The Walmart Cheer

The Walmart Cheer

In building Walmart as the world’s greatest retailer, founder Sam Walton borrowed every good idea he’d come across. And one of those ideas is the famous Walmart Cheer:

Give Me a W!
Give Me an A!
Give Me an L!
Give Me a Squiggly!
(Here, everybody sort of does the twist.)
Give Me an M!
Give Me an A!
Give Me an R!
Give Me a T!
What’s that spell?
Wal-Mart!
What’s that spell?
Wal-Mart!
Who’s number one?
THE CUSTOMER!

From Walton’s autobiography, “Made In America”:

Helen (Walton’s wife) and I picked up several ideas on a trip we took to Korea and Japan in 1975. A lot of the things they do over there are very easy to apply to doing business over here. Culturally, things seem so different—like sitting on the floor eating eels and snails—but people are people, and what motivates one group generally will motivate another.

And Helen Walton is quoted,

Sam took me out to see this tennis ball factory, somewhere east of Seoul. The company sold balls to Wal-Mart, I guess, and they treated us very well. It was the dirtiest place I ever saw in my life, but Sam was very impressed. It was the first place he ever saw a group of workers have a company cheer. And he liked the idea of everybody doing calisthenics together at the beginning of the day. He couldn’t wait to get home and try those ideas out in the stores and at the Saturday morning meeting.

'Sam Walton: Made In America' by Sam Walton (ISBN 0553562835) All training activities include the Walmart cheer. Every morning, store associates participate in the cheer. A few people stand up to read the daily numbers, then break out into a chant—“Give me a W-A-L-M-A-R-T,” with the rest of the people in the room shouting back the same letter. Back then, Wal-Mart still had a hyphen, so between the L and the M they would yell, “Give me a squiggly!” and everyone would do a butt wiggle.

All across America, Walmart convenes nearly 60,000 regularly scheduled meetings each week, all of them starting and ending with the Walmart cheer. Also, each store has a 15-minute shift-change meeting three times a day, when a new wave of cashiers, stockers, and supervisors arrives. Their meetings start with a Walmart Cheer.

Sam Walton Saw No Need for Unions at Walmart

Pro-Union Activists Protest Against Walmart's Anti-Union Policies

Walmart has always been criticized for its policies against labor unions. Supporters of unionization efforts blame workers’ reluctance to join the labor union on Walmart’s anti-union tactics such as managerial surveillance and pre-emptive closures of stores or departments that choose to unionize. Leaked internal documents show that Walmart’s strategy for fighting to keep its workers from forming unions includes instructing managers to report suspicious activity and warning workers that joining unionizing efforts could hurt them.

Walmart’s management has contended that it’s employees do not need to pay third parties to discuss problems with management as the company’s open-door policy enables employees to lodge complaints and submit suggestions all the way up the corporate ladder. Sam Walton, founder of Walmart wrote in his autobiography:

'Sam Walton: Made In America' by Sam Walton (ISBN 0553562835) I have always believed strongly that we don’t need unions at Wal-Mart. Theoretically, I understand the argument that unions try to make, that the associates need someone to represent them and so on. But historically, as unions have developed in this country, they have mostly just been divisive. They have put management on one side of the fence, employees on the other, and themselves in the middle as almost a separate business, one that depends on division between the other two camps. And divisiveness, by breaking down direct communication makes it harder to take care of customers, to be competitive, and to gain market share. The partnership we have at Wal-Mart—which includes profit sharing, incentive bonuses, discount stock purchase plans, and a genuine effort to involve the associates in the business so we can all pull together—works better for both sides than any situation I know of involving unions. I’m not saying we pay better than anybody, though we’re certainly competitive in our industry and in the regions where we’re operating; we have to be if we want to attract and keep good people. But over the long haul, our associates build value for themselves—financially and otherwise—by believing in the company and keeping it headed in the right direction. Together, we have ridden this thing pretty darned far.

Source: Sam Walton’s autobiography, Made In America

Sam Walton and Frugality at Wal-Mart

Sam Walton Homespun Frugality

Sam Walton, the iconic founder of Wal-Mart, loved retailing and pursued it with boundless energy. He was famously frugal and devoted to the concept of beating merchandise prices down as part of the trademark “everyday lower prices” promise to customers. Walton once wrote, “A lot of what goes on these days with high-flying companies and these overpaid CEOs, who’re really just looting from the top and aren’t watching out for anybody but themselves, really upsets me. It’s one of the main things wrong with American business today.”

