Early in Wal-Mart's history, Sam Walton implemented a process requiring
store managers to fill out "Best Yesterday" ledgers' These relatively straightforward
forms tracked daily sales performance against the numbers from one
year prior. Recalled walton, "we were really trying to become the very best
operators.-the most professional managers-that we could. . . . I have always
had the soul of an operator, someone who wants to make things work well,
then better, then the best they possibly can.