I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions, but a year ago, 15 minutes before 2009, I resolved to friend–a Charlie Rose fan–at a party in D.C.: “I’m going to DVR Charlie Rose every night.”

Three weeks later, I found myself sitting next to the TV interviewer at a dinner in New York. I told Rose about my New Year’s resolution. “So, are you doing it?” he asked.

“Uh, no, I haven’t,” I answered, suddenly realizing that I’d been caught. After the dinner, I went home, set my DVR to “record this series,” and never looked back…except to watch Charlie Rose, recorded, and delete most of the shows as soon as he says “Welcome to the broadcast!” and reveals his guests.

Lesson learned: Instead of resolving to do more this year, I’m aiming to do less. To slow down.

Not to slack off at work, mind you. (Andy Serwer and Fortune colleagues, take note!) This mindset–to fight information overload and to focus–is quite prevalent right now. Among the holiday cards and packages I received at my office–many from people whom I’d never heard of–came my favorite, from Blake Mycoskie. He’s the founder of a little company called TOMS Shoes. For every pair of canvas shoes that TOMS sells–in Nordstrom (JWN) and Whole Foods (WFMI) and 24 countries around the world–the company gives one pair to a needy child.

Mycoskie (whom you may have seen in an AT&T (ATT) commercial that spotlights TOMS’ do-goodism) has a good message for 2010: He sent a framed photo of a rusted green sign that reads “Reduzca Velocidad” and a “Dear Friends” letter that explains the words, which mean “Slow Down.” After a year of hectic travel and corporate expansion, he says in the letter, this sign that he spotted on a dirt road in Patagonia, reminds him “to spend a few minutes every day smelling the roses, seeing the forest through the trees…” He has the photo on his desk. Now, so do I.

So far, I am slowing down. Fighting a cold, I canceled plans to go back to D.C. for a New Year’s Eve party. While I missed my relatives and friends  there, I caught up on rest, reading, and friends in New York. As for friends who say, “You can sleep when you’re dead”–I’m not as close as I used to be.

Over the holidays, I was riveted by the drama of Urban Meyer, the University of Florida football coach who said on a Saturday that he would resign–citing “self-destructive” work habits such as neglecting his family and emailing recruits in church. On Sunday, barely 24 hours later, Meyer retracted and said he would leave coaching temporarily, to deal with health issues and those other matters. Tim Tebow, the Florida quarterback whom Meyer called “my son” in a December Sports Illustrated story, told the New York Times: “He has to delegate more and put more responsibilities on other people.”

Can you relate?

Now, I’m back at work, and a Fortune colleague tells me that she’s gone on a “technology diet.” Meaning: She’s denying herself computer and BlackBerry access from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. each day. On sleepless nights, instead of watching The Office on Hulu at 4 a.m., she reads books (on her Kindle, which is allowed) and plays the piano on her Yamaha keyboard. This reformed behavior helps her digest her information overload, she says. “It’s the difference between snacking on information and sitting down to a meal.”

I’m not committing to a “technology diet.” But I am pledging to “Reduzca Velocidad.” Before I went to bed last night, I emailed Arianna Huffington (at whose home in Los Angeles I first met TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie) and asked her: How much sleep do you get on an average night?

“I can’t believe you are asking me this question!” Arianna emailed back, telling me that at midnight she and Cindi Leive, the editor in chief of Glamour, were launching “Sleep Challenge 2010.” You can read about it on the Huffington Post.

Arianna, who is deceptively well-rested given her globe-spanning productivity, resolves to up her sleep to eight hours nightly. I do too. And in the spirit of helping us all, one more resolution: Instead of writing on Postcards every day, I’m going to write only when I have something to say. That is, when the news or my Fortune reporting or random encounters with interesting people merits my sharing with you. Postcards is, at heart, about how prominent people in business and beyond succeed–or fail. Lots to say, but well worth choosing what really matters. Thank you for reading. Now, go do what really matters to you.

“I guess I’ve stolen–I actually prefer the word ‘borrowed’– as many ideas from Sol Price as from anybody else in the business.”

