The Final Act

Dating back to the late 1940's when Sam Walton began his frachise at Ben Franklin's variety store in Newport, Arkansas the birth place of a simple but extremely innnovative idea was born. Sam Walton's pioneering approach to earning in volumne began when he revoultionaized business by deciding to pass the savings he earned to his customers. This decision led to the cornerstone of Walton's buisness strategy for Wal-Marts limitless success.

Through the implementation of an overall cost leadership approach, supply chain management and eventually an IT-based system Sam Walton was able to build the fundation for Wal-Mart's culture. Because of the adoptation of the overall cost leadership approach Wal-Mart developed policies aimed to becoming and to always remain the lowest-cost producer and distributor in the industry. And in achieveing a low cost leadership strategy their strategy of a bottom-line company was critical in acheiving maximum profit while minimizing errors in a process.


Because a low cost leadership approach relied heavily on a supply chain management system an well structured IT system support Wal-Marts activities by tracking inventory and information among business processess. This allowed for a successful ensurance that customers received the merchandise they ordered on a timely manner, while allowing logistics, fulfillment, production, revenue and profit.

Another interesting aspect of Wal-Marts success is their Business Intelligence that enables the organization to extract the true meaning of information so that it can take creative and powerful steps to ensure a competitive advantage. And through effective analysis of data the study of sales trends tracking inventory and other tasks allows Wal-Mart to stay ahead of market. The system is also the foundation for Wal-Mart's Retail Link decision-support system that Wal-Mart's suppliers use to study item-level inventory and sales information.


Saving people money to help them live better was the goal that Sam Walton envisioned when he opened the doors to the first Wal-Mart more than 40 years ago. Wal-Mart continues to lead the market in buying low and selling low.