Leadership Assignment Essay

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of a Baptist minister. He grew up in his father’s footsteps and got his bachelor of divinity in 1951 and his doctorate in 1955. Early in December, 1955, he became the leader of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States. In 1957, he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. On August 28, 1963, he delivered â€Å"I have a dream†, his famous speech, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination, to 250,000 people. Martin was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure. At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr. , was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. The poverty he experienced while growing up taught him the value of money and to persevere. Walton always wanted to be in retail from his youth and he had a deep passion for it. When he returned from World War II, he started off with a Ben Franklin franchise. His strategy of buying in bulk and discounting proved to be a hit with the customers and it was then that he saw a future in discounting. Over time, he opened up several more Ben Franklin stores with his father and brother assistance. In 1962, he had the idea of opening igger stores, sticking to rural areas, keeping costs low and discounting heavily. He decided to set up his own Wal-mart store; the first one in Arkansas. With his Wal-mart, he began to use the discounting strategy that he had begun to adopt in the Ben Franklin stores. It proved to be wildly successful and he saw that discounting was the future of retail. Today, Wal-Mart is the world’s no. 1 retailer, with more than 4,150 stores, including discount stores, combination discount and grocery stores, and membership-only warehouse stores (Sam’s Club). He modestly blended in with the whole team, erased the gap between executive and employees, and dared to make his own path of success. If it was not for these great characteristics and tactics, there wouldn’t be a Sam Walton who has the ability to change the philosophy of the American retail business establishment. : Martin Luther King Jr and Sam Walton are both respectful and brilliant leaders who drove the world and changed it into a better place. To be an effective leader requires lots of efforts, wonderful characteristics, extremely clever minds, flawless sets of tactics and skills, and so on. As for Martin and Sam, one put an end to discrimination and dedicated to the success of civil rights of a generation, one fulfilled the American dream and paved the way for a new breed of â€Å"category killer† retailers; they demonstrated the model of great leaders and taught us priceless leadership lessons. They deserve to be honored and respected by mankind of all time.