Made in America, Book Review Example

The famous 1993 book of Sam Walton (written in cooperation with John Huey, and finished after Walton’s death) titled Made in America: My Story should not be considered the revelation of a secret of success, or a recipe of richness. However, it is a valuable source of information for all present or aspiring entrepreneurs of any scale; the story of Sam Walton about the way he passed to create the largest business in the USA, Wal-Mart, is truly inspiring, enlightening, and educating. The present book is a life story of a simple man who was not a distinguished genius during his school studies, who was not highly successful at the first jobs he held, but who knew the value of learning, and who learned from everyone and everything he came across in his life. The book Made in America presents Sam Walton as a humane figure – a disorganized, absent-minded man whose chief priority was self-development, self-advancement, charismatic leadership, and inspirational teamwork (Walton & Huey, 1993).

There are many chapters in Made in America, each teaching a certain lesson of Walton’s life. Sam Walton explains that richness is not necessarily connected with pools of money, $100 banknote-cigars, and beautiful models around him. He teaches the readers that the key to success is not being afraid to start from nothing, to build a team willing to work, cooperate, and develop, to examine competitors closely and critically, and creating a specific organizational culture that would give the team a sense of unity and belonging (Walton & Huey, 1993). The secret of Walton’s success may be in his prime focus on the customer as the number one value for his company, the ability to step back and overlook the situation in a company with objectivity, and the wish to leave something after him – legacy, not financial wealth (Walton & Huey, 1993).

Walton’s account of his success in the market is told with much detail in the present book, for every entrepreneur to have an opportunity to track the process of Wal-Mart development from its dawn to the top of the US market. However, the chief chapters that one needs to take care of reading very closely are the lessons that Walton learned from life, and that helped him to become successful, and the legacy he wanted to leave after his death. Keeping to these simple rules may make a businessperson if not the second Sam Walton, but surely a successful salesperson with strong perspectives for growth, development, and self-advancement.

When speaking about what Sam Walton did wrong, one can hardly think anything up, especially taking into account the status of the business he has started assessed as number one in the whole United States. However, it seems that the absence of fear of mistakes is the most distinguishing feature that can be assessed as wrong in Sam Walton; as his colleagues and friends say, he was the least fearful person they had ever met, and in case he made a mistake, he just shook it off and started moving in a different direction (Walton & Huey, 1993). This feature is not very good for entrepreneurs, especially for those who aimed at large-scale expansion and wanted to gain a significant share in the market. It is absent-minded not to be afraid of making mistakes, since the Wal-Mart undertaking became a joint enterprise for many people who loaned money and bought shares in it; hence, a failure could have caused serious financial losses, which would affect people trusting Walton in a serious manner.

It is much easier to say what Sam Walton did right. His approach to self-improvement is indeed impressive, since it is the unique capability of Walton to work on his weaknesses, and build on his strengths that distinguished him in the business world of the 20^th century. Walton considered weaknesses to be temporary challenges on his way to success, so he targeted them every day and by every possible effort. Therefore, he managed to recognize his most challenging weaknesses, and turn them into his strengths. In addition, he was objective and sincere with himself about both his weaknesses and his strengths; hence, he recognized that leadership and teamwork were the strategic future of his undertaking, and worked in that field for the sake of improvement (Waltton & Huey, 1993).

One more thing Walton did right is his reliance on his curiosity that helped him explore the market dimensions never tried and even supposed by other salespeople of the middle of the 20^th century. Watson tried discounting at the cost of attractive appearance of stores, and what others considered a barn was a truly successful shop in which people bought products not due to their attractiveness, but because of their necessity, and for much lower prices. Walton tried alternative approaches in nearly every town and city to which he expanded, and focused on both shabby and glittering shops, small and large ones, driving revenues from personal experiences, and giving people specifically what they wanted (Walton & Huey, 1993).