–Wal-Mart (WMT) founder Sam Walton about Sol Price, who started Fed-Mart and Price Club and launched a whole new style of U.S. retailing–club stores. Price, who sold Price Club to Costco (COST) in 1993, died this week at age 93.

Made in America, Sam Walton’s memoir, sits here on my shelf (Time Inc. editor in chief John Huey, my old boss, co-wrote the book)–and sure enough, Walton gives Price his due. Walton latched on to the name ‘Wal-Mart’ because, he wrote, “I really liked Sol’s Fed-Mart name.” After noticing a new class of cavernous, industrial-style outlets undercutting his own stores’ already low prices, Walton went to see Sol Price in San Diego. Sam and his wife, Helen, had dinner with Sol and his wife, Helen. “I admit it. I didn’t tell him at the time that I was going to copy his program, but that’s what I did.”

Walton returned home to Bentonville, Arkansas, went over to Oklahoma City, and rented an old building for about 90 cents a square foot–”or maybe even 75 cents,” he recalled. “We remodeled it and to manage it, put together a pickup crew of mavericks to manage it who were sort of under-appreciated at Wal-Mart. ” Walton opened his first warehouse-style Sam’s Club in 1983–and died nine years later. Even he would be stunned to see that Wal-Mart’s 602 Sam’s Clubs brought in $47 billion in revenues last year.

Photo courtesy of Carlyle Group

I interviewed Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach, who heads the private equity giant’s consumer and retail group, at the Women’s Alternative Investment Summit in New York last week. I shared a few highlights, and since the session drew terrific audience feedback, it’s worth giving you more of Horbach’s smart talk about managing through the recession, investing into the recovery, and navigating a career in private equity, where few women dare to tread.–Patricia Sellers

If you had to hand over your job to someone else tomorrow, what would you tell them?

Horbach: Be really good to your people. Develop a vision. Inspire confidence because at the end of the day, they must follow you. Listen well, and give them the resources and developmental tools they need. One of the things we do not do well in private equity is develop junior talent.

What’s the lesson of the last couple of years?

Horbach: Bubble bursts, for sure. There is too much of a good thing. There was too much leverage and not enough checks and balances.

Did you make investment decisions you shouldn’t have?

Horbach: We bought a company called Oriental Trading that had 30 years of predictable growth. It’s a direct marketer, and it had years of success and dividends and free cash flow. It looked like the most predictable business you could buy. But there was a dramatic shift in the industry. The U.S. Postal Service, which is essentially bankrupt because of the Internet, raised the price for catalogs 20% in one year. When you mail 350 million catalogs, that’s a very big nut to swallow. We had to take a lot of costs out of the business. We’re not going to have stellar returns. But in general, Carlyle stayed away from the mega-deals in the ‘07 time frame. Knock on wood, we have a very solid portfolio.

You bought Dunkin’ Brands for $2.5 billion in 2006 from a liquor company, Pernod Ricard (PDRDY), where it had been orphaned. How is Dunkin’s strategy now shifting?

Horbach: We went on an aggressive expansion plan. Since we bought the company, we’ve given the cash flows back to the business. We’ve doubled EBITDA.  We’ve added almost 2,500 new stores in the U.S. alone. For every Dunkin’ Donuts store we open, we create 25 jobs.

In a tough category–competing against McDonald’s (MCD) and Starbucks (SBUX).

Horbach: We hold our own. We’re No. 1 in coffee. We’re also investing internationally.  Most people would be surprised to know that Baskin-Robbins has 4000 stores outside the U.S. Dunkin’ Donuts has several thousands. We just opened our first 20 stores in China.

There’s a belief that the consumer is never going back to the level of spending of the past. So, how do you deal with that?

Horbach: The consumer sector accounts for two-thirds to 70% of our economy. You can’t ignore it. We’re shifting to areas where consumers have to spend. Retailers that are value-oriented can still be very attractive. You look for great brands that are under-penetrated. We own a brand called Philosophy, a personal-care business, and we’re growing our top line double digits as we expand distribution and grow awareness–in a very tough economy. You have to pick your spots.

Philosophy is the last company you bought. That was in 2007. Why have you not acquired anything since then?

