MADE IN AMERICA – Book Review

Introduction

“Made in America” an auto-biography of “Sam Walton”, the founder of Wal-Mart the largest retail chain in the world, is more a story about Wal-Mart rather than a story about Sam Walton. The autobiography is an inspiring and action-packed composition, and reflects the dynamic personality of Walton and his success in creating Wal-Mart. Sam in the book over 18 chapters meticulously sketches his formative period, his family circumstances and the various stages involved in creating Wal-Mart. Apart from the business, he also spares a chapter to “Raising Family” which indicates the importance Sam attaches with family values and ethics. 

Full of anecdotes the auto-biography can be of great inspiration and learning for wanna-be entrepreneurs and business leaders. Sam in his book addresses management and entrepreneurship issues like team formation, taking a company public, culture creation in a company, building partnership and meeting competition. Each such issue has been spared a chapter and has been dwelt mostly using incidents during his life time. The book is a story about believing in your idea even when others may not, and about sticking to your guns.

The book gives an insight of retail industry in America and its formation over a period of time. Transformation of a nascent retail industry into a full-fledged mature industry has been well depicted chronologically in the book and the corresponding dynamic environment variables also find their mention in the chapters. Adoption of various bohemian strategies to expand market share can form good learning for future business leaders. The  first chapter devoted to value of dollar indicates the high amount of respect Sam carries for money which is even reflected in the way of his doing business.

 

Summary and Insights

Sam Walton was declared the richest man in the universe by the Forbes Magazine in the October 1985 however the book projects Sam as a humble, modest and highly competitive man. Right from the childhood he has a highly competitive attitude and a team worker with good motivational skills. His ability to view challenges as opportunities helps him to prove his small town strategy which was institutional behind the Wal-Mart.

He is a business leader who is made out of crisis and hence is able to easily drive the company in times of very high competition and adversity. Being highly observant of the dynamic trends of the industry, strategies of his competitors and understanding consumer needs helped him develop Wal-Mart into the giant it is now.  Being a motivator and a very good team player helped him immensely as an entrepreneur in formulating his team in initial stages of creation of Wal-Mart. 

Though Sam appears to be very conservative in his nature, he is very different in business. Once can rather term him as a disruptive businessman. Looking for innovative strategies and adopting before the cult measures in order to maintain the competitive edge of the business in a competition intensive environment is a great learning for all the  wanna-be business leaders and entrepreneurs. Audacity of adopting unconventional measures like discounting stores in the era of variety stores is an indication of a leader with courage to confront conventional wisdom with contemporary thinking. Use of airplanes to scout location for retail stores was one of such an unconventional idea mentioned in the book.

Sam held to family, social and ethical values very closely. Hence, he always intended to keep Wal-Mart as a family held enterprise. Giving back to the community was one of the philosophies Sam Walton adhered by strongly. Sam also gives huge emphasis on the need to build partnership with the employees of the organization in order to create higher belongingness among the associates (employees were referred to as associates in Wal-Mart) for the organisation. Sam introduced various HR concepts prevalent today, in Wal-Mart in 1980s like open-door policy, profit sharing policies for low level workers etc.

Sam was a great motivator since his childhood. During his stint in Wal-Mart, he encouraged store managers in Wal-Mart to adopt various innovative strategies to improve upon the sales of the store. He delegated much responsibilities and freedom to the store managers which helped them to manage and improve upon the sales figures.

Learning for Entrepreneurs

1. Leadership in Crisis – Sam Walton came from a very modest background. He had to work hard for his living during his college days. He waited tables, delivered newspapers and worked as a life guard. These forming events of his life made him a leader made out of crisis. Sam viewed challenges and adversities as opportunities. This attitude of Sam helped him convert many lost battles into winning streaks. In his early days in retail, he was forced to evict the well doing Ben Franklin stores which he turned from a mal-functional condition to a well doing one after a hard work of 5 years. However, even this did not make him loose the zeal.
2. Leadership with Courage – Sam Walton had the courage to defy the conventional retailing model and adopt discount retailing model which was not much prevalent during those days. Courage to adopt innovative and modern strategies before they become common in the market is one of the very important tactics required to keep ahead of the competitors in business. An entrepreneur during his life term will face the S-Curve dilemma where in he/she is faced with the dilemma of employing a more recent technology or strategy which might or might not turn out to be fruitful. Hence, a successful entrepreneur needs to be prudent and courageous to evaluate the options and to even opt a riskier option if required.
3. Entrepreneur needs to be a good motivator and competitive – Sam Walton as mentioned before in this review was a good competitor which he derived from his mom. He in his book even boasts of himself to be never a part of a losing football team. He consistently in his book talks of good entrepreneurs to be good motivators. Motivation helps an entrepreneur in team formation, culture building and various other stages of business. Competitive attitude of the entrepreneur helps a business to continuously benchmark itself against better competitors and better milestones.  
4. Highly Observant – To be highly competitive in business arena, an entrepreneur needs to be highly observant in nature. He needs to observe the ever changing business dynamics, competitors’ strategies, internal customer satisfaction levels and various such business affecting parameters. Sam Walton being highly observant in nature was able to observe and adopt some of unique measures to improve the business like land scouting using airplanes, discounting concepts etc.
5. Understanding Employees – Understanding internal customer satisfaction i.e. employee satisfaction is as vital as understanding the external customer satisfaction. Employee satisfaction is an important aspect of team building and culture building in the organisation. Hence, an entrepreneur is expected to be good at understanding employee satisfaction levels and taking measures to improve. Sam Walton mentions various measures taken by him to improve upon the employee satisfaction level in the company like open door policy, WeCare program, Profit sharing with lower level workers etc. Sam also gives huge emphasis on team building and culture building measures in an organisation.

