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, 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, articles written by others about him and his books, have appeared in business newspapers and magazines around the world. He maintains a Wal-Mart Competition News Blog and 365 Daily Business Inspirational Quotes.

Michael Bergdahl is a Professional International Business Speaker with substance, who is one part business, one part inspiration and one part storyteller. He presents keynote speeches, half day programs and full-day "Master Classes." In his speech, "Growing Your Business the Sam Walton and Wal-Mart Way" (a.k.a. Picking Wal-Mart's POCKETS), he unveils the best practices of Wal-Mart and the success secrets of Sam Walton. Your conference attendees will learn "The Tactics of The World's Richest Man, Sam Walton" and "The Strategies of Wal-Mart, The World's Largest Company." He customizes his speeches or workshops to fit your conference theme and designs his speeches to provide tools audience members can use.

• 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. It seemed everyone lacked confidence in his business strategy at a time when he needed to count on their support the most. For Sam to succeed 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.
  
  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 Michael's first book, What I learned from Sam Walton, 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 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!"
  
  
• The 10 Rules of Sam Walton©: Tactics of the World's Richest Man - In this speech, Michael Bergdahl discusses Sam Walton's 10 self-professed rules for success, which Walton embraced as he grew Wal-Mart from a single store to a 7,000+ store global enterprise. Did you know that when he died Sam Walton was worth US$100 billion, which at the time was almost double the wealth of Bill Gates! 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. Bergdahl uses great stories only an insider can tell about Sam Walton's unique brand of leadership!
  
  
• Growing Your Business The Sam Walton & Wal-Mart Way© - How did Sam Walton achieve such phenomenal success in just over 30 years? How does Wal-Mart focus its 2 million employees, 7,100 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 had a vision, a specific game plan and rules upon which he focused his team to grow his business. Audience members will learn the success secrets of the world's most successful merchant and the best practices of the world's largest company. 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.
  
  
• AntidisestablishmentWalMartarianism© - "Antidisestablishmentwalmartarianism" is a term coined by Michael Bergdahl who defines it as, "the opposition by Wal-Mart's leaders to the unionization of its non-union workforce anywhere in the world!" 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 4,000 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!
  
  
• Change/Challenge/Choice© - 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 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 to 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 Change/Challenge/Choice strategies.