Sam Walton: Made In America

by Sam Walton

Traditionally, we’ve had this attitude that if you wanted to be a manager at Wal-Mart, you basically had to be willing to move on a moment’s notice. You get a call that says you’re going to open a new store 500 miles away, you don’t ask questions. You just pack and go, then sometime later you worry about selling your house and moving your family. Maybe that was necessary back in the old days, and maybe it was more rigid than it needed to be. Now, though, it’s not really appropriate anymore for several reasons. First, as the company grows bigger, we need to find more ways to stay in touch with the communities where we operate, and one of the best ways to do that is by hiring locally, developing managers locally, and letting them have a career in their home community—if they perform. Second, the old way really put good, smart women at a disadvantage in our company because at that time they weren’t as free to pick up and move as many men were. Now I’ve seen the light on the opportunities we missed out on with women. (I have to admit that Helen and my daughter Alice have helped me come around to this way of thinking.)