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WAL-MART CASE STUDY Strategic Management December 2003 Introduction Before analyzing the key success factors of Wal-Mart, I am going to present this company in few words. Wal-Mart is a discount retailor created in 1962 by Sam Walton. The first store opened July 2nd of this year in Rogers, Arkansas, USA. During the 10 first years Wal-Mart opened 32 stores and during the following 10 years, it opened 244 new selling points while the United States knew the two petroleum crisis. As show the following graphics, its sales increased 67.000 times between 1962 and 1994 and its profits 20.000 times. As we can see better with these graphics, how incredible is the increase of the Wal-Mart’s profits, a real American success story... This one is now the case of many business schools to understand the key success factors which had led this company to be the world’s largest discount retailor. This is the purpose of this paper. Founder Sam Walton’s inspiracional leadership Like every entreprise, somebody is at the origin and usually this person, its personality, its character, is the main factor of success or failure. As Wal-Mart were growing, Sam Walton porved an effective and visionnary leadership which are the two main qualities to guarantee the success of a new company.
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