Introduction
Sam Walton Founder of Wal-Mart graduated from the University of Missouri in 1940 with the aspiration of all college graduates to go work for a good company and make good money doing so. After being drafted into the war he came back ready and eager to go into business for himself. He was a quick learner and with great instincts learned from other retailers' successes and was adept at garnering ideas for improvements from employees and promptly took those ideas and created his own low price retail store called Wal-Mart. The company grew and Sam proved to be an effective visionary leader. His folksy demeanor and talent for motivating people, combined with very hands-on management style and obvious talent for discount retailing, produced a culture and set of values and beliefs that kept Wal-Mart on a path of continuous innovation and rapid expansion. Wal-Mart emerged as the premier discount retailer in the U.S in the 1980s every one came to know Sam Walton. He was a community spirited man who was concerned for his employees but also a devoted family man who epitomized the American dream and demonstrated the virtues of hard work. Sam Walton's vision before his death in 1992 was to become a 125 billion dollar company by 2000 but his predecessor David. D. Glass not only beat that target by two years but also pushed revenues from 20.6 billion to 165 billion. When David Glass retired in 2000 H. Lee Scott took over his reign and has continued the dominance and growth of Wal-Mart with sales of 100 billion matching its growth for the first 35 years.
S.W.O.T Analysis
The greatest strength for Wal-Mart from its start in 1969 to this day has been the vision a ...