"The bigger Wal-Mart gets, the more essential it is that we think small."
An important part of growing our businesses or departments is the discipline to think small, no matter how big we get.
It is the continual focus on and taking care of details that makes all the difference in the world between average companies and great companies. Success is in the details, and that requires us to think small.
The bigger vision we have, the smaller we should think - the more detailed we should focus. What happens with many businesses when they grow big is they start to focus on "macro" issues; things that they think are important because they seem to be a big part of the business.
In reality, it's the constant focus on details and the small things that bring a business to being big. Once a business reaches a certain scale, the temptation comes to us to start looking at the wrong things, again, simply because they're big.
How many times do we hear business leaders and CEOs say they've dropped the ball on something? Where the ball is always dropped is in the details of customer service and quality of products or services. Business leaders start to forget what brought them to where they are because they get drunk on the current success.
This is why success can be one of the greatest hindrances to future success. Success can easily lure us away from what got us there, to try to impress people with big things; things that are interacted with for the purpose of showing off or bragging about.
At the end of the day, it's those that can continue to think small, no matter how successful they become, that will be the winners or the long term. Walton was definitely a long-term winner.
Other Sam Walton Sources:
Sam Walton: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Business
Sam Walton - Retail Success Story
Sam Walton: King Of The Discounters
Sam Walton: Great From the Start
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