What I Learned From Sam Walton: How to Compete and Thrive in a Wal-Mart World (Paperback)

 In 2004, it plans to open a new store each and every day of the year.

 Wal*Mart employs more people in the U.S. than any organization other than the federal government.

 1.3 million associates worldwide make Wal*Mart the largest employer on earth

 Over two million associates will work for Wal*Mart worldwide by 2005.

 Over 100 million customers per week cross Wal*Mart thresholds in the U.S.

 The company operates distribution centers in 120 communities across the country.

 In the near future the company plans to increase its annual sales to close to $500 billion.

In his Introduction, Bergdahl explains that one of his purposes in this book is to "discuss the realities associated with direct competition with Wal*Mart." He selected the acronym P.O.C.K.E.T.S as a means by which to organize his material: Price, Operations, Culture, Key Item Promotion (KIP), Product, Expenses, Talent, and Service.

It is important to keep mind as you read this book, that the global retailing organization which Wal*Mart has obviously become began as a small single store franchise of of the Butler Brothers' Ben Franklin chain (Walton's 5 & 10) in Bentonville (AR) in 1950. Walton soon added a second store in Newport (AR) which was not a Ben Franklin franchise. By 1962, Walton and his brother Bud owned 16 variety stores in Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas. The first Wal*Mart store opened that year. My point is, as with JCPenney with which Wal*Mart shares much in common, over time Sam Walton planted a series of "acorns" in carefully selected and rigorously nourished "soil" within which progressively more profitable "harvests" were produced. In my opinion, it is possible but unlikely that there are other Sam Waltons and James Cash Penneys out there who can duplicate such success.

Bergdahl seems to agree, explaining that he initially intended to write a book which shares his "perceptions of what it takes to be successful in the Wal*Mart world...uncovering the secrets of Wal*Mart strategies and demonstrating HOW competitors can compete with Wal*Mart and survive." He then realized that, instead, it would be easier to write a book about WHY it would be difficult to do so. That is the book which he wrote.

One of this book's most important value-added benefits is derived from the "Checklist" of key points with which Bergdahl concludes each of the seven chapters in which he examines Wal*Mart's expertise in Price, Operations, Culture, Key Item Promotion (KIP), Product, Expenses, Talent, and Service. For whom will this book be most valuable? Another opinion: Decision-makers in those those companies which are deficient in one or more of the seven core competencies, and, decision-makers those companies which do now or plan to do business with Wal*Mart. Bergdahl can help the former to achieve the desired improvement by using the Wal*Mart organization as a benchmark model by to measure the nature and extent of what must be done. He can help the latter to coordinate, indeed integrate their values, policies, and procedures with those of an organization which has significantly elevated standards of measurement and accountability for organizational performance.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Don Taylor's Up Against the Wal-Marts: How Your Business Can Prosper in the Shadow of the Retail Giant, Adam Morgan's Eating the Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, Walton's Sam Walton: Made in America : My Story, Robert Slater's The Wal*Mart Decade: How a New Generation of Leaders Turned Sam Walton's Legacy into the World's #1 Company, and Terri Dougherty's Sam Walton: Department Store Giant (Giants of American Industry).