 

Concluding Observations

The autobiography is an excellent composition of anecdotes from the real life of Sam Walton, testimonials about Sam and business cum life lessons which most of the serious readers would find intriguing. The lifestyle of Sam seems to be of a common man and even Sam concedes to it; however the working mode of Sam sketches him to be a very disruptive businessman. The book is very well structured and is able to bring out the story of an American folk hero cut from America’s heartland: Sam Walton in a candid, straight-from-the shoulder style.

 

 

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES by ERNESTO “CHE” GUEVARA

Ernesto “Che” Guevara in his notes on a Latin American Journey has given a superficial account of Latin America. Guevara, a medical student when he took up the journey with his friend Alberto pens down a brief account of journey which educates him of the actual face of life in Latin America. The bike named La Poderosa II on which the journey started broke halfway and the journey proved more harsh as they were left as hitch hitkers and stowaways. A part of journey in the sea as stowaways and in the wooden raft etched numerous memories in the minds of Che.

 

He talks about the lepors in Easter Island and the love of football in America. Their usual places of stay during the period of journey were hospitals and civil guard huts. He admires the hospitality of Peruvians and at the same time detests the hardships forced upon them by the nature (the mosquito attacks on virgin flesh, asthama attacks, severe cold etc).

The journey was one of the very turning points in life of Guevara which transformed him into a personality of great influence in politics of Cuba. He is also very asthetic in admiring the ancient monuments of Machu Picchu and laments the pathetic medical facilities availble in Eastern Island for the lepors. He also relects his thoughts on the political battle fought between the coalition of nationalist and left-wing in Chile over Coal Mines. The book not only gives you the option to read but an option to compare your imagination to the actual scenes and conditions visited by Che in the form of 22 pages of photographs. The book is a fantastic read for Trekkers and also for non trekkers.

 

P.S. I LOVE YOU – BOOK REVIEW

“P.S. I LOVE YOU” by “Cecelia Ahern” is a novel targeted at a rather bohemian topic of bereavement process of a young widow. The novel is a homogeneous blend of romance and comedy. Protagonist of the story Holly Kennedy is sketched as a character whose sole aim was to care and to love Gerry her dying husband in the last few days of her husband’s life. Death of her husband leaves her with no objective to live for. She forgets that life goes on and dislikes/deters from making new experiences and memories in life.

But a parcel containing 10 letters from her dead husband channels new direction to her life. She comes to believe that “Sometimes it’s about living life one letter a time”. Each letter a month from her husband makes decisions about her life and she abides by them even though she dislikes many of the ideas. By the time she reads the last letter she understands that her husband’s intention behind the planned letters. She gets to know that life is to be celebrated and to be lead by free following of your heart.

Though some of the critics of the novel have carped about the little research done behind the writing by the young author, I would appreciate the deftness of the young author to present a grave issue combined with romance which eventually compensates for the little research. A sudden shift from a serious topic to a light comic issue can be observed in various conversations in the story. The novel is a good, intriguing and touching read.

A MIGHTY HEART – BOOK REVIEW

“A MIGHTY HEART” by Mariane Pearl is an elaborative account of Daniel Pearl’s abduction, intense efforts to rescue him and the aftermath. Mariane and Daniel Pearl were two journalists who fell in love with each other and in love with journalism. Mariane and her rescue team’s courage and determination have been very well elucidated in the book. I would appreciate the book on three fronts:-1.Insights into Journalism – Author presents Daniel’s idea of journalism as a means to eradicate the hatred which reins in many hearts. Daniel in his professional sphere extends journalism beyond “news making” to “altruism”. He has also raised his concern about the hazards a journalist counters round the world.

2.Insights into Courage and Non-defiant spirit – Daniel the protagonist exhibits his courage to stand for truth even at the face of death. His courage and understanding of journalism principles makes him travel around the globe. Mariane, Daniel’s wife is also seen dauntlessly putting efforts to rescue Daniel. Even after his murder she fights to put journalism at the forefront of the fight against terrorism.

3.Insights into Terrorism – Mariane presents her experience with terrorism meticulously in the account. She believes that the invisible enemy “Hatred” in the form of terrorism is not just hazardous for America but for the whole world. Ignorance and poverty are some of the pillars on which the dais of terrorism stands. Simultaneously she presents next generation terrorists in a character named “Omar” who are educated and have bonds with the east and the west.