Sam Walton was a genius tycoon and was the founder of Wal-Mart. His visionary retail skills transformed a small-town Alabama variety store into the largest retail company in the world. Even after his death 20 years ago, his influence is still witnessed in the retail industry today. Be an Innovator Sam Walton's main philosophy was to keep costs low by keeping prices low. It's a simple premise but is very problematic in practical use. This brings me to the first lesson I learned from Sam Walton, innovation. Mr. Walton didn't create the retail commercial, he modernized and changed the business model to suit his quixoticness. “Walton also looked outside of his company when it came to developing technologies, and as a result, Wal-Mart became one of the first retailers to connect its stores in a network to its headquarters, achieving even greater efficiencies” ( Springer, 2010, 154). Walton knew nothing about retailing at first, but he could generate theories from other retailers. "Walton, in a taped interview, admitted that he knew so little about retail at the time that he "started doing strange things" that weren't part of Ben Franklin's agenda, including selling ice cream and popcorn outside stores. stores – “anything I could hawk” (Springer, 2010). His groundbreaking achievement was to pioneer the now famous everyday low price strategy that focuses on efficiency with improved profit margins. innovation comes the will to bet on different ideas.Since Wal-Mart is a merchandising company, it has been able to reduce operating costs and control direct labor American workers require high labor costs, which can cause costs to skyrocket operational general... middle of paper... get the upper hand on competitors. These strategies have helped Wal-Mart become the largest retailer in the world ”Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world and the second largest company after Exxon Mobil. With annual sales of $351 billion, approximately 6,000 retail outlets, branches in Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Great Britain and Japan” (Brown, 2008, 38). Today, Sam has built an empire that no other store can compete with, and other retailers seek to adopt his strategies. Works CitedBrown, S. (2008). Fail better. The Market, 14(11), 36-40.Garrison, R., Noreen, E., Brewer, P. (2010). Management Accounting, 13th Edition Jay, E. (2008). The fascinating accounting of Wal-Mart. Retrieved from http://eric.wasaba.com/blog/2008/02/wal-marts-fascinating-accounting.htmlSpringer, J. (2010). Sam Walton. Supermarket news, 58(49), 222.