Stand out Leader Achiever

  

Advice by self-made billionaires

 

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Business advice by
the Founder of Wal-Mart

Sam Walton's 10 Rules
for Building a Successful Business

 

 Lessons from Business Legends PowerPoint slide deck for teachers

 
Sam Walton's rules for buiding a great business

The two most important words I ever wrote were on that first Wal-Mart sign: "Satisfaction Guaranteed."

Sam Walton

 

 
 

Rule 1

Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else. You can overcame every single one of your personal shortcomings by the sheer passion you bring to your work.

  

Commitment

Passion

Innovation is Love

Business Growth 10+

  

 
Sam Walton's rules for buiding a great business

Set a goal and back it with a burning desire.

Sam Walton

 
 

Rule 2

Share your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations.

 

7 Routes to High Profits

Towards Higher Profits: 80/20 Rule

  

 
Sam Walton's rules for buiding a great business

Remain a corporation and retain control if you like, but behave as a servant leader in your partnership.

Sam Walton

 
 

Rule 3

Motivate your partners. Money and ownership alone aren't enough. Constantly, day by day, think of new and more interesting ways to motivate and challenge your partners. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Make bets with outrageous payoffs.

 

Constructive Competition

All-Win Innompic Games

InnoBall

  

 
Sam Walton's rules for buiding a great business

If things get stale, cross-pollinate; have managers switch jobs with one another to stay challenged.

Sam Walton

 
 

Rule 4

Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, the more they'll understand. The more they understand, the more they'll care. Once they care, there's no stopping them.

 

Managerial Communication

Motivation and Communication

  

 

 
 

Rule 5

Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. A paycheck and a stock option will buy one kind of loyalty. But all of us like to be told how much somebody appreciates what we do for them.

  

Attitude Motivation

Yin and Yang of Attitude Motivation

Recognition

  

 
Sam Walton's rules for buiding a great business

Well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise are absolutely free – and worth a fortune.

Sam Walton

 
 

Rule 6

Celebrate your success. Find some humor in your failures. Don't take yourself so seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have fun. Show enthusiasm – always.

 

The Fun Factor in Business and Innovation

Examples

  

 
Sam Walton's rules for buiding a great business

When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you.

Sam Walton

 
 

Rule 7

Listen to everyone in your company and figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front lines – the ones who actually talk to the customer – are the only ones who really know what's going on out there. You'd better find out what they know. This really is what total quality is all about.

  

Employee Feedback

Listen To Your People

Listen To Your Customers

Customer Listening Tips

  

 
Sam Walton's rules for buiding a great business

Push responsibility down in your organization, and force good ideas to bubble up within it.

Sam Walton

 

 
 

Rule 8

Exceed your customer's expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want – and a little more. Let them know you appreciate them.

 

Creating Customer Value

Add More Value

Value Innovation

  

 
Sam Walton's rules for buiding a great business

Make good on all your mistakes, and don't make excuses – apologize. Stand behind everything you do.

Sam Walton

 
 

Rule 9

Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.

  

Sustainable Profits

80/20 Rule of Higher Profits

Efficiency Improvement

Lean Enterprise

  

 
Sam Walton's rules for buiding a great business

For years running we've ranked No. 1 in our industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales.

Sam Walton

 
Lessons from Business Legends PowerPoint slide deck for teachers  

Rule 10

Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction.

Tend Setting Competencies

But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you're headed the wrong way... More