Horbach: We looked at a lot of things, But credit dried up completely. You couldn’t even find a banker. They wouldn’t return your phone calls. And we weren’t sure where the bottom was. No one was. Now we’re seeing multi-billion deals with high levels of leverage, at attractive rates. We’re back in business. We’re excited about playing offense again.

Do you feel confident that we’ve hit bottom?

Horbach: I believe that we’ve hit bottom.

What have you learned from Lou Gerstner, the former CEO of IBM (IBM), who is on the Carlyle investment committee?

Horbach: I talk to Lou a lot. His office is right next to mine. Very early on, Lou and several other members of our senior team were very aggressive about how bad it was going to get. “You have to take action now! You have to start cutting now! You have to evaluate your CEOs!” He said, “There are good-time CEOs and bad-time CEOs.” Good-time CEOs look good when the market is going up and everyone is acquiring things. But they don’t look so good when markets do down. We probably turned over 40% of our CEOs.

What is Lou saying now?

Horbach: Six months ago, Lou said, ‘Okay, now we have to start playing offense.” So, we are. The management teams that start to play offense will be so much better positioned when things start to pick up.

So you’re not looking for good-time CEOs yet, but rather, hybrid CEOs?

Horbach: Well, none of us expect a robust revenue environment. We’re calling it “the revenue-less recovery.” We’re thinking that there’s going to be a lot of M&A activity. Everyone is looking for share and global opportunities.

How might the private-equity industry attract more women?

Horbach: In order to be successful at anything, you have to love what you do. I think a lot of women have gone into private equity because it’s the right thing to do, or they think, “I’m going to make a lot of money.” Hedge funds, same sort of thing. Women have to step back and know what skills they need.

So, what are those skills?

Horbach: You have to be able to work in a very male-oriented environment and not take it personally. Women have to be adaptable–actually, that’s a strength women bring. But you need to be tough. You need to speak your mind. And you have to be realistic about how hard it is. Women often think that when they’re doing a great job, people will notice. Women don’t self-promote as much as men do. You have to network. And if you’re doing great work, make sure that your bosses notice.

Before Mary Richards and Murphy Brown, there was Ann Marie–That Girl. I grew up in the ’60s. So Marlo Thomas, who played the first independent working woman I ever saw on TV, had a major impact on me. Nearly a half-century later (yikes!), I now know Marlo personally. It’s enormously gratifying to see an icon of my youth not only going strong (and looking young) but doing work that really matters.

Marlo has helped build St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, founded in Memphis in 1962 by her father, into one of the world’s outstanding children’s hospitals. She’s been instrumental in raising $700 million a year for St. Jude. With a clever idea, the annual “Thanks and Giving” campaign, has come Marlo’s tireless rallying of CEOs of big companies–including Target (TGT), CVS (CVS), Saks (SKS), FedEx (FDX), and AOL (TWX)–to support St. Jude’s and kids in need. This month is primetime for “Thanks and Giving.” We’re honored to have Marlo explain in this Guest Post where she gets her passion. –Patricia Sellers

My father, Danny Thomas, who founded St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital 47 years ago, told my siblings and me a lot of things when we were growing up. One of my favorites is this: “There are two kinds of people in the world: the givers and the takers. The takers sometimes eat better, but the givers always sleep better.”

I never expected to have the passion to be crisscrossing the country speaking out on behalf of St. Jude. In fact, my father told my sister, Terre, and my brother, Tony, that the work of the hospital would not be our burden to carry after he was gone.

But how could we not carry on? We’d been living with St. Jude all our lives.

When we were kids, no one was allowed to take phone calls during dinner. But my father was allowed to break that rule if a call came in from St. Jude.

I’ll never forget when he came back to the table, he’d sometimes have tears in his eyes because a little boy named David “didn’t make it.” Or he’d be beaming because a little girl named Amy was “going home at last.”

My sister and brother and I would wonder: Who are these children? And why are they so important to our Daddy?

It wasn’t until soon after my father died in 1991 that I began to understand what drove his passion for these kids and their families.

