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I have a billion dollar idea: Start a grocery store. Seriously. When you have enough money start another. Keep going until you have thousands. It can't fail. A

by mixmax 17y ago

I have a billion dollar idea: Start a grocery store. Seriously. When you have enough money start another. Keep going until you have thousands. It can't fail. Another billion dollar idea: Start selling well designed Scandinavian furniture really cheap. Build a few megastores around the world, and make sure to squeeze your suppliers to keep prices down. These two amazing ideas made Sam Walton and Ingvar Kamprad billionaires. Execution you say? Nah, these ideas are so obviously amazing that they've probably spent most of their time in business fending off blonde playmates while drinking martinis at the beach.

kevinholesh 17y ago
Ideas are nothing without actually making it happen, even the really great ones. If it were as easy as just coming up with the idea, everyone would do it.
RyanMcGreal 17y ago
> Start a grocery store. Seriously. WalMart's big innovation was to apply sophisticated, dynamic just-in-time production methods to its product distribution system, cutting out both inventory costs and out-of-stock sales losses. The efficiencies from JIT logistics allowed the company to grow big enough that it could dictate prices to suppliers, driving competitors out of business and further locking in its monopoly in discount retail.
- tptacek 17y ago
  Walmart has been a huge company since, I don't know, I did a report on their stock in grammar school in the '80s. Is it really the case that sophisticated/JIT/dynamic/etc has always been their key differentiator? Not arguing, just asking.
  - grinich 17y ago
    No, but it's been key in keeping them at the top.
  - RyanMcGreal 17y ago
    > As the chain began to take off, [Sam] Walton made major adjustments to manage the growth - again always seeming to see ahead. As early as 1966, when he had 20 stores, he attended an IBM school in upstate New York. His goal: to hire the smartest guy in the class to come down to Bentonville, Ark., and computerize his operations. He realized that he could not grow at the pace he desired without computerizing merchandise controls. http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/walton2.html http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/walton2.htm...
    - tptacek 17y ago
      Neat! Here's a question. When Wal-mart started "computerizing", the technology was in its infancy. The modern Walmart supply chain/fulfillment operation is ultra complex, and every advance has to be retrofitted onto their existing systems. If you were Sam Walton today, starting afresh, do you think the technology required to reach Walmart levels of efficiency would be nearly as complex as what they have now? You get to design your whole operation around the software, instead of the other way around, right?
      - RyanMcGreal 17y ago
        It's an intriguing question, encompassing complex issues around the linearity of application development, the constraints of path dependency, and so on. Frankly I don't know enough about the internal workings of WalMart's operations to answer helpfully. The question is: would they really start from scratch or would they try to shoehorn their processes into some existing application that kinda, sorta does what they need and then hack-and-patch the rest of the way?
        tptacek 17y ago
        It's more like, if you were starting a retail business of any sort, are there tech decisions you could make very early on to drastically reduce the eventual cost of operating a nationwide chain?
        17y ago
  - dstorrs 17y ago
    In addition to the JITing and the computerization mentioned elsewhere, WalMart had a very specific strategy of geographic domination: they defined their service areas, and then ensured that no one in that area ever had to drive more than 20 miles (later 10, etc) to get to a WalMart. The wave of WalMarts started in the east and spread steadily west as the company expanded.
    - tptacek 17y ago
      According to _Good to Great_, that was also Walgreens' genius as well; packing stores within short distance of each other also simplies logistics.
- teej 17y ago
  That was the point of mixmax's tounge-in-cheek message. Execution matters, ideas don't.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - RyanMcGreal 17y ago
    You don't think JIT logistics is an idea? Execution matters, ideas also.
- nradov 17y ago
  They can dictate more than prices to suppliers: they can also dictate financing terms. This allows them to collect from customers before paying supplies. So in some cases they literally can lose money on every sale and still make it up in volume, by investing suppliers' capital for their own purposes.

by mixmax 17y ago

kevinholesh 17y ago

Ideas are nothing without actually making it happen, even the really great ones. If it were as easy as just coming up with the idea, everyone would do it.

RyanMcGreal 17y ago

> Start a grocery store. Seriously. WalMart's big innovation was to apply sophisticated, dynamic just-in-time production methods to its product distribution system, cutting out both inventory costs and out-of-stock sales losses. The efficiencies from JIT logistics allowed the company to grow big enough that it could dictate prices to suppliers, driving competitors out of business and further locking in its monopoly in discount retail.

tptacek 17y ago
Walmart has been a huge company since, I don't know, I did a report on their stock in grammar school in the '80s. Is it really the case that sophisticated/JIT/dynamic/etc has always been their key differentiator? Not arguing, just asking.
- grinich 17y ago
  No, but it's been key in keeping them at the top.
- RyanMcGreal 17y ago
  > As the chain began to take off, [Sam] Walton made major adjustments to manage the growth - again always seeming to see ahead. As early as 1966, when he had 20 stores, he attended an IBM school in upstate New York. His goal: to hire the smartest guy in the class to come down to Bentonville, Ark., and computerize his operations. He realized that he could not grow at the pace he desired without computerizing merchandise controls. http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/walton2.html http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/walton2.htm...
  - tptacek 17y ago
    Neat! Here's a question. When Wal-mart started "computerizing", the technology was in its infancy. The modern Walmart supply chain/fulfillment operation is ultra complex, and every advance has to be retrofitted onto their existing systems. If you were Sam Walton today, starting afresh, do you think the technology required to reach Walmart levels of efficiency would be nearly as complex as what they have now? You get to design your whole operation around the software, instead of the other way around, right?
    - RyanMcGreal 17y ago
      It's an intriguing question, encompassing complex issues around the linearity of application development, the constraints of path dependency, and so on. Frankly I don't know enough about the internal workings of WalMart's operations to answer helpfully. The question is: would they really start from scratch or would they try to shoehorn their processes into some existing application that kinda, sorta does what they need and then hack-and-patch the rest of the way?
      - tptacek 17y ago
        It's more like, if you were starting a retail business of any sort, are there tech decisions you could make very early on to drastically reduce the eventual cost of operating a nationwide chain?
        17y ago
- dstorrs 17y ago
  In addition to the JITing and the computerization mentioned elsewhere, WalMart had a very specific strategy of geographic domination: they defined their service areas, and then ensured that no one in that area ever had to drive more than 20 miles (later 10, etc) to get to a WalMart. The wave of WalMarts started in the east and spread steadily west as the company expanded.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    According to _Good to Great_, that was also Walgreens' genius as well; packing stores within short distance of each other also simplies logistics.
teej 17y ago
That was the point of mixmax's tounge-in-cheek message. Execution matters, ideas don't.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- RyanMcGreal 17y ago
  You don't think JIT logistics is an idea? Execution matters, ideas also.
nradov 17y ago
They can dictate more than prices to suppliers: they can also dictate financing terms. This allows them to collect from customers before paying supplies. So in some cases they literally can lose money on every sale and still make it up in volume, by investing suppliers' capital for their own purposes.