How did a peddler of cheap shirts and fishing rods become the (mightiest) corporation in America?The short version of Wal-Mart’s rise to glory goes something like this:In 1979 it racked up a billion dollars in sales.By 1993 it did that much business in a week;by 2001 it could do it in a day.
It’s a stunning tale -- one that (propelled) Wal-Mart from rural Arkansas,where it was founded in 1962,to the top of the Fortune 500 this year.Sam Walton,Wal-Mart’s founder,pushed sales growth relentlessly while (squeezing) costs with (sophisticated )information technology.He exhorted employees to sell better with the “ten-foot rule”(greet customers if they are that close).He was,in other words,an early evangelist for the first commandment of today’s economy:Service rules.Wal-Mart,in fact,is the first service company to rise to the top of the Fortune 500.