How to fix Wal-Mart?

I'm taking MBA classes at the Sam Walton Business School with lots of Wal-Mart people, so this piece intrigued me. The basic argument appears to be that Wal-Mart succeeded via three things, probably in this priority order--a relentless focus on the customer, the robust development of a corporate culture, and a determined drive to reduce cost. The problem, those interviewed contend, is that the order has been reversed with cost reduction increasingly trumping everything else. Furthermore, the central office is listening too much to what the "models" predict and not enough to what their store managers are saying works at their particular stores.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2007/db20070820_358861.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_best+of+bw