06/07/2025
This is how you grow your business
__Put technology at the heart of what we call …
Walmart is the largest business in the world [outside China] when we use the of employees and revenue as a measure. It employs 2,1 million people and generates $681 billion in annual revenue.
About 270 million customers and members visit Walmart’s 10,750+ stores weekly, in 19 countries, as well as their eCommerce websites. It also deploys thousands of commercial robots to do things like clean floors, scan shelves, unload boxes and they even have a few autonomous electric forklifts!
Now the first time I studied this organisation was in the 1990s when I first read the memoir of its co-founder, Sam Walton, entitled “Made in America”. [He founded Walmart together with his younger brother, Bud].
Amongst the things that fascinated me was how even then he used TECHNOLOGY to help him to a business that he began first selling general merchandise he got directly from manufacturers, at better prices! [Discount pricing, his "niche."] I also discovered, for instance, that he built a private internal satellite communications network likely much more sophisticated than telephone networks of many countries!
How does information flow in an organisation to ensure efficient decision-making? How big should a business be before you think about such things? What if my business crosses many territories and jurisdictions? How do we manage information?
Whenever I met the executives of big companies, particularly large multinationals, I would pump them for information to understand how they were managed, writing copious notes.
The things I learnt I either put into practice [in my own small way] or I filed for the future, knowing that one day I would need them. For today’s generation of entrepreneurs, it is even more critical to always be aware of the power of using technology to a business, and make it more productive.
One key insight from studying companies like Walmart is that technology should human capabilities and competitive advantages for your company through information flows, decision-making, and customer experiences, among many things.
As an exercise today, instead of simply commenting on what I have written, I would like you to list 5 technologies that you are using in your business today, or hope to use, if you don’t yet have a business.
I will not accept “my mobile phone” as a serious answer! You can list apps, software, and/or Ai tools that you use, and most importantly, and you use them [without sharing any confidential data!]
If you feel stuck on this homework, why not use your own AI assistant to help out. That’s what it’s there for, though I’d like YOU to think about it BEFORE you ask.
It’s quite amazing what it can do. For instance, do you have a workflow challenge you think technology might be able to help you with? Or actually no idea even how to tackle that question…?
That’s okay. Why not ask your AI assistant? You may not agree with the answer you get, but it still might open your mind to new ideas, and be fun to experiment, too.
Let's talk.
Image credit: KWB-Ubuntu Hope via AI. [What spark of a business idea is this young entrepreneur ? You tell me!]
