Author: Dan Soderquist

ISBN: 0785261192/102

The following review was contributed by: John Walsh: CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's Reviews

There are two distinct types of stories about Wal-Mart, which is an American company and one of the largest retail chains in the world. The first tells a tale of a hugely successful company with a renowned management style and created by a man, Sam Walton, who has a legendary reputation in business literature. The second tells of the ruthless suppression of organised labour, the wages so low that the ‘associates’ are unable to obtain health care, the bullying of the ‘supply chain,’ the destruction of small grocery stores around the world unable to cope with the market power of a multinational and the removal of taste and character from American food in the interest of picturesque regularity. Anyone who has suffered from eating almost tasteless American fruit and vegetables – which look great, just like the huge rows of identical items – will wish to thank Walton for his business vision. Greg Palast in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy writes about the links alleged between Wal-Mart and South American sweatshops and Chinese prison labour.

This is a book very much in the first tradition. Soderquist is a former Chief Operating Officer of Wal-Mart and, in this book, attempts to spell out the various inspirational lessons that go to make up the Wal-Mart way. These include such things as creating relationships with suppliers and employees, streamlining the supply chain, adopting various schemes to pacify local and community resistance to the presence of the supermarkets and the creation of a corporate culture that integrates all aspects of its workers’ lives. These are presented as lessons or inspirations for the reader and aimed, presumably, primarily at people searching for ways to improve their own businesses.

Ex-president of the USA Bill Clinton, whose wife once represented Wal-Mart, noted in his autobiography that he admired Sam Walton for his tireless work but that he could not agree with everything that he did. Reading this book gives no mention of this kind of ambivalence because it is very much a black and white affair. Everything that Wal-Mart or its founder did is treated as completely good and everything that competitors do differently is just wrong. There is some useful background on the history of Wal-Mart and anyone with an interest in the company will find much of interest here.

John Walsh, Shinawatra University, November 2005