|
 |
Company Founder Biographies: Founder bios of some of the most successful people in business today. |  |
Sam Walton Bio, Founder of Wal-Mart
At the University of Missouri, he majored in economics and served in the ROTC while waiting tables, and just before graduation, took a job as a management trainee at a J.C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa, though he did not work there long before being drafted by the military, where he achieved the rank of captain in the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, working primarily in security and never shipping overseas. At the end of the war, he purchased a variety store with a loan from his father-in-law, and set about changing the way it was managed. He stayed open later than most stores, extending his hours even further during the Christmas shopping season (which at the time was only a week or two), and he made a practice of buying his goods in bulk from the lowest priced supplier, so that he could offer his goods at a discount and move them quickly -- if the shelves stayed stocked but nothing stayed on them for long, he considered that a mark of sure success. The store was such a success that the building's landlord refused to renew the lease when it expired, wanting to give the location to his son instead. The landlord bought Walton's inventory and fixtures for a fair price, and he used the money to open a new store, Walton's Five and Dime, in Bentonville, Arkansas. This was the first "true Wal-Mart," though it operated according to the principles Walton had developed earlier. The store grew in popularity, and Walton and his family opened more locations around the country, soon becoming the world's largest retailer. For much of the 1980s, Walton was the richest man in America; upon his death in 1992, that title passed to Bill Gates. |
Read More Company Founder Biographies -Select another successful entrepreneur below: | |||
|