One time, I was in the medicine room at St. Jude, in the middle of an ordinary day. People were bustling about, and suddenly a little six-year-old boy leapt up onto his chair, ecstatic.

“Mommy!” he screamed out, “I don’t have cancer anymore!”

There was a moment of silence. And then every one of us in that room–doctors, nurses, other patients and their families–all of us just started to cry.

When you look into the faces of these children, you see the face of humanity. You see courage and compassion and incredible strength.

You see a capacity for joy in the face of adversity that is simply astounding. You see the potential that is in all of us.

So, even though my dad relieved me of the burden to continue his work for the hospital, I can’t resist. And it’s hardly a burden.

In 2004, Terre, Tony and I decided to launch the “Thanks and Giving” campaign, in which holiday shoppers everywhere can “give thanks for the healthy children in their life, and give to those who are not.”

“Thanks and Giving” is now an annual campaign. Its goal is to raise not just funds for children stricken with catastrophic diseases, but also awareness. We want parents everywhere to know that St. Jude remains a beacon of hope for families in their darkest hour.

Everywhere you look this month, whether you’re at your local mall or watching movie trailers in your neighborhood multiplex, you’ll see the beautiful kids of St. Jude, along with me and some of our very famous friends, like Jennifer Aniston, Robin Williams, Antonio Banderas and NFL great Reggie Bush.

Our retail partners–and we have 50 of them!–will ask you if you would like to donate a dollar or more to your purchase for the kids of St. Jude. I’ve been incredibly touched by the millions of people who have said yes. I’m hoping you’ll say yes too.

Marlo Thomas is the National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. An award-winning actress, author and activist, she’s been honored with four Emmy Awards, the Peabody, a Golden Globe, a Grammy and has been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame. She is currently starring in George is Dead, a comedy written and directed by Elaine May, in Tucson and Phoenix at the Arizona Theatre Company.

I’ve been reading Credit Suisse (CS) analyst Gary Balter’s reports on hardline retailers since the mid-’90s, when I wrote about companies like Home Depot (HD) and Sears (SHLD). Balter is not only a savvy analyst. He’s also a very good writer. This morning at 7:17, Balter emailed this note to clients about Black Friday shopping, which he titled “Bring Back the Good Old Days.”  I’m on his email list, so I read it and enjoyed it so much that I asked him if we could reprint it on Postcards. “Absolutely,” Balter replied. So here’s a veteran Wall Street analyst on how Black Friday 2010 is upending our holiday shopping rituals.–Patricia Sellers

Guest Post by Gary Balter, managing director and senior analyst, Credit Suisse

What is happening to America? For years, we looked forward to getting together with the in-laws on Thanksgiving, watching some football, eating some turkey, and most important, pouring through every Black Friday ad and dividing up which stores we would each wait in line for. Waking up at 3 a.m., we would not only rush to get in line but would be in communication with the team–figuring out if Circuit City had fewer people in line, by 4 a.m. knowing if we would get one of the better door-busters at Best Buy (BBY), what the lines were like at Wal-Mart (WMT), etc.

Things began to change well before the Internet. About six years ago, CompUSA (SYX) decided to begin its Black Friday sales at midnight. That meant getting in line on the way back from turkey dinner, and then getting but a few hours of sleep before beginning the hunt in the a.m.  Of course, since it seemed that every CompUSA purchase required one to fill out a rebate form, that effort used up any time otherwise reserved for sleep.

Returning home from all stores by 8 a.m. at the latest, we would call the family and discuss splitting up the prizes, meeting somewhere between New York and Allentown, Pa., to celebrate together. Total savings on anything we really needed was likely nothing, but the thrill of the hunt kept us going. Friends of our cousins, when meeting us, would know exactly which product we had waited for and how much money we had “saved.”

A few years ago, sites like bfads.net started to compare all of the Black Friday ads. Although it made it easier, it seemed to take the thrill out of comparing the products. However, even with that, we still had the cold weather to look forward to the next morning.

About four years ago, our world changed. We discovered that in some stores, including Circuit City, one could go online on Thanksgiving and buy the Black Friday ads. The following year, others followed, but the better stores still kept their best sales for those who would wait in line.

