The Birth and Operation of Wal-Mart
The book report in this paper addresses the entrepreneurial perspective as narrated by Sam Walton the founder and chairman of Wal-Mart. The book is narrated from different angles but surrounds the birth and operation of Wal-Mart. This paper is a report on the book concerning the entrepreneurial style used by Sam Walton and the techniques he used in promoting his business in an era where supermarkets began to exist in the United States. When Sam Walton first came up with the idea of opening a discounted store, not many people believed his idea was viable. However, through trial and errors, he managed to have the best team that helped him establish a mega business. The book offers inspirational insights on the things that helped for Sam Walton and among them as discussed in the paper is learning from competitors. Sam Walton as a smart investor saw that people were doing the same thing to succeed and so he chose a different style by learning from both his competitors and the workers.\u00a0 In doing so, he utilized various economy principles such as people respond to incentives and people face tradeoffs to succeed in the competitive market. Though the idea was excellent, the paper extends to explore how this same idea of focusing on discounts as an incentive was a bad idea, primarily since he focused on building the reputation instead of also building the brand. He would have incorporated the two ideas in building a business that would withstand time and competition. The paper pinpoints both the strengths and weaknesses of the entrepreneur and what helped Sam Walton in becoming successful.<\/p>
Book Review<\/h2>
The book Sam Walton: Made in America is an inspirational book that tells the story Sam Walton who founded Wal-Mart which ended up becoming one of the biggest companies across the globe. The story revolves around an entrepreneur, the risks and hard work that he put as he designed his path to glory as well as offering insight to the readers on what it takes to get there. When Sam Walton began started out his single dime store, not many people believed in him and in this book he tells of his story on how he turned a single idea into a multimillion company and later to be recognized as an American hero who helped in building the economy of the country and offered employment to millions of Americans. The book helps the readers understand that as an entrepreneur, Sam Walton also had his weaknesses, but it is the focus that he channeled on his strength that propelled him to become one of the most exceptional entrepreneurs of the twentieth century.\u00a0 The book has seventeen chapters with each narrating the steps he took in his development ending with his quest to leave a legacy.<\/p>
What do you think the entrepreneur did wrong?<\/h3>
In this book, Sam Walton is presented as an individual who was always on the right track and who could understand his weaknesses as well as ideas that were futile after the trial. However, one of the ideas that I feel the entrepreneur might have miscalculated was the idea of focusing solely on selling the business through discounted products. As Clarence Leis, the second manager of the first Wal-Mart admitted, "In fact, when I look at it today, I realize that so much of what we did, in the beginning, was really poorly done" (42). Focusing on attracting customers only by discount was high risk because if another store opened up who offered the same things but cheaper, many people would abandon Wal-Mart easily.<\/p>
What did the entrepreneur do right?<\/h3>
One of the things that Sam Walton did right was creating an idea-driven culture. Sam Walton was an entrepreneur who transmitted his perspective of business to his employees as well, and because of this, he managed to get everyone in this same act. Every week he would he would have a meeting with his managers where they would evaluate both their successes and their failures and at the same time assess what items were the best selling in the business. This would help them develop ideas that would promote the business idea and add the thrill of competition. Most of the ideas that the entrepreneur sought were once that promoted money saving as this would allow more discount to the customers and earn customer loyalty.<\/p>
How would you have done things if you were in their position?<\/h3>
If I was in the position of the entrepreneur, the one thing I would have done differently is the way they attracted the customers. Sam Walton mainly concentrated on earning customer loyalty through selling products at discounts. This was a lucrative idea, but it was fragile since anyone could emulate them. Therefore, I would have focused on building the brand through ideas that could not be incorporated into other business such as finding a unique way of offering customer service. This would have helped in also building the brand as well as the reputation. What the entrepreneur built was a reputation and did not pay much attention to the business as a brand.\u00a0<\/p>
What economic principles (things you learned in this course) were used in this business?<\/h3>
The first principle of economy used in this business is the principle face tradeoffs whereby to get something that one wants, he or she must give up on something else that they want. In this case, Sam Walton understood that to beat the rest of this business he needed to give up focusing on earning great profits like the rest. So he focused on efficiency and ensuring that he attracted many people to the company than having only a few customers who give him higher profits. The other principle was the people respond to incentives. Sam Walton also understood that if something becomes cheaper, many people will be attracted to purchase it. The discounts were incentives to the customers who kept on buying items from Wal-Mart.<\/p>
What did you get out of this book?<\/h3>
The book is an inspirational book that offers great insight into the culture of entrepreneurship as lived by Sam Walton and one of the essential things I got from his ideas is to always learn from the competition. Sam noted the weakness in how everyone operated and took advantage of that and it is through offering discounts that his business became successful. The other idea that I got from the book is that as an entrepreneur it is essential to always learn from the workers as well because Sam Walton often learned from how people operated in his stores.<\/p>
Work Cited
Walton, Sam, and Huey, John. Sam Walton, Made In America. New York, Bantam Books Trade Paperbacks, 2012,.
