Marquard’s fascinating new book Walsmart…is completely neutral.

What he does is answer the questions that soooooo many businesses large and small have reluctantly had to ask themselves: “Now that we’re immersed in the Wal-Mart world, what are we going to do about it?” Suppliers, employers, competitors, community members, there are very few people not completely immersed in the Wal-Mart economy. It’s the same as going through Shaq to get the NBA title. Like I said, Shaq has physical ability never before seen. The referees didn’t know what to do. Other teams didn’t know what to do, and the fans didn’t know what to think. Ultimately, the refs focused on consistency, and the teams implored whatever new and creative strategies they could generate to get past the big man.

William Marquard tries to do what so many NBA coaches have failed to do: survive in a league so dominated by one player. He offers strict research, success and failure stories, and very specific strategies and choices every company must pay attention to if it wants to “win in the shadow of any giant of industry…or to become a giant yourself.”

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Marquard…knows his subject intimately and describes the controversial retail goliath with admirable neutrality, bringing together the conclusions of various research studies on relevant topics-wage and expansion policies, for instance-rather than praising or condemning Wal-Mart’s polarizing business practices himself.

Publisher’s Weekly, January 8, 2007

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Wal-Smart is another Wal-Mart book but this is a little different. As he says,

“As a consulting partner at Ernst & Young, I designed Wal-Mart’s first-ever strategic planning process and ran it for three and a half years in the late 1990s.”

The book has all the usual amazing stats about how we all are part of the Wal-Mart world, whether we shop there or not. What sets Wal-Smart apart from other books on the topic is

“Wal-Smart is not a book about Wal-Mart. It is a book about what it really takes to profit in a Wal-Mart world: how to examine our options, how to choose the right ones, and how to win a second chance to succeed. Of course, Wal-Mart world has changed the traditional rules of the economic game. But the potential remains for all of us to raise our economic life while Wal-Mart continues to flex its economic muscle.”

By Jack Covert, 800CEORead

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In the new economy of such corporate Goliaths as Wal-Mart, specific business strategies are needed for corporate survival. The author, who developed Wal-Mart’s first-ever strategic planning process, begins with a behind-the-scenes view of what made the company successful. From there he focuses on the choices that businesses of all types must explore if they wish to compete in a global economy.Issues of responsible stewardship, of aligning business and community strategies, conclude the book.

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Chris Fisher
Partner - Ducker Worldwide

Spencer A. Tillman
Author, Scoring in the Red Zone
CBS Sports Analyst & Businessman

Corey A. Griffin
Chief Executive Officer
The Boston Company Asset Management, LLC

James B. Adamson
Former Chairman/CEO - Kmart

Hank Meijer
Co-chairman - Meijer Inc.

Mark Hansen
Former President and CEO - Sams Club