Michael Bergdahl is a professional international business speaker, author and turnaround specialist.

Bergdahl worked in Bentonville, Arkansas for Wal-Mart, as the Director of "People" for the headquarters office, where he worked directly with Wal-Mart's founder Sam Walton. It was Sam Walton who gave Bergdahl the nickname, "Bird Dawg"!

Previous to Wal-Mart he worked in the FMCG Industry for PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Division in the sales organization and headquarters staff assignments. He's an experienced turnaround specialist who has participated in two successful business turnarounds at American Eagle Outfitters and Waste Management

Michael Bergdahl is considered an authority on Wal-Mart Competition. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, CNN FN, MSNBC, CNN International, Univision, CBS National Radio and Bloomberg TV.

He has participated in internationally televised news debates on "Power Lunch", "On the Money", "Morning Call", and "Closing Bell". Articles written by him, and articles written by others about him and his books, have appeared in business newspapers and magazines around the world.

He wrote his first book about "The Strategies of the World's Largest Company", entitled: What I Learned from Sam Walton: How to Compete and Thrive in a Wal-Mart World. His second book is written about "The Tactics of the World's Richest Man", entitled, The 10 Rules of Sam Walton: Success Secrets for Remarkable Results. Note: Rob Walton, the current Chairman of the Board of Wal-Mart and son of Sam Walton, wrote the Foreword for "The 10 Rules of Sam Walton" book. Both of these books were published and distributed internationally by John Wiley & Sons. Translated versions of his books are available in Russian, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Spanish.

Michael Bergdahl has spoken at association and business conferences in the USA and Internationally to Retailers, Non-Retailers, Manufacturers and Suppliers. He speaks to a wide variety of audiences including Sales, Customer Service, IT, Logistics, Franchisees, Financial Services, Marketing, Human Resources, Plant Managers, Engineers, DC Managers, Operations Managers, Retail Managers, Product Manufacturers / Suppliers / Buyers, Pharmacists, Bankers, Presidents, Entrepreneurs, College Students, CEO's, CIO's, CTO's, and CFO's. He has spoken at events for Wal-Mart's current suppliers, and its direct competitors, who are interested in improving their ability to compete successfully in a Wal-Mart World!

MOST REQUESTED TOPICS:
Sam Walton's Strategies for Business Success in Tough Economic Times©
Did you know that when he died, Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, was the world's richest man? Interestingly, when he started his business he faced adversity that almost led to failure. You see, he had an economic crisis when bankers refused to lend him money, and some of his product suppliers created a credit crisis for him when they forced him to agree to pay cash on delivery before they would ship products to his stores. It seemed everyone lacked confidence in his business strategy at a time when he needed to count on their support the most.

For Sam Walton to succeed, in those early and difficult days, took a singularity of focus, passionate leadership, and a never say die attitude! He had to overcome his own fear of failure and refocus himself on what to do to succeed. In the end he overcame all of those early obstacles, his own fears, and the cynicism of all of those early naysayers, who incorrectly predicted his demise. Sam Walton had the last laugh as he grew his business from a single store to become the world's largest company. Along the way he also became the world's richest man!

Wouldn't it be great to learn Sam Walton's success strategies? Now you can! In this speech, Michael Bergdahl will review not only the strategies, but the tactics followed by Sam Walton to overcome what appeared to be an insurmountable cash and credit crisis, that threatened the viability of his business. Audience members will learn his 7 core strategies and the 10 self-professed leadership rules he followed to grow his business.

Picking Wal-Mart's "POCKETS"©
"Strategies of the World's Largest Company"
Based on his first book, What I learned from Sam Walton: How to Compete & Thrive in a Wal-Mart World, this speech reveals "The Wal-Mart Way" through a discussion of the 7 key strategies of Wal-Mart. Using storytelling, humor, inspiration and his real world experience working with Sam Walton as examples, Bergdahl unveils those seven strategies. He uses the acronym, "P.O.C.K.E.T.S.", which stands for Price, Operations, Culture, Key Item Promotion, Expenses, Talent and Service. Bergdahl believes, "Finding your unique niche in the marketplace or "POCKETS" is the key to success no matter what market or business you are competing in!"

In this speech he explains the key to each of Wal-Mart's seven strategies, and the Best Practices, that have made Wal-Mart the World's Largest Company. More importantly, Bergdahl will discuss specific strategies that audience members can take away from "The Wal-Mart Way" to make their businesses even more successful. Conference participants will learn techniques other companies have used successfully to compete, survive and thrive in a Wal-Mart World! He also reviews a checklist of success strategies and tactics audience members can implement in their businesses immediately upon return. Whether your conference participants love Wal-Mart, or hate Wal-Mart, if they are in business anywhere around the globe, they will benefit by "Picking Wal-Marts POCKETS!" Note: Bergdahl will tailor his remarks to support your brand and conference theme!

The 10 Rules of Sam Walton©
"Tactics of the World's Richest Man"
In Michael Bergdahl's book called, The 10 Rules of Sam Walton: Success Secrets for Remarkable Results, he unveils the tactics of the world's most successful entrepreneur.

