 Article
1: What You Can Learn From "The Sam Walton Way"
In this article, Michael Bergdahl discusses Sam
Walton's 10 self-professed rules for success, which Walton credited
for Wal-Mart’s unbelievable success and its growth from a
single store to a 7000+ store global enterprise. Within Mr. Sam’s
10 rules, you’ll find his secret to success is for the most
part, just good old fashioned commonsense, and can be categorized
as one part strategy, one part people, one part risk taking and
one part tactical execution. It is for this reason that almost any
one of us can adapt and use “The Sam Walton Way” in
our business and personal lives to achieve greater success. By using
Golden Rule values, working hard and by staying focused on a few
simple rules Sam Walton became the world’s richest man, and
his company became the world’s largest!
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2: Wal-Mart is a Company Obsessed With Lowering Costs - is Yours?
In this article, Michael Bergdahl describes the obsession of
Wal-Mart’s leaders to lower costs. Everyday in every area
of its operations Wal-Mart’s army of 2 million employees actively
look for cost saving opportunities. The focus on expense reduction
is so intense that culturally, “being cheap is actually chic”
at Wal-Mart! The challenge for others is to focus themselves and
their organizations with the same fanatical focus on controlling
and reducing costs. There is no faster way to drop big-time profit
dollars to the bottom line then by eliminating waste, controlling
expenses and cutting costs. Whoever said, “You can’t
save your way to prosperity” never met the leaders at Wal-Mart!
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3: Lose Customers – Here are 10 Proven Ways
In this article,
Michael Bergdahl explains 10 ways organizations lose their customers.
As hard as we all work to gain new customers, all of those efforts
can be thwarted in a moment, by any one on our staff members who
mistreats or abuses, or otherwise makes customers unhappy. None
of us must ever forget that the customer is the boss and can fire
our organization simply by deciding to spend their money elsewhere.
Customer attrition happens but you don’t want your own customer
service people to be the culprits! Review these 10 ways to lose
a customer with everyone on your team who comes in contact with
your most valued asset!
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4: Picking Wal-Mart’s POCKETS
In this article, Michael Bergdahl discusses how Retailers, Non-Retailers,
Manufacturers and Suppliers can improve their ability to compete
by “Picking Wal-Mart's POCKETS.” POCKETS is an acronym
that stands for: P = Price, O = Operations, C = Culture K = Key
Item Promotion/Product, E = Expense Control, T = Talent and S =
Service. These are the seven key result areas of the Wal-Mart strategy.
These are also the seven strategic areas around which competitors
need to focus their businesses in order to compete effectively.
In my book, my speeches, and in this article I use the P.O.C.K.E.T.S.
acronym as a framework to discuss the inside strategies and tactics
used by Sam Walton and Wal-Mart that makes competition with them
so difficult. This article summarizes Wal-Mart’s seven strategies,
and in doing so provides others with ideas to help them improve
their competitive business strategy by “Picking Wal-Mart’s
POCKETS.”
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5: Questions & Answers about Sam Walton and Wal-Mart
In this article, Michael Bergdahl answers questions about Sam
Walton and Wal-Mart’s strategies and tactics. Wal-Mart is
a mysterious company to outsiders who are trying to compete with
its best practices. Even the company’s own suppliers are daunted
by the challenges of working with the world’s largest company.
Wal-Mart is different than the image portrayed of it in the news
media. As a former Wal-Mart insider, Bergdahl provides answers to
questions asked of him by the news media around the world as he
travels internationally to speak at conferences. This article asks
the tough questions and Bergdahl answers them.
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6: Book Review, “What I Learned from Sam Walton”
In this book review, Nick Wreden, Brand Futurist,
reviews Michael Bergdahl’s book, What I learned from Sam Walton.
Wreden states that although this book never mentions “positioning,”
“brand vision” or any other of the immeasurable wastes
of good ink, What I’ve Learned from Sam Walton is actually
one of the best branding books I’ve read. It clearly spells
out how companies can achieve operational excellence, upgrade their
workforce and unify an organization around customer requirements,
even in brutal competitive arenas. It reads well, with a nice balance
between soft anecdotes and hard advice. If you believe brand success
depends on “lockstep tactical execution” instead of
pontification, get this book. A book cover photo to go with this
article is available for download at the link below.
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7: Book Review, “The 10 Rules of Sam Walton”
In this book review, J.F. Knapp III, a former
Wal-Mart Supercenter Store Manager, who knew Sam Walton personally,
reviews Michael Bergdahl’s book, “The 10 Rules of Sam
Walton.” Knapp states that he was privileged to be a part
of the “last generation” to know, and be a disciple
of, Sam Walton. The Ten Rules of Sam Walton, transcends the limits
of a traditional book about lessons in business (which this is)
and makes it book about life, and about successful living! This
is one of those books you should own. Don't borrow it. Add it to
your personal library! It should be read, and regularly re-read
by... everyone! A book cover photo to go with this article is available
for download at the link below.
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