack of anecdotal perspectives and storytelling doesn't help in bringing out the richness of the context behind those ten rules. He has a ringside view, and those perspectives could bring a very unique flavor to the entire narrative. However, that aside, the book does a good job of bringing together the core ideas that continue to shape the present the future generations of Walmart associates, especially the leaders and managers. I am definitely proud to work at Walmart :)
A bunch of corporate talks and false history. Boring, redundant and garbage.
The partially correct history really kills it. Sam Walton wrote in his autobiography that he didn't intend to share profit until his wife asked him to do it, much later into Walmart's success then the book portrays. So, the book only lists half of the history, pretending Walmart started to share profit since the beginning.
The rest are common rules that you can pick up from any business books. The author is head of the HR (people division), aka the guy dealing with unions. He's not a business guy. It won't teach you anything useful.
I read the eBook via my Kindle App on my iPad which I checked out from my library. I must say it took my >7 months to read this book because it was boring and so unremarkable.
The book is repetitive to start.
I must admit I shop at Wal-Mart, because I live on a budget, and essentially a single income household with two daughters and spouse to support and yes they have really low prices. That being said I don't like shopping at Wal-Mart because most of them are dirty once they are >2 years old and unkempt and the employees are generally not helpful and don't even know where things are in their own store.
I must also say that I had never heard of Wal-Mart until 1994 when I moved to Utah and I did not even know they existed because they were not present in my hometown of Virginia Beach, VA nor in my college town of Wise, VA during my time there (1988-1993) nor in Boone, NC during my one year in graduate school (1993-1994).
This book talks about the 10-foot rule and friendliness of Associates and I have experienced the exact opposite, most Associates are not friendly, don't practice this 10 foot rule, and most aren't even outgoing enough to approach someone in their own store nor know their own store well enough to be able to direct me to where I might find Elmer's Glue or brown sugar, or Stren.
The author talks about the frugality of Mr. Sam and how that carried over to employees who work at the home office bringing office supplies from home and paying for them themselves and taking multiple connecting flights in one day to reach their destination for a business trip and turning a 3-hour flight into a 9+ hour day. As someone who travels for business and has done so since 2003, I have flown Southwest enough to have missed many a flight and experienced delays that have turned a 9-hour trip into a 23-hour trip which is absurd for a 3-hour flight. Productivity suffers when one is traveling and traveling is tiresome and grueling, especially when traveling across multiple time zones.
While the 10-points are good, 6 of them cover dealing with people, the book was far too long and repetitive.
Out of the 10 rules ...6 talk about people management... Sam Walton was far ahead of his time.... His ideas are undoubtedly must follow for Managers who want to lead by example... motivate... and get more out of their teams... When you look up to someone you tend to be a little repetitive... that is the only flaw with the book... If you are a retailer at heart and exceeding customer expectations gives you a high then it is a must read
The book depicts success principles most companies are aiming at & how Sam persisted to achieve those. Amazingly those have been achieved on the progress of building such giant Walmat - good illustrative example!
Love him or hate him, but Sam Walton built a gigantic company called Wal-Mart, and in this book Michael Bergdahl elaborates on 10 rules that made him successful. A quick and interesting read.