This year, we are getting Black Friday sales for weeks before Black Friday at Sears, Kmart, Wal-Mart and Best Buy, among others, and have the ability to buy just about every ad on-line, with many stores opening on Thanksgiving. Looking at what looked like prizes worth standing in line for, at Staples (SPLS), for example, we were dismayed to read that we could buy the same products on-line from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. That is going to hurt sales of winter clothing, as we won’t have to stand in below-zero temperatures for that sliver of a savings.

May we suggest that someone in the government, at least in the colder northern states, pass a law that does not allow one to call savings ‘Black Friday’ until Black Friday? Until then, enjoy the warmth, and Happy Thanksgiving.

by Jessica Shambora

Watch out, geeks. You’ve got company.

Yes, Best Buy’s (BBY) Geek Squad, whose “agents” drive those Volkswagen Beetles to the homes of customers in technology distress, has competition to contend with: digital troubleshooters who aid consumers via the Internet.

Even as these forces are expanding, it’s hard to detect them. For instance, the “solution engineers” of Support.com (SPRT)’s are almost impossible to spot since they work via remote-access subterfuge. Once a troubled tech user downloads Support.com’s software, an engineer can access the computer via the Internet to diagnose and fix problems.

Ever stealthy, Support.com’s engineers even go undercover as technicians for companies like Staples (SPLS) and Sony. You’ve seen Office Depot (ODP)’s Tech Depot Services? These friendly folks are actually Support.com’s hired guns.

Perhaps you’re lucky enough to never have needed consumer tech support. (If that’s the case, either you don’t own a computer, or you own a Mac). But there’s no escaping that our lives are getting more digital every day. And even as we become more tech-savvy and as tech providers improve design and user interfaces, there will always be bugs, malfunctions, spyware and viruses.

There will be updates and upgrades. New platforms and devices to install. Compatibility issues to iron out. Who ya gonna call?

For hardware problems, you can go to your device manufacturer. But let’s face it, these days it’s all about operating systems, platforms and software: Google’s (GOOG) Chrome and Android, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 7, Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes, Adobe’s (ADBE) AIR.

So while the Geek Squad has been the most visible source of help (and no wonder, given the marketing muscle of Best Buy), it’s not the cheapest option. Nor the most convenient. Rivals are gaining ground as many consumers no longer need a technician to hold their hand–or simply don’t have time to schedule an appointment with a Geek.

Support.com hasn’t done well as a stock, in part because it only recently switched from serving enterprises to targeting consumers. Other options include startups like PlumChoice and iYogi. Meanwhile, phone companies are also getting in the game. Support.com CEO Josh Pickus says that Verizon (VZ), Dell (DELL), AT&T (ATT), and Wal-Mart (WMT) are all “poking around in this space.”

For more about this hot industry, check out my profile of Support.com on Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech site.

Note: Geek Squad offers tech support remotely through a partnership with SupportSpace, which offers services similar to Support.com.

Gilt Groupe CEO Susan Lyne has joined the board of AOL–soon to be spun off from Time Warner (TWX).

Does Lyne love trouble, or what? Five years ago, after Martha Stewart began her five-month prison stint in West Virginia, Lyne stepped up from the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) board to be CEO of the company–and worked, eventually hand in hand with Martha, to rebuild the crippled company.

That was a slog (Lyne left last year), and so was her three-year stint on the board of CIT (CITGQ)–which she began in 2006 when it didn’t seem to be a terribly risky move. But it turned out to be. For the past few months, Lyne has had a seat at the table as CIT’s board and CEO Jeff Peek vied to save the company from bankruptcy. Peek failed. Lyne left the CIT board last week–one day before CIT filed Chapter 11.

So now Lyne is turning her attention to another once-mighty company that lost its way. AOL’s new CEO, Tim Armstrong, who joined from Google (GOOG) last March, is preparing for the spinoff from Time Warner by assembling a board that includes Procter & Gamble (PG) ex-global marketing chief Jim Stengel, former FCC chairman Michael Powell, tech investment banker Bill Hambrecht, and Jim Wiatt, who headed William Morris until he got squeezed out in a messy merger with talent agency Endeavor this year.