In this speech, he discusses Sam Walton's 10 self-professed rules for success, which Walton embraced as he grew Wal-Mart from a single store to a 7000 store global enterprise. Did you know that when he died Sam Walton was the world's richest man? He was worth US$100 billion which at the time was almost double the wealth of Bill Gates! Conference participants really want to learn the success secrets followed by the world's wealthiest man and now they can!

Based on his second book, The 10 Rules of Sam Walton, Michael Bergdahl will discuss "The Sam Walton Way" through a discussion of the tactics behind Sam Walton's self-professed rules for entrepreneurial success. Sam Walton credited these 10 rules as the reason he became the World's Richest Man.

Your conference participants will gain actionable ideas, from the tactics followed by Sam Walton, which they can adapt, and utilize in their businesses and personal lives. In this speech, Bergdahl uses great stories only an insider can tell about Sam Walton's unique brand of leadership! Note: Bergdahl always tailors his speech to support your brand and conference theme!

Growing Your Business "The Sam Walton & Wal-Mart Way"©
"Wal-Mart is a Logistics, Distribution and IT driven company that also has Retail Stores."
When he died, Sam Walton was the wealthiest man in the world with an estate worth over US$100 billion dollars! How did he achieve such phenomenal success in just over 30 years? How does Wal-Mart focus its 2 million employees, 7100 stores and 120 massive distribution centers? What were Sam Walton's secrets for growing Wal-Mart to become the world's largest company?

Wal-Mart's successful growth is a result of specific strategies and tactics put in place long ago by the company founder, Sam Walton. Sam Walton had a vision, a specific game plan, and rules upon which he focused his team to grow his business. In this speech Bergdahl discusses the success strategies and tactics of "The Sam Walton and Wal-Mart Way."

Audience members will learn the success secrets of the world's most successful merchant, Sam Walton, and the best practices of the world's largest company, Wal-Mart. The focus of this program is to help audience members transfer the knowledge gained into action to grow their own businesses, through innovation, risk taking, and thinking outside the box "The Sam Walton & Wal-Mart Way."

AntidisestablishmentWalMartarianism©
"The battle for the heart's and mind's of Wal-Mart's two million employees."
"Antidisestablishmentwalmartarianism" is a term coined by Michael Bergdahl, a 26 year HR Professional, who defines it as, "the opposition by Wal-Mart's leaders to the unionization of its non-union workforce anywhere in the world!"

As the "Director of People" at Wal-Mart, Bergdahl had the chance to work directly with the founder of Wal-Mart, Sam Walton, from whom he learned firsthand the behind the scenes story of the famous Wal-Mart culture."

In this speech Bergdahl describes the ongoing battle between union organizers and Wal-Mart's leaders, and why after decades of effort not one of the more than 4000 USA Wal-Mart stores has a collective bargaining agreement. This is a remarkable accomplishment given the fact that the company has been under a corporate union campaign for decades. Bergdahl believes Wal-Mart has no choice but to battle unionization, because remaining union-free is not only the key to the company's continued profitability, it may also be the key to its long term survival!

Why are the unions so interested in organizing Wal-Mart's employees? Why are Wal-Mart's leaders such adamant antidistablishmentwalmartarians? In this speech he answers these questions as he reviews, "The Wal-Mart Way," and its employee relations practices that have contributed to maintaining its non-union status.

Audience members will learn some of the inside leadership secrets of "The Sam Walton Way" which are utilized to this day by company leaders. Bergdahl reviews Wal-Mart's "best people practices" that have contributed to Wal-Mart becoming the world's largest company, and which have helped keep its stores union-free!

Change/Challenge/Choice©
Because yesterday's success is no guarantee of success tomorrow, your team has to adapt & change now or risk failure in the future!"
Competition with manufacturers from countries like China is brutal. The manufacturing world as you've known it has changed and you and your team must be willing to Change also, if you intend to survive. The Challenge for manufacturers of products is what to do to re-level the playing field. In order to succeed you and your team must make the Choice do what's necessary to reinvent your business, and the way people think, to remain successful.

The fact is that competition is more difficult than ever before. Those who are used to simply picking up the fruit of their labors right off the ground or from the branches within closest reach are finding that success today requires that people stretch and even climb up into the branches to gather the highest hanging fruit to succeed. Unfortunately, Change is always hard for people, which adds to the Challenge faced by organizations forced to make the Choice to reinvent their business in order to compete, survive and thrive in this complex and competitive world. In this speech, Change/Challenge/Choice, Bergdahl will discuss the following strategies:

CHANGE

• Get Efficient - you're going to need to produce more with less people.
• Benchmark Best Practices - seek out the ideas used by other manufacturers
• Innovate - grow revenue by getting creative with products, services and service enhancements, technology, strategy and tactics. Brainstorm new ideas - new markets, services, bundling products, delivery, in-sourcing.

CHALLENGE

• Continuously Improve - empower people to improve every area of your operation
• Increase Productivity - improve "internal and external" customer service
• Control Expenses - teach everyone in your organization to manage costs

CHOICE

• Continuously Learn - learn from and imitate the success of others
• Leverage People - tap into the creativity of your own people and change the way they think, focus everyone on your brand and a common agenda - "Your people make the difference."
• Focus on your Competencies - play to your strengths and shore up your weaknesses
• Customer Partnerships - become the supplier of choice, by asking your customers what kind of products and services they need, when they need them and what you can do to partner with them.