Critique of “The Wal-Mart Way” #2

In the 8th chapter of the book “The Wal-Mart Way” (Nelson Business, 2004), the author illustrated the technology innovation spirit of Wal-Mart. He recalled in the very beginning of the story of Wal-Mart, Sam Walton, the founder, intended to let the computer and database show their power in business. Moreover, the author also showed some important technology advancements made by Wal-Mart.

In the core part of this chapter, the author demonstrated several principles of an ideal technology model of a company. I shook my head on reading the first principle: “senior leadership involvement and support.” In my opinion, innovation often means break the former way. Therefore it may be difficult for people, especially senior officers to understand a new conception as well as how to put it into practice. If they are responsible for a technology department, they will be confused about all the new things! However, once the technicians can illustrate the usage to the seniors, they can embrace the conception and combine it to their business experiences. In this way, every innovation will be practical in real business. Thus, I would like to rename this principle as a “senior-technician association” mode.

On the other hand, I was shocked by the consistent technology improvement of Wal-Mart. As the author noted, it was one of the first retail companies to accept “point-of-sale (POS)” and “Universal Product Code (UPC)” (2004, p143). These technologies were extremely expensive at that period. The author also claimed Wal-Mart began to use satellite network in 1987, to connect its world-wide stores together and share their data. From my standpoint, if I was the CEO of Wal-Mart, I would worry about the tremendous initial investment to introduce these new promotions to my business. However, as a customer, I would feel happy if I could enjoy the accurate service provided by UPC system as well as the convenience to use credit card at POS. In this way, these convincible examples strongly supported the author’s thesis and described an image of a technology pioneer in the retail industry.

Reading review #4: Technology of Wal-Mart

In the 8th and 9th chapters of “The Wal-Mart Way” (Nelson Business, 2004) written by the former chairman of Wal-Mart, Soderquist, the author focused on the technology aspects that made great contribution to the powerful Wal-Mart.

In the beginning of chapter 8, the author claimed that advanced technology could bring great innovations to retail stores in many ways. In Soder’s opinion, Introducing new inventions such as computers and databases to the store could provide faster and more accurate service as well as cut down the cost. He also recalled the early story of Wal-Mart to enhance its technology. The former chairman believed there are 4 key points to let the company take most advantage of up-to-date innovations: “senior leadership and support; selection of the right person to lead the technology department; investment in the right projects; a method of determining actual payback.” (p138). At last, the author mentioned some important innovations brought by Wal-Mart, which influenced the whole world’s retail mode.

In chapter 9, Soder introduced some basic principles of Wal-Mart’s supply chain. He argued that the supply chain is not just rigid logistics, but could be improved in some significant ways. Then Soder claimed that Wal-Mart always build up new stores at the perfect position, which were supported efficiently by nearby warehouses. In this way, Wal-Mart could keep its stores in stock and lessen the money invested in inventory at the same time.