These people know pressure–and have their work cut out for them at the flagging web pioneer. Time Warner’s earnings report on Wednesday included news that AOL’s sales dropped 23% last quarter, while profits fell by half.

The good news for Lyne is that she has a positive story where, for her at least, it really counts: at Gilt Groupe. She joined the tiny purveyor of luxury goods last year, and it has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the Internet space.

by Patricia Sellers

Photo courtesy of Avon

Liz Smith, who was on track to succeed Andrea Jung as CEO of Avon Products (AVP), is moving to a new company and a new industry. Again.

The onetime star exec at Kraft (KFT), who made an unlikely leap from food to cosmetics in 2004, is the newly named chief executive of OSI, a chain of casual-dining eateries.

“What?!!” is a question that Smith admits she’s been asked often throughout her career. She says she follows her own guideline: “Be open to opportunity.”

There’s plenty of opportunity–and risk–at OSI, which you may not have heard of but is a giant in the casual-dining category. With 2008 revenues of $4 billion, OSI operates chains such as Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Roy’s, and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar. Good brands, as restaurant brands go–and as Bain Capital and Catterton Partners thought when they acquired the company for $3.2 billion in 2007. But the global recession brutalized the business, which operates across the U.S. and in 20 other countries. OSI lost $739.4 million last year, and it’s been suffering serious declines in same-store sales.

Which may be ideal for Smith, since she adores companies that are ripe for overhaul. “It’s really always been in my DNA,” she told my colleague Jessica Shambora in September, on the day she announced her departure from Avon.

Smith’s exit from Avon shocked many people, since she was crucial to the cosmetic giant’s turnaround, well-liked across the company, and widely viewed as Jung’s eventual successor. But “eventual” was looking to be too long from now. While Smith, who is No. 29 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business list, is just 46 years old and has plenty of runway ahead, she lost patience. That’s understandable since Jung, who was named Avon’s CEO at age 41 a decade ago, has no plans to retire.

So now, Smith–who began her career at Morgan Stanley (MS) and then, as a Stanford MBA student, “wanted to start the next Microsoft or H-P”–is off in yet another new direction. Geographically, this time it is Manhattan to Tampa, Florida, where OSI is based. Smith plans to commute initially and then relocate with her husband and two young sons.

And though retail isn’t entirely new to Smith–she’s on the board of Staples (SPLS)–she’ll be testing herself against her own measure of leadership. “Nothing is more important than a nimble, agile leader who is comfortable with ambiguity,” she told me a few months ago.

“We have to be comfortable figuring it out as we go along,” Smith added. Definitely, she’s living her philosophy.

There comes a fork in every career. Should I do this or do that?

Charting a successful career was the topic on Tuesday at Wal-Mart (WMT), where the company’s female officers staged a “Fortune Most Powerful Women” event and I interviewed two stars of the 2009 MPWomen rankings: Wal-Mart EVP of People Susan Chambers and Xerox (XRX) CEO Ursula Burns.

Their bios tell the paths they chose. More inspiring and instructive, as they revealed on Tuesday, are the career paths they decided not to take.

Chambers, who joined Wal-Mart from Hallmark a decade ago, once dreamed of being a professional opera singer. Her mezzo-soprano might have been, but she didn’t love the idea of traipsing around the world as artists must do. “It’s still in my heart,” said Chambers, who now plays piano and sings–at home and at church–to lessen the stress of overseeing the largest private-sector workforce on earth. “Make sure you spend some percentage of time doing something that brings you joy,” she advised.

Burns told a story that few people know–how in 2001, she almost left Xerox.

Having joined Xerox as an intern in 1980, Burns by then had ascended to SVP in charge of manufacturing and supply-chain operations. a stellar rise, but Xerox was teetering–facing potential bankruptcy–and its CEO, a former IBMer (IBM) named Rick Thoman, had lost the faith of investors and management.

Burns was outta there–or so she thought. She had lined up a job at a healthy, younger company and was about to move to Texas with her husband and two children when she got an unexpected call from a Xerox board member.

This director said to her: “If your spouse was old, but now they are sick, would you stay and care of him?”

