This article is a summary of the autobiography 'Made in America' by Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. It covers his childhood, his works, his failures, and his success story. The article also highlights the economic principles used in his business and the lessons that can be learned from his life.
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Running head: BIOGRAPHY OF SAM WALTON Biography of Sam Walton Name of the student Name of the University Author Note
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1BIOGRAPHY OF SAM WALTON Table of Contents ANSWER 1................................................................................................................................2 ANSWER 2................................................................................................................................3 ANSWER 3................................................................................................................................3 ANSWER 4................................................................................................................................3 ANSWER 5................................................................................................................................4 ANSWER 6................................................................................................................................4 REFERENCE LIST...................................................................................................................5
2BIOGRAPHY OF SAM WALTON ANSWER 1 The book Made in America by Sam Walton tells how Walton with his innovative thinking led to Wal-Mart into a market leader. The book consists of an autobiography of Sam Walton about his life and his works. In this book he talks about his childhood and how the Great Depression affected his life at that time (Copeland, Nick and Labusk 2013). His childhood ambition was to become a salesman however, after college he started working with the retailer J C Penney. In this book he tried to give plenty of advices to any small business owner how to manage work against all the challenges. After working in the retail industry he married Helen Walton and then they opened a variety store in Newport. Though there was a strong competition that time however, Sam still managed to have profits. However, due to a legal mistake in the contract Sam and Helen had to leave Newport. After leaving Newport, they opened a new varietystore in Bentonvillewhere they facedcomparativelyless competition from the other stores. After that he continued to buy more stores out there and continuedtogrow.Hissellscontinuedtoexpandalthoughhisprofitmarginswere low(LeCavalier and Jesse 2016). His concept was quite popular and in this way he built an empire of a large number of variety stores. In the year 1962, Sam Walton opened Wal-Mart. When Wal-Mart was first opened. After that he went on increasing his stores over the years. Although he made a lot of money, he was humble throughout his life.
3BIOGRAPHY OF SAM WALTON ANSWER 2. Like all other entrepreneurs Sam Walton also used to face failures. He was a successful retailer in 1950. As Sam was quite young and unexperienced when he opened the variety store, he had faced loss(Walton, Sam and Huey 1993). Therefore, after a legal mistake in the contract he had to close down his store. Sam realizes that he used to pay a high rent for the variety store after a very long time. Sam also worked in a retail store after graduating from the college. After that Sam bought a Benjamin Franklin store, however due to lack of legal know how he had to close down his store. ANSWER 3. The Newport experience of Sam of legal mishap I turned out to be a blessing for him. The success took off when Sam started opening discount stores. He used of keep his price as low as possible and therefore this resulted in increase of sales quite fast. He also applied the same concept while opening Wal-Mart. Sam also did a quite a lot of research and then started opening discount stores (LeCavalier and Jesse 2016). He knew that the discounting concept would dominate the market. He also started his business in a small market. Also, he made his wife and children partners in the business in order to keep the business in the family. Sam also maintained a strong relationship with the customers. In order to provide best service to his customers he would ask his employees to act like customers. ANSWER 4. Sam Walton had great business ideas. He built Wal-Mart into a million dollar empire with all his hard work. His autobiography is like a bible for all small businessman. However, had I been in their position I would have also followed their steps in order to succeed. I
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4BIOGRAPHY OF SAM WALTON would also provide incentives to the employers so that they get motivation to work more I would also have invested money for advertising as advertising also plays a major role to earn profits in business. ANSWER 5. There were some economic principles which are used in the business. One of the economic principle that was used is that rational people think at the margin that is customers usually tend to purchase those goods from which they will get the maximum level of satisfaction in terms of price(Copeland, Nick, andLabusk 2013). His the reason why Sam Walton used to give huge discounts and kept his profit margins low initially. People always response to incentives which is another economic principle, for this reason the number of sales for Wal-Mart was high as Walton used to sell his goods at a much low price. ANSWER 6. There are lot of things which can be learnt from the book Made in America by Sam Walton. It acts as a bible for the small businessman. He offers plenty of advices to the new and small business man(Ellickson, Paul and Grieco 2013.). One of the lessons that we can learn is that though Sam was the richest man at that time he used to lead a very humble life. Despite his fame and money he focused on helping others. The second lesson is that we should not dwell on disappointments. He always used to experiment with his ideas. Although in the initial years his variety stores did not run, Sam did not give up in opening new stores and starting new businesses. Another lesson which can be learned is that customers should always be given the priority and therefore he always used to ask his employees to act like the customers.
5BIOGRAPHY OF SAM WALTON REFERENCE LIST Copeland, Nick, and Christine Labuski.The world of Wal-Mart: discounting the american dream. Routledge, 2013. Ellickson, Paul B., and Paul LE Grieco. "Wal-Mart and the geography of grocery retailing." Journal of Urban Economics75 (2013): 1-14. Ghazzawi, Issam A., Marie Palladini, and Teresa Martinelli-Lee. "The Wal-Mart stores, Inc.: An American dream that touched the world."Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies20, no. 1 (2014): 9-32. LeCavalier, Jesse.The Rule of Logistics: Walmart and the Architecture of Fulfillment. University of Minnesota Press, 2016. Shabbir, M. S. "Why manufacturers are less powerful than retailers in trade circles? A case study of Wal-Mart retailing business."Journal of Global Economics(2016). Walton, Sam, and John Huey.Sam Walton, made in America: my story. Bantam, 1993.