Customer Reviews

SAM Walton: Made in America

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

First off, this is a very strong story of a man and a business. Walton does a nice job of telling a clear, concise story about how he built the business of Wal Mart. It's very enlightening to hear him admit with pride that he invented very few of the ideas that made the store such a success, instead borrowing the best ideas from every store he visited (and he visited a lot).

Secondly, this book contains a valuable example of how capitalism forces the evolution - for better or worse - of industries. Walton takes the reader from the days of the small-town five and dime all the way through the mega Wal Marts of today. It's a valuable read for anyone interested in business.

Third, reading "Made in America" provides the reader with some important context for considering all of the attacks on Wal Mart in the popular press. You get to see that Wal Mart was built with really good intentions and that even though not everything born of Wal Mart's rise to dominance is an unmitigated good, it has done a lot of positive things for American consumers. That's really valuable because Wal Mart has become a bit of an unequivocal evil in the modern press and that simply isn't an even-handed treatment of the subject.

Highly recommended for those who would like to understand the motivations behind Wal Mart being what it is today and a great business story to boot.

Despite my hesitation at picking up an autobiography, I must say Made in America turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. In it, Sam intersperses story telling with quotes from his colleagues, family and the media. After reading the story, you get a very clear picture of Sam's humble beginnings as a local boy who delivered papers, a boyscout who saved a person's life, a variety store franchise owner who was driven out of town because his lease expired and he didn't know that it was part of the contract he signed. In it you also learn what the Walmart Way was about. It's about hard work, passion for the job and thoughtful spending.

He completed it just before he died of cancer. And a good thing he did because nobody can tell the story better than the person who's lived it.

Walton's story is certainly worth reading. He built a business - now the biggest in the world - that can only be described as the work of a genius.

The great virtue of this book is the portrait of his mind: he was utterly obsessed with retailing and bent a truly formidable energy to think about it at almost every working hour of the day. It may sound corny, but he reminds me of Miles Davis, who lived, breathed and ate his music. Walton looked at things from every angle, learning as he worked and unafraid to walk into a competitor's office unannounced with a tennis racket to talk. He was a showman and true believer, but also focused maniacally on operations and implementation. (About this, he pontificates about his competitors enjoying the trappings of success to the detriment of their attention to business - surely this is true in some cases, but repeatedly hearing it gets a bit boring.)

The business model he created is simple: always offer the lowest price possible, depending on higher volume to generate higher profit. The second pillar was to relentlessly pursue logistical superiority, in both a distribution system and computer-aided controls, enabling Wal-Mart to continually enhance its efficiency and speed of delivery. As the company grew, it was able to use its power to force suppliers to sell at ever-lower prices. Its stores spread slowly, oozing out like molasses, always supported by the distribution system. The third pillar, which in my opinion is exaggerated to the point of self-delusion, is the "family" aspect of employees (or "associates"), both as members of a store and in relation to customers. Certainly there is something to that, but it is far more limited than he seems to be aware of. Throughout, Walton offers many invaluable recommendations for business men and entrepreneurs. THere is no question he was one of the best.

The great failure of the book is Walton's inability to reflect on the impact of his company. Rather than taking the arguments of critics to heart honestly in the slightest, he dismisses them as people who moved to cities and are merely nostalgic about their childhoods in rural towns that have changed in no way because of his business practices. He also refuses to contemplate the impact of his company's power to act as a monopsony (sole buyer), forcing conditions on suppliers that can ruin them. That is one of the great changes in 20C capitalism: the shift of power of retailers to the detriment of manufacturers and suppliers, which Wal-Mart pioneered. Finally, he views unions exclusively as divisive influences rather than legitimate players and potential allies. In this, he shows little realistic empathy whatsoever regarding employees who don't appreciate their position or treatment in his stores.

Walton appears to believe in his own myth and he presents it well: his tone is down home, expresses a genuine Christian humility, and believes in small-town values. Fair enough, but there are many who see things differently. I suppose that that self-serving tunnel vision and absolute confidence in the system he created is part of his entrepreneurial genius, but it is also a clear statement on its limits.

Recommended. This is on a par with Ray Kroc's autobio and will interest all students of business.

I have been interested for a while about the life of the man behind the Wal-Mart empire. And the man who would've been the richest man in the world had he been alive today. This book was an enjoyable first hand account written by the man Sam Walton himself in his own words. With some comments from some of the key people in his life. I felt that I kind of got to know Mr. Walton personally as I read this book. He also, of course, has some great insight on how to build and run a successful business. I highly recommend this book, whether you want to learn more about Mr. Walton himself or just Wal-Mart. Also has some great black & white as well as color pictures included in the book.

