Walmart’s new logo was inspired by founder Sam Walton’s iconic trucker hat. Here are 3 rules from his blueprint for business.

Walmart founder Sam Walton died more than 30 years ago, but his influence is still felt at his Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer.  Though Walton retired as CEO of Walmart in 1988, the retailer’s success has ballooned in the years since. Walton was dubbed the United States’ richest man in 1985 by Forbes, and the Waltons still hold the title of the country’s wealthiest family with a net worth of $267 billion. Today, Walmart has a market cap of $736 billion.

Walton built his company on a business blueprint of 10 rules, which he outlined in Made in America. Here are three of those key principles. 

1. Motivate partners beyond money.  Many of Walton’s rules for business have to do with disrupting the status quo, including setting lofty goals and outside-the-box solutions for employees to meet. “Keep everybody guessing as to what your next trick is going to be. Don’t become too predictable.”  Walton exhibited his maverick attitude before even opening the door to his first Walmart store in 1962.  “First he learned all the rules,” Harvard Business School professor Richard S. Tedlow wrote in his 2001 book Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built. “Then he broke all the rules which did not make sense to him—which meant almost all of them.”
2. Exceed customer expectations.  Walton also adopted a customer-is-always-right attitude encouraging employee accountability.  “Give them what they want—and a little more,” he said. “Let them know you appreciate them. Make good on all your mistakes, and don’t make excuses—apologize. Stand behind everything you do.”  Walmart has appeared to continue to successfully abide by this piece of advice. Over the past year, the retailer has not only succeeded in retaining low-income customers looking for deals, but has also attracted relatively high-income consumers earning more than $100,000 annually because of its delivery options and better-for-you-branded private-label foods.  “The two most important words I ever wrote were on that first Wal-Mart sign: ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed,’” Walton said. “They’re still up there, and they have made all the difference.”
3. Swim upstream.  Walton’s unconventional means of motivating employees extended to his business decisions. If competition was going to zig, Walton would zag.   “Sam Walton did not become a billionaire because he was a genius (although he was without question smart, shrewd, and astute),” Tedlow wrote in his book. “The real explanation for his success was that he had the courage of his convictions.”  Walmart has maintained an edge over Amazon for this reason. The discount retailer, in addition to maintaining brick-and-mortar stores, has continued to expand e-commerce and delivery offerings, optimizing its omnichannel retail strategy. A 2024 working paper estimated that retailers’ pushes toward omnichannel could claim $100 billion worth of market share from Amazon.  “Ignore the conventional wisdom,” Walton said. “If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction.”