THE WAL-MART DECADE By Robert Slater Portfolio Pages: 242; special price $20.95

IT is difficult to put together a book on a company which is the world's largest revenue grosser, but is publicity-shy. A company which started in a small town in the US that till recently was not on the air map, a company that was overseen by a patriarch who followed a homespun, down-to-earth management style and where all the employees started the day shouting out their company name and shaking their behinds at the squiggle in the name. Yes, we're talking about Wal-Mart, that most ubiquitous chain of discount stores.

Sam Walton, when he died in 1992, left behind a chain of 1,700 stores whose sales turnover touched $43.8 billion. Walton had built it from scratch, starting from a small base in Bentonville, Arkansas. It was a case of small town America teaching the country how to shop, and Walton had perfected his formula for success by combining common sense and an experience base developed by working in small towns (primarily because he promised his wife that he would not make her stay in a town with a population of over 10,000!) with a home-grown approach to retailing (smile at the customer when he/she is within 10 feet and treat them well).

The story that Robert Slater tries to piece together is how Wal-Mart survived its charismatic leader, who built the DNA for the company. Slater looks at the values that Walton left behind and examines how the team that Walton positioned to take over after him - David Glass, Don Sonderquist, Lee Scott, Tom Coughlin and other Walton family members - performed in the decade after his death. These are the characters who played a role in taking the chain international - it was confined to the US in Walton's time - and making it the world's largest enterprise with sales of $219.8 billion in 2002.

It has all the makings of a great business story, but Slater fails to build on this plot. He fails to get under the skin of his Wal-Mart and skims through those aspects which, to a retailer like me, are critical to the Wal-Mart story. Two examples: Slater sees Wal-Mart as getting a bad press, something that dogs the chain even today. But how did this happen? And, more important, why did Wal-Mart continually shy away from talking to the world? Slater does not tell us. Another instance: he makes a bold hypothesis that Wal-Mart never went international or expanded because of Walton's reluctance to allow this because of his inbuilt low risk-taking ability. Unfortunately, instead of developing what would have been powerful insights into how this influenced the company and what it took Glass to change the Wal-Mart story, Slater gives us nothing to chew on. So, we end up reading a rather dry story, perhaps in part, because Slater was one of the few journalists given access to senior company personnel and is treading carefully.

To be fair though, the story has a certain interest. Here is a team that builds on the traditions of Wal-Mart, but shows unexpected courage in taking risks - pushing the chain into California, across the north to Canada and south into Mexico (both not successful initially) and across the pond to the UK and Germany and, finally, into the huge, mouth-watering market of China. And all this while increasing market share, building an efficient supply chain and distribution network and making the chain the biggest commercial enterprise in the world!

The book also chronicles the not-so-good publicity that Wal-Mart got: communities protesting its presence, media stories that made Wal-Mart look like an exploiter of cheap under-age labour in the developing world. And while it never quite tells us the underlying reasons for the bad press and never explains the reasons for Wal-Mart appearing quite ham-handed in its handling of the media (Glass once walked off a TV programme), it does weave together an engrossing story. It is the story of a small-town chain, which used a smart strategy (sticking to smaller markets, building a good distribution chain and, most important, giving the consumer value in terms of great prices) to go global. And that, perhaps, is Sam Walton's most enduring legacy: that the consumer is truly king.

Sanjay Badhe is director, operations, Shoppers' Stop

AN ENCOUNTER WITH HIGHER EDUCATION My Years at LSE By I.G. Patel Oxford University Press Pages: 200; price: Rs 495

The London School of Economics and Political Sciences, or LSE as it is known, has, over the years, become the Holy Grail for those with a yen to excel in economics. I.G. Patel, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, was director of LSE for six years (1984-90) and makes an effort to demystify its aura in this book.

But let us consider the man first. Patel boasts a resume that would cast into the shade even the most distinguished public servants. He has excelled in various assignments, be it at the United Nations Development Programme, the RBI or the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad.

He has worked under a string of finance ministers starting with C.D. Deshmukh in the 1950s until he joined LSE. He has a reputation for oratory and is said to have written speeches for several prime ministers. Redoubtable is the term one would use to describe the man of his talents.

One, therefore, expects a good set of memoirs, but, unfortunately, this book flatters to deceive. The author appears to be torn between writing a serious description of his time at LSE and spinning an anecdotal tale. The dilemma is obvious and the result is that LSE still seems out of bounds.

Starting out with the usual platitudes ("I never thought LSE would pick me"), the author takes the reader on an idyllic journey through LSE. When he took over the reins, the institution was struggling with finances. Patel goes into great depth about the financial austerity and what he did to overcome it. He took some harsh steps, including cutting the honourarium paid to retired faculty members and removing a moratorium on fees for foreign students. However, the author does not reveal the repercussions of his unpopular decisions. Surely, many feathers must have got ruffled? Patel does not let on.

A smaller part of the book is devoted to academic pursuits in the institution, where Patel waxes eloquent about his achievements. The most notable of these is the amiable relationship he developed with the prima donnas at the institute - and there were plenty of those by all accounts.
Patel's efforts in getting the reclusive philosopher Karl Popper to allow LSE to institute a chair in his name and Popper's subsequent displeasure make for fascinating reading. In fact, the correspondence with Popper, included in the appendix, is one of the highlights of the book.

There are others, too, such as the lone stark moment in the entire narrative when Patel reminisces about his meeting with Beijing University student protesters at Tianamen Square, just a day before the infamous massacre.This is almost lost in his account of academic pursuits.

The heart of the book though is the debate on higher education. This is where the Patel shows his mettle. He points out that a symbiotic relationship existed between institutes of higher education and the government, but maintains that this was only for financial considerations; students, unfortunately, were ignored.

Some of his debate speeches and articles have been reproduced in the book, and these provide some food for thought, in sharp contrast to the rest of the memoir which peters out in a rather sentimental farewell ode.

IF you are looking for a good laugh on a dull day, this is a great book. Mark Stevens' style is unintentionally hilarious, his arguments downright ridiculous at times. He believes that all marketing is equal to selling and, more importantly, to direct selling. Stevens is clearly one those consultants who live in a world full of their own theories, his being extreme marketing, a term that is repeated throughout the book.