Despite being America’s richest man, Sam Walton flew first class only once in his life on a flight from South America to Africa. Wal-Mart did not have a corporate jet until the retailing giant was approaching $40 billion in sales. Walton’s “corporate car” consisted of a red pick-up truck. Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, once recalled having lunch with Sam Walton, “I hopped into Sam’s red pick-up truck. No air-conditioning. Seats stained by coffee. And by the time I go to the restaurant, my shirt was soaked through and through. And that was Sam Walton—no airs, no pomposity.”

Wal-Mart's Small-town Roots

Under the leadership of Sam Walton, Wal-Mart stuck to its small-town roots. “Every time Wal-Mart spends one dollar foolishly, it comes out of our customers’ pockets,” Walton preached wherever he went. Some particulars on how Sam Walton’s homespun frugality is still ingrained in Wal-Mart’s culture:

  • As part of corporate policy, Wal-Mart employees are required to be thrifty as well. They were required to sleep two to a room in properties of Holiday Inn, Ramada Inn, Days Inn, and other economy hotel brands. They are encouraged to eat in family restaurants.
  • At a 2007 convention of 250 CEOs of suppliers, Wal-Mart’s third CEO Lee Scott famously raised a pen he had picked up from the Embassy Suites hosting the conference. He declared that Wal-Mart asked its business travelers to bring pens and notepads from their hotel rooms (yes, with the hotels’ logos) back to their offices and use them as office supplies. With thousands of business trips, the Wal-Mart home office in Bentonville probably accumulated thousands of dozens of pens.
  • On business or purchasing trips to New York City, Wal-Mart employees would avoid taking cabs, and instead walk or take subway wherever possible.

Such corporate-instilled policies to drive frugality across the Wal-Mart organization were more about instilling in its employees the miserly, no-waste, keep-costs-down attitude than about saving, for instance, $10,000 or more on the cost of office pens every year. Wal-Mart aimed to limit purchasing overhead expenses to 1 percent of their purchases.

Recommended Reading on Sam Walton and Wal-Mart

Management Guru Tom Peters on Benchmarking

Management Guru Tom Peters

To grow, companies need to escape of the vicious cycle of competitive benchmarking, replication, imitation that’s so much in vogue today. A company cannot simply be remarkable by following some other remarkable business.

Here is a classic video of Management Guru Tom Peters discussing the pointless exercise of benchmarking:

I hate Benchmarking! Benchmarking is Stupid! Why is it stupid? Because we pick the current industry leader and then we launch a five year program, the goal of which is to be as good as whoever was best five years ago, five years from now. Which to me is not an Olympian aspiration.

Clearly, there is no tangible benefit from attempting to imitate another business that has excelled at something. If a business pursues the leading benchmark, the company will forever be a follower. In addition, the uniqueness of the product or service or process will no longer be as unique once many achieve it.

Successful leaders don’t seek to learn from the “best in class” in their field. They seek to learn from companies outside their field as a way to innovate.

Difference between a Hotel and a Motel

Difference between a Hotel and a Motel

The commonly acknowledged distinction between the definition of a hotel and that of a motel is based upon the means of access to the rooms.

Most hotels have interior hallways to the rooms. A guest is expected to leave his car in the hotel’s parking lot, enter through the hotel’s lobby, perhaps take an elevator, and walk down a hallway to access his room.

In contrast, motels consist of exterior corridors. Motel rooms open directly into a parking lot or a balcony overlooking the parking lot. A guest could park his car directly in front of his room and enter his room. Motels do not have hallways or internal corridors within the property.

The term ‘motel’ originated as a portmanteau for ‘motorist hotel.’ In the 1920s, with the development of the freeway system in the United States, many motorists needed to park their vehicles and stay for the night during their long-distance road journeys. Located along (or close to) these freeways, the motels provided accommodations to motorists who needed rest before proceeding. In this context, a hotel is a residential property inside a city of destination where travelers stay for the duration of their travel.

Another common understanding is that motels are low-priced hotels.

Chinese Car Company Logos That Look Appallingly Familiar

The car industry in China is the largest in the world, as measured by total annual automobile unit production volumes. Since year 2009, the number of automobiles manufactured in China has exceeded that of the European Union and that of the United States and Japan combined.

45% percent of cars produced were BYD, Lifan, Chang’an (Chana), Geely, Chery, Hafei, Jianghuai (JAC), Great Wall and Roewe. The rest were produced by joint ventures of international automotive giants Volkswagen, General Motors, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi etc. Further, that China car market is expected to grow tenfold through 2030.

Several Chinese car makers have been accused of copying designs of other companies. In addition, to increase sales and build up brand equities, Chinese automakers have rapidly expanded the number of brands they offer and some Chinese automakers have even taken inspiration from internationally-well-known brands. Here are side-by-side comparisons of brand identities—international brands in the left column and the Chinese derivatives in the right column.

