“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.”
Sam Walton
Here are the 10 Success lessons from Sam Walton “From Rags to Riches” By Okpe Damion
1. Stick to fundamental values--Sam Walton had simple values that guided him through his life and business. He didn’t follow the latest management fad, nor did he believe in any of the get-rich-quick ideas. He was solidly living his life by the values that he grew up with.
2. Take care of your people--Sam Walton took extremely good care of his employees and he gave every employee a chance to become successful with him by allowing them to purchase stock options of Walmart at a discount.
3. Motivate your partners--Money and ownership alone aren’t enough. Constantly, day by day, think of new and more interesting ways to motivate and challenge your partners. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score.
4. Don’t follow the money, follow your passion--Sam Walton didn’t start off his variety stores with an ambition to become rich; he simply had a passion for his craft and at each point in time, he only wanted to do it better and better.
5. Control your expenses better than your competition--This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. For twenty-five years running – long before Wal-Mart was known as the nation’s largest retailer. You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation.
6. Communicate everything--Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, the more they’ll understand. The more they understand, the more they’ll care.
7. Treat the customer as the boss--Sam Walton was a true believer that the customer was his boss. From the greeter at the door of every Wal-Mart to the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” signs he would place on his first Wal-Mart store in 1962, Wal-Mart would distinguish itself from other retailers by maintaining the philosophy that the customer was always in charge.
8. Appreciate--Everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re free and worth a fortune.
9. Embrace new technology--Before the age of the Internet and instant e-commerce, stores across America were relatively low-tech. He went to the IBM school in upstate New York in 1966 to find the best technology students so Wal-Mart would always be on the cutting edge.
10. Swim upstream--Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction.
Additional Reading
Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton and John Huey
Point of Reflection
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
Sam Walton