. We treat everyone with respect and dignity, . We are in business to satisfy our customers, and .
We strive for excellence in all that we do. Now, when I speak or am interviewed about the secrets of Wal-Marts success, I begin with our beliefs, I am amazed at how many times those who arent part of the Wal-mart family challenge this, even minimizing the importance of our beliefs. I have had many people suggest that all this talk about beliefs sounds more like a simple bromide: Mom, apple pie, and baseball. Our beliefs are simple- no question about that- but Wal-Mart people understand what they mean and work hard at making them a reality every day.
A Culture of Respect Treating everyone with respect and dignity means everyone. We start with our associates. We dont call them employees; they are associates in the true sense of the word, and there is no question in my mind that our people have made the difference in our success. We work hard to provide an environment where everyone can contribute and be successful. We treat people as more than pairs of hands to do jobs; we treat them as sources of new ideas. As Sam often said, most of the new things we do in the company come from our people.
A Culture of Customer Satisfaction As I will address more fully in the next chapter, we treat our customers as the truly important people they are. We know that theyre the real boss. We believe that our goal is to satisfy our customers every time they are in our stores or clubs. We work hard to make every customer feel welcome, to make him or her feel like family. Our focus on the customer drives so much of that we do. As an example, our everyday low-price strategy did not grow out of a new, hot marketing trend. It developed out of our core belief that we exist to satisfy the customer. We continue to do everything in our power to add value to what the customer gets when he or she comes into a Wal-Mart store or a Sams Club.
A Culture of Continuous Improvement
Striving for excellence means never being satisfied-always doing things to keep improving, even if it means changing everything we do. It means we nwver feel that we have arrived. We dont believe our press clippings. We dont get complacent and pat ourselves on the backs. We talk about what we could have done better. We believe that we can achieve extraordinary results when we strives for excellence in all we do.
Sharing the Culture
After the process of defining and developing a companys core values and beliefs, how do you keep these dynamics- the culture of an organization- alive and relevant? The obvious answer is to talk about them and do so trequently, repeating them over and over again. At Wal-Mart, we are intentional about dispersing our culture throughout the company and determined that our values and beliefs be on the mind of every associate. Our Friday morning meetings for all officers and division heads and Saturday morning meetings for all management people serve as important times to communicate and illustrate the culture of the company to leadership. Weekly and even daily meetings in stores and warehouses provide the opportunity for all general managers to share with associates not only information about operations, but also elements of the culture. Quarterly meetings for hourly associates in the home office reiterate important aspects of our culture. Yearbeginning meetings and midyear meetings and midyear meetings for store, club, warehouse, transportation, and speciality division associates are additional opportunities for sharing our beliefs. And we have taken advantage of every single one of these opportunities to preach Wal-Mart culture. Every companys leadership plans reguler meetings to interact with its associates. The question for all companies, however, isnt whether they hold meetings. The question to ask yourself: is your culture a high enough priority to invest time in it? Each year Wal-Mart holds its shareholders meeting on the first Friday of June. There are usually over eighteen thousand people at the meeting, which lasts from 7:00 AM until noon. Every year, each store, club, warehouse and home office department (including those in all international countries) sends at least one associate to these shareholders meetings as a representative of its operating unit. The associates come in on Tuesday and leave after the meeting on Friday at noon. During this time, they have meetings scheduled with the buyers and other home office associates, where they ask questions and share their ideas on how to improve the company. They have great observations and suggestions, many of which are
implemented throughout the whole company. Before they go home, they are given a recap of all their suggestion and what the company is going to do about them. When they go back to their stores, they are given a chance to share with the associates in their local operations about their experience. During this process, they not only learn more about the company and the company culture, but they actually experience it-and pass it on. Store managers and district managers are on the front lines every day and in constant contact with our customers. It is extremely important to keep them informed living on company direction, supporting and living out the company culture and excited about the company. Therefore, we believe that it is important to have personal contact with them as frequently as possible. As a result, we hold large meetings twice a year in convention centers and bring them, along with key assistant managers, in from all over the country.
