“There’s no human in history who has visited more retail stores than me.”
- Sam Walton, Founder, Walmart
One of the most relevant principles to retailing is knowing your competitors, and from the life decisions Sam Walton made, you could tell he lived by that rule, and the results speak for themselves. Today, Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, with over $648 billion in annual revenue. If you had invested $10,000 when the company first offered its stock in 1970, your stake would be worth about $200 million today.
The one thing we could say Walton prioritized over and over again in his lifetime was learning from his competitors. And though there is so much to learn, we’ll be sharing major lessons that resonate with the unique challenges of being a product manager today.
Staying Curious Is Your Competitive Edge
One of the most remarkable things about Walton was that despite his fame, power, and networth, he never relented and was forward-thinking in his pursuits. In his memoir, “Made in America: My Story”, he recounted countless moments where curiosity shaped his business decisions positively.
On family road trips, he would make his wife and kids wait in the car just so he could explore retail stores along the way. One time, he noticed a streamlined checkout system at a store where they had just two cashiers up front instead of several scattered at different points. This little observation sparked an idea; he tried it at his shop, and discovered it reduced costs, and passed those savings on to customers by giving lower prices.
Walton’s curiosity to see what worked well for other retailers, regardless of their size, was one of his superpowers. It eventually turned out to be how he stayed competitive despite the pool of similar businesses he had to compete with. He built his empire by relentlessly observing, borrowing, and adapting ideas from store to store.
The lesson for product managers here is clear. Curiosity drives insight, and there is a lesson to learn from everyone and everywhere. The more you explore with an open mind, the more opportunities you might come across in building products that truly stand out. This point is also relevant to the fact that the smallest changes you make as a product manager can impact your customers’ experiences significantly. It’s your responsibility to keep your curiosity alive, get out there, and start asking the right questions.
Humility Keeps You Grounded
Despite his success, Walton never acted like the smartest person in the room. He openly admitted that someone out there always had better ideas, and he made it a habit to listen.
If you read his autobiography, you’d find several insights into his personal life and business philosophy, many of which highlight the value of humility. On page 7 of this book, he wrote. “We don’t need to buy a yacht. And thank goodness we never thought we had to go out and buy anything like an island. We just don’t have those kinds of needs or ambitions which wreck a lot of companies when they get along in years.” He went ahead to talk about how some families sell off their stock a little at a time to live high, and then something goes wrong, and they lose ownership of the business.
Now, it’s not to say that you shouldn’t live a little; what’s worth noting is that Walton’s example shows that humility helps you stay focused on building sustainable systems, rather than living in the fleeting highs. Great product managers are humble to a fault. There is a constant need to admit that your opinion is just one of many valuable and valid opinions. The customer’s experiences also come first, so sometimes all you have to do is listen.
Walking The Aisle in The Digital Age
Walking the aisle in the digital age is a metaphor coined from another of Walton’s old habits. In his time, he literally walked store aisles, studying how products were arranged, promotions displayed, how checkouts worked, and customers' interactions with several businesses. One time, he noticed a competitor, Sterlin Stores, using all-metal fixtures. While most retailers might have dismissed this, he didn’t. This idea was the foundation of his decision to swap all his wooden shelves at his store in Fayetteville for metal ones. This store eventually became the first variety store in the U.S using 100% metal standards. What was the advantage of this? They were cheaper, durable, and lower in price point.
This occurrence is a perfect analogy for what product managers should be aiming for today. In the likelihood of Walton walking every aisle. PMs should be more invested in constantly researching, seeing what worked, borrowing ideas, and testing different adaptations. While there are no physical stores to visit in this case, the mindset is the same because the industry requires them to study competitor apps, digest feedback threads, and constantly find new clues to evolve in their career.
Working by The Timeless Relevance of Walton’s Principles
Despite how many years have passed, a lot of Walton’s ideologies still live on. You might think there isn’t much practicality to explore in a system that was built as late as the 1970s, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Walton’s autobiography is still one of the most recommended books by Warren Buffett today, and it goes to say that his philosophy and approaches are still very much relevant despite how much time has passed. Product Managers, in particular, can learn so much from him because his ideologies closely mirror the same traits that separate the good PMs from the great ones.