Logos of the Acura and Changan Brands

Acura and Changan » Chinese Car Company Logos That Look Appallingly Familiar

Chang’an Automobile Group, based in Chongqing, has quickly grown to become one of the top four Chinese automakers along with Dongfeng, FAW Group, and Shanghai Automotive. It also has joint ventures with Ford, Suzuki, and PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Logos of the Cardillac and Emgrand Brands

Cardillac and Emgrand » Chinese Car Company Logos That Look Appallingly Familiar

Emgrand (literally the “Imperial brand”) is an automobile marque owned by the Chinese automaker Geely. Englon and Gleagle are the other marques owned by Geely, as part of Geely’s strategy of expanding its number of brands to encourage sales and evade a reputation for unreliability and poor quality.

Logos of the Mazda and Haima Brands

Mazda and Haima » Chinese Car Company Logos That Look Appallingly Familiar

Haima is a marque of the FAW Haima Automobile Company based in Hainan. Haima was a joint venture between the government of Hainan and Japanese car manufacturer Mazda. In 2006 FAW Group acquired Mazda’s stake in the joint venture and continues to use Mazda’s technology and an identical branding.

Logos of the Bentley and Riich Brands

Bentley and Riich » Chinese Car Company Logos That Look Appallingly Familiar

Riich is an upscale sub-brand of Chinese automaker Chery. Riich models include microvans, large sedans, a hatchback, a small sedan and a five door wagon. Riich’s logo mimics that of Bentley Motors, the renowned British manufacturer of luxury automobiles, now part of the Volkswagen group.

Logos of the Toyota and Xia Li Brands

Toyota and Xiali » Chinese Car Company Logos That Look Appallingly Familiar

Xia Li vehicles are the Daihatsu Charade and manufactured by FAW Tianjin. FAW group also has a joint venture with between Toyota called the FAW Toyota Motor Co Ltd.

Logos of the Alfa Romeo and Englon Brands

Alfa Romeo and Englon » Chinese Car Company Logos That Look Appallingly Familiar

Englon is also a marque of the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which owns manufacturing facilities in Lanzhou (Gansu province,) Xiangtan (Hunan province,) Jinan (Shandong province,) Linhai (Luqiao province,) and Ningbo in (Zhejiang province), and international plants in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Russia, and Turkey.

Copies

In China, rip-offs of all sorts are common. Yet copying and plagiarism, from paintings to literary work to academic research papers, has a long tradition in China. Traditionally, it is considered a way of learning, and of indicating admiration. Recently there were reports of Chinese building replicas of architecturally significant towns and city sections from around the world.

Postscript

Geely (formally called the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd) is the Chinese passenger car conglomerate that sells cars under five brand names, viz., Emgrand, Englon, Geely, Gleagle, and Volvo. Geely also owns Volvo Cars: Geely purchased Volvo Cars from the Premier Automotive Group of Ford Motor Company in 2010. Geely is headquartered in the Binjiang District of Hangzhou city.

The Worst Business Decision Ever (Hint: Xerox)

What crosses your mind when you think of an archetype of failing to recognize enormous business opportunities and renouncing innovations?

Xerox: The Worst Business Decision Ever

Xerox PARC, now an independent but wholly-owned subsidiary of Xerox, is celebrated for its pioneering technology inventions. It produced the first computer to use the desktop metaphor and mouse-driven graphical user interface (GUI) to let users interact with computers and software. They failed to capitalize on the huge opportunity. Someone else commercialized a large portion of Xerox’s ideas.

Xerox PARC invented the idea of icons, windows-based interfaces and dialogue boxes, point-and-click interfaces, local area networks, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) text editor and many other technological innovations that are at present part of the very underpinning of the personal computer industry. Years later, Xerox’s management even acknowledged, “whole companies have been built on inventions born at PARC.”

Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)

The fundamental flaw lies in Xerox’s strategy. Xerox’s leadership was preoccupied with determining ways to protect its mainstay, the copier business, from impending competition from Japanese companies. Xerox decided that it was a copier company and let go of the business opportunities in its technological invocations, even if PARC’s innovations had significant potential in the future of nascent personal computer industry. Steve Job’s innovation, the Apple Macintosh, borrowed from the work of PARC and created the first successful commercial computer with a graphical user interface.

The other choice that killed a great business opportunity was the decision by IBM that it was a computer company, not a software company. That made possible the rise of Bill Gates’ Microsoft Corporation, which went on to dominate the world of operating systems and applications software.