Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

We all read about the fight that certain special interest groups along with the union thugs wage against Wal-Mart. Do you want to know something? It's a joke. You know why? Because the customer is king!

What does that have to do with anything? The customers that endlessly walk into Wal-Mart stores and vote with their dollars, are the ones that have created Wal-Mart. Sure, there was the original vision of Sam Walton as he tuned into the desires and wants of people in the consumer goods market, and he was obviously right on, but the customers that responded to his vision, are the ones that created Wal-Mart.

Recently Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said that Wal-Mart(WMT) Stores Inc. won't capitulate to their opponents who have determined that Wal-Mart is too big. Too big for what? Who are these screwballs that are playing God?

They still don't get it. They still don't even have the foggiest idea of what a free market means. What the free market means, as I said, is that the customer is the final vote. And guess what? Whether you like it or not, they have spoken. Case closed. The only time this will change is if the customer votes with their dollars somewhere else.

Now I've said all this to say that you need to be careful when you have opponents that try to smear who you are and what you do. If it's legitimate customer initiated input, we all need to respond to what they are saying to us. If it's just a bunch of demogogues that are trying to stir up artificial issues, we need to know the difference.

There's a huge difference between serving our customers with innovative changes and products, and jealous people who have their private agendas who don't mind serving up any type of false hype to disparage your company. You need to know how to fight on both fronts. The worse thing to do is to ignore it.

Now, back to Wal-Mart in and of itself. For those of you who really want prices to increase that much, wait a little while. Now the Chinese are experiencing a labor shortage that if it continues will eventually drive up prices. If that makes you feel good to buy things at higher prices, just wait a little while, it may be coming.

And since Wal-Mart sells huge amounts of Chinese products, you can possibly get that experience soon enough.

For those of us in business and management though, it will be good to remind yourself that you customer is truly king. Don't listen to your critics for the sake of stemming every little criticism that comes your way. If your customer likes what you're doing, they'll vote for you with their dollars. In the end, that is the only vote that matters.