Sam Walton was known to be industrious, always trying to get the most out of money, and had a burning ambition to succeed. This was evident in his book Sam Walton, Made in America, My Story. He was a hard working individual who helped his family through the depression, started his own business from almost nothing and changed the field of management for ever.
Sam Walton was born in 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Sam obtained his work ethic from his father Thomas Gibson Walton who was a hard worker and had all sorts of jobs. He was a banker, farmer, farm-loan appraiser and an agent for insurance and real estate. He put in long hours, was honest and was known for his integrity. Sam also saw what a great …show more content…

Another reason for Wal-Mart's great success was the strategic positioning of stores. He built big business in small town America, where the competitors would not dare to go. Sam Walton went further with his success when he bought into the hi-tech concept. This allowed for coordination between stores and efficient distribution of merchandise. As Sam opened more stores and continued to study businesses around the world, he used and copied what he saw was working. He learned to sell regionally, which meant identifying merchandise that would sell in a particular area such as beach towels in Panama City Beach, FL and then have promotione to sell those towels. This is how Sam dominated the competition. Sam spoke very affectionately of his wife and four children, three sons and one daughter. He made them part of his merchandising passion by always including them in business discussions. At times he took them to the stores to investigate, as well as giving them shares of the business. In 1970, with gradual growth they went public. Even though Sam had always had a disciplined financial philosophy, he had developed great debt due to opening one store after the other. Going public enabled him to pay off debts. Sam believed loyalty breeds loyalty and after going public, he kept the stock within the family and the employees of Wal-Mart.
Sam talks about the need to always keep costs low and the need to consider distribution