thE waL*marT waY bY doN soderquisT
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Totally Awesome !
If there is a soul who wants to know what is this Wal*Mart all about, this is the book to pick (besides "Made in America" by Sam Walton which is more of an autobiography than Wal*Mart Story). After reading this book, I started to respect Sam more than what I did after knowing him through his own eyes in his book !
The book begins with a soft introduction followed by listing 12 factors which led to the Wal*Mart Success story ( as per Don....the list obviously is what he thinks were the main reasons ). While the list may not be exhaustive but it sure is compelling.
After listing the factors, the book is neatly divided into 12 chapters. Yes ! you guessed it right...One chapter for each factor. Written in a part preaching-part memoir way, It is very authoritarian and humble at the same time. It keeps you on the toe and you want to know more about it all the time !
There are so many fine points mentioned in the book which I loved. Some of them are :
1) Quoting Don : " I wouldsuggest to you that nothing will demoralize those who work for you more quickly than when you no longer have an active knowledge of what's going on in the business"
2)Fred Smith, founder and CEO of Federal Express commented that every person, at one time or another in his career, will have five questions that he asks himself or heself.
a) "What is expected of me?" - What is my job? On what basis will you measure me? What am I supposed to be doing?
b) "How am I doing?" - Am I doing what you asked me to do? Are the results what you wanted? Is it good? It is basically getting a continual feedback rather than judging yourself with the year end evaluation.
c) "How can I get ahead?" - How can I be promoted? How can I take on more responsibility? How can I grow? How can I be challenged further?
d) "Where can I get justice?" - Where do I go when things are going badly, when I think I am being treated poorly, when I think something has been done unfairly?
e) "Is what I am doing important?" - Knowing if you are contributing to the well being of the organization
(I wonder if Fred Smith never asked these 5 questions to Mr Madan Birla as he never cared to mention about these in his book "FedEx Delivers")
There are numerous little examples and teachings which will simply put you in awe ! Like Sam declining to come to Cincinnati for meeting P&G CEO because the room which was booked was costing one hundred dollars a day! These little things tells about the character of a person and what values he would have instilled in his company.
No wonder Wal*Mart has evolved as the largest company in the world and still growing like a start-up does !
A Must read !!
