[tps_title]6. Sam Walton[/tps_title]
Sam Walton was the mastermind behind Wal-Mart. After opening his first store in 1962, Walton vowed to remake the retail industry in the vision of his radical cost-cutting philosophy. By 1966, his fledgling chain was up to 20 stores and growing fast. The real secret to Wal-Mart’s phenomenal growth, as TIME Magazine notes, is that Walton “may have been the first true information-aged CEO.” TIME goes on to observe that Walton was the first to hire a computer whiz to overhaul the company’s logistics and inventory systems, leading to unprecedented efficiency that enabled Wal-Mart to out compete virtually every department store in existence.
