Simple Isn't Always Easy to Grasp
We've talked about Walton's absolute commitment to low prices and building his strategy for the company around that.
What's really interesting about this is that even when he found suppliers that he was able to secure better prices with and began to pass those saving onto the consumer, he really didn't understand what it was that he had.
He said that it was "simple enough" to understand what it meant to make a profit on volume rather than on margin, yet it took him at least a decade to undertand what the power of this idea could do over the long haul.
While it was always a part of his purpose for the company, once he appreciated what it meant and would do, there was never a time that he wavered in keeping it as the center around which the greatness of Wal-Mart (WMT) was built.
This is something that I've seen before in a lot of businesses. Sometimes owners and leaders will stumble onto something that has such power to it, yet they have no idea what they've got. Many times the revenues they could get from it are less than half (or more) of what they could be doing.
That's the one thing about common sense that we sometimes have a hard time grasping: it's not that common. Simplicity is one of the most underrated gems that is out in the business world. Sometimes our complexity keeps us from seeing what's right in front of our noses.
Other Walton Sources:
The Most Underrated CEO Ever The legendary Sam Walton
Sam Walton: The Power of Persistence
Sam Walton Business Quotes for Ya
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