Comments on: Recent reading http://www.davosnewbies.com/2007/07/03/recent-reading/ A year-round Davos of the mind, written since 1999 by Lance Knobel Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:26:21 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Doug http://www.davosnewbies.com/2007/07/03/recent-reading/comment-page-1/#comment-96829 Doug Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:43:39 +0000 http://www.davosnewbies.com/2007/07/03/recent-reading/#comment-96829 Fair enough; difference in scale does eventually become a difference in kind. And yet, understanding AT&T helps a lot in understanding the Baby Bells, and understanding Rockefeller's Standard Oil goes a long way to grasping the oil majors. There's probably lots in earlier Wal-Mart history that would be revealing about why the company is the way it is today. From the review here and some of the others at Amazon, it looks like Fishman did well on the what; as a reader, I would want to know the why. Fair enough; difference in scale does eventually become a difference in kind. And yet, understanding AT&T helps a lot in understanding the Baby Bells, and understanding Rockefeller’s Standard Oil goes a long way to grasping the oil majors. There’s probably lots in earlier Wal-Mart history that would be revealing about why the company is the way it is today.

From the review here and some of the others at Amazon, it looks like Fishman did well on the what; as a reader, I would want to know the why.

]]> By: Lance Knobel http://www.davosnewbies.com/2007/07/03/recent-reading/comment-page-1/#comment-96294 Lance Knobel Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:36:56 +0000 http://www.davosnewbies.com/2007/07/03/recent-reading/#comment-96294 That's not a point that comes across in the book. What the book does detail, however, is how today's Wal-Mart is dramatically different in scale to Sam's Wal-Mart. When Sam Walton died in 1992 Wal-Mart's annual revenues were around $44 billion. A big, successful company certainly. But Wal-Mart's revenues now are around $350 billion. Its annual growth in revenues is not far short of its total revenues at the end of Sam's reign. That’s not a point that comes across in the book. What the book does detail, however, is how today’s Wal-Mart is dramatically different in scale to Sam’s Wal-Mart.

When Sam Walton died in 1992 Wal-Mart’s annual revenues were around $44 billion. A big, successful company certainly. But Wal-Mart’s revenues now are around $350 billion. Its annual growth in revenues is not far short of its total revenues at the end of Sam’s reign.

]]> By: Doug http://www.davosnewbies.com/2007/07/03/recent-reading/comment-page-1/#comment-96262 Doug Mon, 09 Jul 2007 15:38:02 +0000 http://www.davosnewbies.com/2007/07/03/recent-reading/#comment-96262 I don't know if this is in the book at all, but I lived in rural America before Wal-Mart came to town. This was the late 1980s, so Sam W was still alive, the "made in America" ethos was still part of their buying, and I am sure that many things were different. Not to put too fine a point on it, shopping in the Middle Tennessee region where I lived completely sucked before Wal-Mart. And I was a college student with relatively simple needs (and, honestly, wants). It's hard to imagine what raising a family was like. The other stores on the square had passed their prime decades before. The closest thing to a department store was musty, poorly organized, open seemingly random hours, and anyway didn't have what you were looking for. There was a Sears outlet about the size of someone's living room; I think it served as a place to put in catalog orders. I know I never darkened its doors. The things that I would later buy at Wal-Mart, I originally ported 600 miles across the country from the medium-sized city where my parents lived because you simply couldn't get them at that period without a trip to Nashville or Chattanooga. Like I said, I'm sure plenty has changed in the intervening years, but without a grasp of what retail was like in small-town America before Wal-Mart, I don't think it's possible to know why the company became so successful, or why it still enjoys a significant reservoir of goodwill. I don’t know if this is in the book at all, but I lived in rural America before Wal-Mart came to town. This was the late 1980s, so Sam W was still alive, the “made in America” ethos was still part of their buying, and I am sure that many things were different.

Not to put too fine a point on it, shopping in the Middle Tennessee region where I lived completely sucked before Wal-Mart. And I was a college student with relatively simple needs (and, honestly, wants). It’s hard to imagine what raising a family was like. The other stores on the square had passed their prime decades before. The closest thing to a department store was musty, poorly organized, open seemingly random hours, and anyway didn’t have what you were looking for. There was a Sears outlet about the size of someone’s living room; I think it served as a place to put in catalog orders. I know I never darkened its doors. The things that I would later buy at Wal-Mart, I originally ported 600 miles across the country from the medium-sized city where my parents lived because you simply couldn’t get them at that period without a trip to Nashville or Chattanooga.

Like I said, I’m sure plenty has changed in the intervening years, but without a grasp of what retail was like in small-town America before Wal-Mart, I don’t think it’s possible to know why the company became so successful, or why it still enjoys a significant reservoir of goodwill.

]]>