Think about it. A small time variety store retailer out of Bentonville Arkansas creates the most power retailing jaggernaut of all time, and right in the faces of powerhouses like Sears, K-Mart and JC Penny. If you are in any kind of a business with customers, you will benefit from this book, and experiencing the laser like focus Sam had on delivering the absolute best in his stores. Walton is to retailing what Jordon was to basketball, an absolute master of his art. I read this book several years ago, and as a retailer, I still refer to it, as much for the specific business tactics as to remind myself as to how Sam thought about things, and how he managed his people. An absolute classic.

Sam Walton is a legend in the retail business. Building on core values, he created a whole new business concept that grew to become the largest retailer-the largest company-in the world. How did it happen?

In Made in America, SamWalton and his writer, a FORTUNE senior editor, take the reader through a chronological adventure of how a man started with nothing and gradually built an empire. He based everything he did on particular values that really made sense, though they were radical for his time and his industry. Gaining an understanding of those values, their sources, and their impacts, helped me better grasp my own values and business management philosophy.

Sam came up with a lot of innovative ideas, but was unabashed in his drive to glean ideas from his competitors. He had a knack for snatching someone else's idea and growing it into something really significant. Reading about these adventures was fascinating. I couldn't put the book down . . . and I thought I knew something about Wal-Mart!

Particularly interesting was insight into the unique culture of Wal-Mart and how it was created and nurtured. Educational, inspirational, stimulating. A great read!

Made in America had a co writer- John Huey, and that usually makes me strongly not like the style of a book. However, I think Huey and Sam did a great job on this one. It's engaging without being pedantic, and the interspersed quotes made it hum right along.

I found this book by the Tom Gardner Motley Fool Reading List. I'm working through all 25, and this was one I was not looking forward to. I was pleasantly surprised.

In addition to excellent retailing advice (like everything else, it's basically just "work hard"), the family info was helpful to me, as someone who is considering how to balance family and career as I change job fields.

Strong buy! Read this book!

For anybody thinking about starting a business, this is probably a good book. It shows the life steps and mentality of a successful entrepreneur. But, Walton tells of some unethical things he did. At least they seem unethical to me. But these events stood out and as a reader they kind of disgusted me so it made the book hard to read.

For example, he had a contract to buy 80% of his store supplies from a particular company. He would weasel and only buy 70% and try to pass it off as 80%.

Another time, a competitor was trying to expand his business. I'm assuming the town he was in needed another retail store. But Sam heard of this, and instead of letting his competitor expand his business, he bought out the only shop location that his competitor could have bought and just did basically nothing with it. That may be legal, but if the town needed another store and Sam was getting ahead not by building but by denying another company, that is destructive and immoral behavior to me. Sam pretty much got what he deserved for that action a few years later when his store's landlord basically pushed Walton out of town. But Walton, even when writing the book, didn't see any wrong doing.

I'm sure Sam did amazing things for America by lowering prices. But I personally would not copy his business attitude completely. Much of his philosophy is great, though.

So a 4/5 instead of 5/5 because of the somewhat shady actions in the book. If anybody reads this, and is looking for a better biography of a successful businessman, get a copy of "Direct from Dell" from a library. It is the fascinating story of Michael Dell and how he created his company.

Prior to reading "Made In America", I was led to believe that Wal-Mart was an "Evil Empire". Although I shop there from time to time, I try my best to avoid it and shop elsewhere. Sam made it clear that it is not Wal-Mart's intent to put others out of business. He believes that Wal Mart made other businesses more competitive. Those who couldn't do this folded. This, I agree. If you notice, other stores such as Zellers, and the Bay their staff is much friendlier and helpful. Before Wal-mart, customer no-service was expected. Aside from this, the book was well written and talked about Sam's upbringing and how he made this empire from humble beginings. He consistently reiterated his philosophy of giving the customer what he wants and made it clear that Wal-mart does not take its success for granted.

Through a mix of small-town America patience, friendliness, hard work, and a great learning adaptability, Sam Walton was able to create the largest retail vendor in the world - all headquartered in tiny Bentonville, Arkansas. This is a business-man's journey from small Dime Store owner to the CEO of the multi-billion $ generating Walmart chain.

Among the treasures of this book are the ways in which Walton describes adapting his operations and distribution control as Walmart increased in size, methods of scouting out expansion opportunities (i.e. Flying by plane to see where roads and new housing development were being constructed, island placement), quail hunting excursions, and the thinking processes within Walton and those decision-makers close to him as Walmart evolved along each step of the way.

A must read for any entrepreneur as the creation of a legend is inscribed here in the legends own words.