Stock Up ...on the insider intelligence that will empower your businesses to profit in the new commerce culture In providing a new level of convenience, low price, and efficiency, Wal-Mart has substantially changed the rules of our global economy, the customer expectations for every business--and the ways your organization must deliver to keep up. William Marquard designed Wal-Mart's first-ever strategic planning process and ran it for three and a half years--then spent the next seven years competing against that strategy as a Fortune 200 executive and as an advisor to other firms. Marquard's insights from both inside and outside Wal-Mart enable leaders of all organizations--public and private, manufacturing and service, local and international, large and small--to respond to the challenges posed by dominant industry players like Wal-Mart. Wal-Smart is not just a book about Wal-Mart. Wal-Smart starts by exploring the elements of Wal-Mart's success that few people see: its productivity loop, its powerful process disciplines, and its hidden management "DNA." It then crafts compelling strategies that any company in any industry can use to survive and thrive in this brave new Wal-Mart world.

Author Biography

William H. Marquard has spent 25 years as a consultant, Fortune 200 executive, and industry observer. As a partner at Ernst & Young, he established and ran Wal-Mart's first-ever strategic planning process. During his tenure, Wal-Mart's stock rose by over 600 percent to its all-time peak in December 1999. He has served as the EVP of a Fortune 200 consumer goods wholesaler, and as an adjunct professor of finance at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Today, he is the president and managing director of Marble Leadership Partners, Inc., a strategy and transformation consultancy. He has advised major organizations in 25 industries, including Wal-Mart, Walt Disney World, McDonald's, Meijer, CompUSA, and the Department of Homeland Security. For more information visit www.wal-smart.com.