I would certainly have done something in a different way, though it is hard to say whether it would have helped me to become a more successful businessperson than Walton did. The story of Sam Walton is a success, so it is tempting to adopt his business philosophy without hesitation, hoping that a similar success will be achieved. Nevertheless, I am sure that selling shares to the employees of his company was a very risky affair of Sam Walton; it is hard to keep the company running when it depends directly on salespeople working in it (Walton & Huey, 1993). Obviously, there is a certain increase of resourcefulness in people who know that they work partly for themselves, but they still may feel too empowered to work well, and may become too ambitious about buying more shares and simply enjoying the success of the company not through hard work, but through mere observation from the outside.

In addition, I would not have focused on discounting so strongly; it is possible to say that the story of success that Walton enjoyed in his Wal-Mart undertaking lends itself mostly to the fact that discounting was young, and there were not many market participants who dared to involve in it (Walton & Huey, 1993). Price competition is a successful business strategy even nowadays, in the 21^st century, decades after the initial success of Sam Walton. However, the present-day price competition is a field explored by many market participants, and it is hard to retain the position of the price leader in any market sector for a sustainable period of time (Machado & Cassim, 2004). Every product has its price, and at a certain moment, it becomes impossible to discount more; hence, companies may start saving costs at the expense of product quality, which is reflected in customer satisfaction. Thus, I would have figured out some complimentary strategies for competition other that discounting. After the initial brand name has become popular and recognized, I would introduce clear differentiation regarding the stores of Wal-Mart, its products, its approach to retailing, the focus on the customer, leadership, and teamwork, etc.

One of the key theories on which the work of Sam Walton was based is institutionalism; as Tool (1993) noted, the principle of institutionalism claims that all people learn by doing, and they do this experientially and experimentally, which was actually done by Walton most of his Wal-Mart development period. Thought and action, according to Tool (1993), are essentially intertwined, and the individual motivation and human behavior can be viewed in a number of ways, by means of combining rational and irrational, creative and destructive forces of the human mind. The reality surrounding people is their own product; hence, sooner or later, it takes the forms shaped by its creators.

The second economic principle clearly traced in the activity of Walton is the dependence of consumer surplus on the lower price established for key necessary products (Mankiw, 2011). Thus, even despite the fact that all colleagues, friends, relatives, and close people considered Walton’s policy of discounting madness, it still succeeded, and brought a tremendous success to the operations of his shops. The lowest price is always attractive, especially in case people see what trade-offs they make for this discount – they do not get the cheaper products in neat and beautiful shops; they have to forgo the comfort of buying for the sake of getting lower prices. Hence, the principle of demand elasticity is one more economic principle that acted with Wal-Mart in terms of attracting the large numbers of customers to Walton’s shops (Mankiw, 2011).

Speaking about what I got from this book, I can say that it is a truly valuable piece of reading for every person who has set certain life objectives, and wants to achieve a goal that now seems unattainable for a certain reason. I have always believed that the only challenge for people to overcome on their way to success is their low self-esteem, their self-uncertainty, and their own internal barriers that preclude them from moving further. No matter how paradoxical it sounds, many people are afraid of success, and they stop at a medium point of their development just because of the fear to move further. There are different justifications they find to rationalize their crisis of identity – the next stage is too much for me, what I have earned so far will be enough for me and my children, I am not sure what to do next, and how to manage success, etc.

Thus, I have learned from the experience of Walton that success, no matter how far-reaching it is, does not pose any obligations on people, and does not make them correspond to the stereotypical image of rich people, of CEOs, of millionaires, etc. Walton remained a simple man with his own flaws, but he has managed to reach the top of American business; hence, all people wishing to develop have to educate themselves, have to be able to make risky decisions and not to feel sorry about failures, and have to be able to look at the surrounding world with relentless curiosity, interest, and inquiry. Looking for new ideas from everyone wishing to talk, and focusing on internal and external innovation, building a strong organizational culture by means of inspirational leadership – these objectives are fully accomplishable for people eager to develop themselves and their undertakings.

References

Machado, R., & Cassim, S. (2004). Marketing for entrepreneurs. Lansdowne, NSW: Juta and Company Ltd.

Mankiw, N. G. (2011). Principles of economics. (6^th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Tool, M. R. (1993). Institutional economics: theory, method, and policy. Boston, MA: Springer.

Walton, S., & Huey, J. (1992). Made in America: My Story. New York, NY: Bantam Books.