Wal-Mart Supply Chain
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- Date Submitted: 08/15/2011 11:14 AM
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Company Background
Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton, who was born in 1918 in Oklahoma. Growing up in the Great Depression, Walton had numerous jobs to help make financial ends meet for his family. After high school, he decided to go to college, hoping to find a better way to help support his family. He attended the University of Missouri as an ROTC cadet. During this time, he worked various odds and ends jobs, including waiting tables for meals (Wikipedia). It is no wonder that Sam Walton has the reputation of being the most frugal billionaire ever!
Upon graduating in 1940 with a B.A. in economics, Walton joined JC Penney as a management trainee in Des Moines, Iowa. The position earned him $75 a month. According to Wikipedia, Walton joined the military soon afterwards in the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, supervising security at aircraft plants and prisoner of war camps. In this position he served at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, Utah. He eventually reached the rank of captain.
In 1945, after leaving the military, Walton took over management of his first variety store at the age of 26. With the help of a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law, plus $5,000 he had saved from his time in the Army, Walton purchased a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas (Gross, 1997). As is the case with most neophyte businessmen who become successful, Walton had access to resources to get started. According to Clayton Christensen (Hesselbein, Goldsmith and Somerville, 2002), three factors affect what an organization can do: resources, processes, and values. Sam Walton acquired the necessary resources to transform these resources into products of greater worth and ensured his values guided the decision-making of the organization. This is how Walton pioneered many concepts that would prove to be crucial to his success. Walton made sure the shelves were consistently stocked with a wide range of goods. He opened a store in 1950 as the "Eagle" department store,...
Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton, who was born in 1918 in Oklahoma. Growing up in the Great Depression, Walton had numerous jobs to help make financial ends meet for his family. After high school, he decided to go to college, hoping to find a better way to help support his family. He attended the University of Missouri as an ROTC cadet. During this time, he worked various odds and ends jobs, including waiting tables for meals (Wikipedia). It is no wonder that Sam Walton has the reputation of being the most frugal billionaire ever!
Upon graduating in 1940 with a B.A. in economics, Walton joined JC Penney as a management trainee in Des Moines, Iowa. The position earned him $75 a month. According to Wikipedia, Walton joined the military soon afterwards in the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, supervising security at aircraft plants and prisoner of war camps. In this position he served at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, Utah. He eventually reached the rank of captain.
In 1945, after leaving the military, Walton took over management of his first variety store at the age of 26. With the help of a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law, plus $5,000 he had saved from his time in the Army, Walton purchased a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas (Gross, 1997). As is the case with most neophyte businessmen who become successful, Walton had access to resources to get started. According to Clayton Christensen (Hesselbein, Goldsmith and Somerville, 2002), three factors affect what an organization can do: resources, processes, and values. Sam Walton acquired the necessary resources to transform these resources into products of greater worth and ensured his values guided the decision-making of the organization. This is how Walton pioneered many concepts that would prove to be crucial to his success. Walton made sure the shelves were consistently stocked with a wide range of goods. He opened a store in 1950 as the "Eagle" department store,...