Chapter 1

Strategic Leadership: Managing the Strategy-Making Process for Competitive Advantage
Opening Case

Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart is one of the most extraordinary success stories in business history. Started in 1962 by Sam Walton, Wal-Mart has grown to become the world’s largest corporation. In the financial year ending January 31, 2004, the discount retailer whose mantra is “every day low prices” had sales of nearly $256 billion, five thousand stores in ten countries (almost three thousand are in the United States), and 1.3 million employees. Some 8 percent of all retail sales in the United States are made at a Wal-Mart store. Wal-Mart is not only large but also very profitable. In 2003, the company earned a return on invested capital of 14.7 percent, significantly better than rivals Costco and Target, which earned 9.4 percent and 10 percent, respectively (another major rival, Kmart, emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004). As shown in the accompanying figure, Wal-Mart has been consistently more profitable than its rivals for years. Wal-Mart’s superior profitability reflects a competitive advantage that is based on the successful implementation of a number of strategies. In 1962 Wal-Mart was one of the first companies to apply the self-service supermarket business model developed by grocery chains to general merchandise (two of its rivals, Kmart and Target, were established in the same year). Unlike its rivals, who focused on urban and suburban locations, Sam Walton’s Wal-Mart concentrated on small southern towns that were ignored by its rivals. Wal-Mart grew quickly by pricing lower than local mom-and-pop retailers, often putting them out of business. By the time Kmart and Target realized that small towns could support a large discount general merchandise store, Wal-Mart had preempted them. These towns, which were large enough to support one discount retailer,