Stories and Strategies from Real Life: 8/8/14

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Some of the best learning happens when you read stories about real people and real companies. Read them for ideas, for lessons, and inspiration. This week’s stories and strategies from real life are about Powr of You, Whole Foods, Black Sheep Skate Shop, Wal-Mart, and Sprint.

From Steve Coomber: Data perfection

“Powr of You is a siblings-run start-up designed to help individuals and businesses get more out of their online data.”

From the Economist: Whole Foods Market: Victim of success

“A peddler of pricey organic and natural foods finds it has competition”

From Michael J. Solender: Charlotte’s Black Sheep Skate Shop keeps loyal following on board

“Walking into Black Sheep, the South End independent retailer of skateboards, accessories and hard-to-find sneakers, it’s hard to tell the sales staff from the customers. The shop has more the appearance of a clubby meeting place and hangout for the skateboard crowd than any notion of a traditional retailer.”

From Teresa Novellino: Wal-Mart strikes back against Amazon online, but is real enemy within?

“Wal-Mart is adding features that would personalize the shopping process and make it easier to go from browse to buy just like Amazon. Why? Because Americans just aren’t shopping at the world’s largest retailer as much as they used to.”

From Ryan Knutson and Thomas Gryta: Sprint Goes Off Beaten Track for New CEO Marcelo Claure

“Marcelo Claure is a 6-foot-6-inch Bolivian billionaire who built a global mobile-phone distributor from scratch and had singer Jennifer Lopez perform at his 40th birthday party. Now, he is relocating to the Midwestern suburbs to turn around a 38,000 person company that has spent the better part of a decade losing customers and money.”

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