Why do you think Wal-Mart is under so much fire these days? Is it because the current Wal-Mart leadership has strayed from Mr Sam's 10 rules?  Michael Bergdahl's answer:With almost 7000 stores, 120 distribution centers and close to 2 million employees around the world maintaining its culture is a big challenge. The company will open over 500 new stores in 14 countries in 2006. It is estimated that 75% of management positions today are filled via internal promotions which leaves 25% of them filled with leaders hired from outside the company. Maintaining its culture with so many new stores, new managers, turnover of employees and new employees is a staggering challenge! Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world with sales exceeding 315 billion USD annually. Wal-Mart has also been the largest company in the world with only the rising price of oil recently driving Exxon into the #1 spot. When you are the largest company in the world the media has taken notice following every move that Wal-Mart makes. Many of the negative stories in the news media are true however the negative story reported typically represents a single incident in a single store. In these cases an individual site manager is responsible for a poor decision that has lead to company wide media scrutiny. The way the news is reported you would think the issue reported in the negative story is systemic across Wal-Mart. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many times special interest groups like labor unions are responsible for fueling the media frenzy by using isolated examples and portraying them as companywide. As a whole Wal-Mart's leaders are good intending people, with golden rule values, who truly care about the people who work for the company. Current company leaders still embrace Sam Walton's 10 Rules using them as a touchstone as they make decisions.