Yes, of course, Burns replied.

“If you and your spouse both made it through to a long-term relationship, but now a young, ‘pretty’ suitor came along, would you stay in the relationship you’ve invested in–or leave for something new and unknown?”

Stay–absolutely, Burns told the director.

It was at that moment, Burns said, that she realized she was key to saving Xerox. And when she learned that the board was going to name Anne Mulcahy, another lifer who embraced the need for radical change, as the new CEO, Burns ditched her departure plan.

So, what was that healthy, younger company that almost lured Burns away? “Dell,” she told the Wal-Mart gathering.

And who was that Xerox director who persuaded her to stay? “Vernon Jordan,” said Burns, referring to the well-known Lazard (LAZ) lawyer who, besides serving on Xerox’s board, advises American Express (AXP), where Burns is a director. By sticking it out, she eventually made history: The Mulcahy-Burns succession, in July, was the first-ever woman-to-woman CEO handoff in the Fortune 500.

P.S. For more Wal-Mart wisdom, read my Wednesday post, “A visit to Wal-Mart’s home.”

by Patricia Sellers

“Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage.”

That was said, simply enough, by Wal-Mart (WMT) founder Sam Walton. And though today it’s widely known that Wal-Mart is the world’s most efficient retailer, a little-known fact is that for 25 years–long before Wal-Mart became America’s largest retailer–it ranked No. 1 in its industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales.

Efficiency runs in the water here in Bentonville, Arkansas, where I’ve spent the past 36 hours. I hadn’t been to the center of the retail universe since 1996, when Wal-Mart crossed the line of $100 billion in annual sales. This past year, the company, which started in 1962, crossed the $400 billion line.

And while it’s now 17 years since Sam has died, the rules he established when he opened his first five-and-dime, on Bentonville’s town square, still apply. On Monday night, when I had dinner with Wal-Mart financial services president Jane Thompson and seven other corporate officers, everybody chipped in $20 a piece for the wine. That’s because Wal-Mart’s founder refused to pay for alcohol of any kind.

Over at the home office (which Sam Walton preferred to “headquarters” because he thought the latter term sounded highfalutin), I ran into Mike Duke, Wal-Mart’s CEO who took charge in February. I asked Duke if I could take a peek of his office–which are Sam’s old digs–and as he escorted me into the tiny room, he noted with pride, “Same wood paneling from 30 years ago.” Duke’s fanciest decoration is an aquarium in the corner. “That’s from David Glass,” he said, referring to Wal-Mart’s chief after Sam, “and I’m just trying to keep the fish alive.” What did Duke add to the space? “Just the pictures on the wall,” he replied. Two framed photos above his desk show Sam’s first store and below that, a picture of the world. “Because that’s where we’re focused now,” the CEO said.

Before moving into Wal-Mart’s top job, Duke headed international operations and worked in a low gray shed next door. At 40,360 square feet total, this may be the world’s smallest office responsible for $100 billion in sales. (Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRKB) headquarters in Omaha comes close, in terms of efficiency. See Monday’s Postcard on “How Warren Buffett manages his managers“). Now Doug McMillon, who succeeded Duke as international chief, works out of the unsightly barracks, where a few fortunate execs get a jailhouse-type window through which, as Duke says, you have to crank your neck to see the sun.

I was invited to Bentonville by Wal-Mart’s women officers, a group that just passed 100 in number and self-finance their events by chipping in $100 each every year–another mark of management’s extreme self-denial. (Anyone who sells to Wal-Mart knows that its managers aren’t allowed to accept even a bottle of water without paying for it.) Yesterday, at their special ”Fortune Most Powerful Women” event, I interviewed Susan Chambers, EVP of Wal-Mart’s Global People Division, and Ursula Burns, the new CEO of Xerox (XRX)–which you’ll read more about on Postcards later. Before the day ended, Thompson, the financial services chief, drove me past the spot where Sam Walton is buried, alongside his wife, Helen. It’s a barely noticeable grave in a crowded cemetery tucked behind Wal-Mart’s home office. Even in the afterlife, Sam Walton is saving money.