Sam Walton: Made In America, My StoryI picked this up on Amazon a few weeks back for about 99p.
Initially I was somewhat concerned by how good the quality of writing was going to be given that he'd spent his life building Wal-Mart not producing literature, but if anything the book turned out to be a total page-turner (nothing fancy, just an honest and wide-ranging account of his life and business experiences).
Some of the things that really stood out were his almost incomparable work ethic as well as his drive to be
the low-cost provider of as broad a product offering as possible. I think it really gives some interesting insights into his character and for all his professional ambition he seriously came off as being nothing more than just a genuine, family guy who enjoyed his hunting and tennis and happened to be real proud of what he and his team had eventually been able to accomplish for their customers.
On top of that, his humility was clear as were his focus on fun and his tendency to sometimes be extremely bull-headed (mostly for the better, occasionally not).
Also gives some interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the bigger developments throughout his time in the industry relating to procurement, distribution, tech implementation, etc and how those things were managed and utilitized at Wal-Mart (which, for the few who aren't aware, was usually the standard-setter at the time).
Book was name-checked by Buffett at some point I think. Dirt cheap & highly recommended.
