Latest / Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant / The Walmart Blueprint: Leadership, Wealth & The Power of Starting Small
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to Money and Wealth with John Hobriyant, a production
- 0:03Speaker 1: of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey, Hey,
- 0:14Speaker 1: this is Money and Wealth Podcast episode podcast series three
- 0:20Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio and the Black Effect Network. I'm John hobe Briant,
- 0:25Speaker 1: and you know what I'm about to say. When I
- 0:28Speaker 1: bring a guest on to my podcast it and they
- 0:35Speaker 1: are pretty special. I want to thank you for listening
- 0:38Speaker 1: to me as I dribble on in my individual ministry
- 0:44Speaker 1: of finance monologues.
- 0:45Speaker 2: Every week.
- 0:45Speaker 1: You've made this podcast top one percent in the world
- 0:49Speaker 1: and top fifty or so for entrepreneurship, etc. On Top
- 0:53Speaker 1: two hundred for business and every content in the world.
- 0:55Speaker 2: And I reach a.
- 0:58Speaker 1: Point sometimes where I feel that I'm not that best
- 1:03Speaker 1: expert or the best communicator on a topic, and that's
- 1:06Speaker 1: where I go and reach out for somebody who is
- 1:10Speaker 1: the best of the best in their space and area.
- 1:14Speaker 1: We've had Michael Milkin on, We've had just the best
- 1:19Speaker 1: leaders in each in every category, and there's more special
- 1:22Speaker 1: coming up today. We have someone who represents a household name,
- 1:29Speaker 1: but you may not know his name, and.
- 1:32Speaker 2: He's pretty special.
- 1:33Speaker 1: His name is Karen Shanahan that I believe he's going
- 1:37Speaker 1: to tell me is Scott is sure it's from that region.
- 1:41Speaker 2: It's Irish.
- 1:42Speaker 1: Same first cousins, Kieran, that's k I E R A
- 1:47Speaker 1: N I can I'm lovely that can say it and
- 1:51Speaker 1: spell it.
- 1:52Speaker 2: Karen and Uh. He sits in.
- 1:55Speaker 1: A position at Walmart, the biggest retailer in the world
- 2:02Speaker 1: and the largest employer. I believe it's still true in
- 2:05Speaker 1: the world and by the way, the largest employer of
- 2:08Speaker 1: African Americans. I believe it's true in the world. And
- 2:12Speaker 1: there's many, many other categories. They just hit a tradion
- 2:15Speaker 1: dollar mark of valuation not so long ago, which is
- 2:22Speaker 1: a major accomplishment.
- 2:25Speaker 2: And they are not They are both high.
- 2:27Speaker 1: Touch, which is really part of their value added proposition,
- 2:32Speaker 1: and their high tech.
- 2:33Speaker 2: Increasingly, they're doing.
- 2:35Speaker 1: Well and innovating in the technology area, so they keep
- 2:38Speaker 1: reinventing themselves. But before we get into the business and
- 2:41Speaker 1: unpacking how it works that, you know, that's what we
- 2:43Speaker 1: do here in Money and Wealth. I'm gonna tell you
- 2:45Speaker 1: a little bit about him and why I asked him
- 2:48Speaker 1: to do this. Karen is and I I want to
- 2:52Speaker 1: say I met Kieran through the former chairman CEO my
- 2:56Speaker 1: Fred Doug McMillan, who just retired as CEO, and John
- 3:01Speaker 1: Ferna is a new CEO, another great guy, but I
- 3:04Speaker 1: met him through Doug and he's executive vice president and
- 3:09Speaker 1: chief opening officer for Walmart US. Now that doesn't land
- 3:13Speaker 1: no matter how heavy I say it the way it
- 3:16Speaker 1: should because you've heard these EVP titles from many different
- 3:19Speaker 1: people going through your life. If you're in corporate or business.
- 3:22Speaker 1: The executive vice president for this, executive vice president for that.
- 3:25Speaker 1: All I can tell you is that all executive vice
- 3:28Speaker 1: presidents are not created equal, and this one is not.
- 3:33Speaker 1: And he's chief operating officer. I want you to let
- 3:35Speaker 1: this sink in. For Walmart United States, that's the biggest
- 3:41Speaker 1: platform they've got, and we're going to get into what
- 3:43Speaker 1: that means. He oversees Walmart US stores, operations, and supply chains.
- 3:49Speaker 1: That includes strategy, innovation, automation, distribution and fulfillment centers, late delivery,
- 4:00Speaker 1: smile delivery, and real estate. Of course, that's a passion
- 4:03Speaker 1: of mine.
- 4:05Speaker 2: He's not just some staff executive.
- 4:08Speaker 1: He's one of the most important people within this organization,
- 4:12Speaker 1: the physical machine of Walmart in America that keeps his
- 4:16Speaker 1: best in class operation running. He sits close to the
- 4:19Speaker 1: company's core engine stores, logistics, delivery, and operational execution and
- 4:27Speaker 1: excellence while doing it at a massive scale. He served
- 4:33Speaker 1: as EVP of International Operations and Regional CEO for Walmart
- 4:38Speaker 1: International Regional CEO, so he's, in my opinion, being primed
- 4:41Speaker 1: for even greater things. Earlier, he was EVP and Chief
- 4:45Speaker 1: Growth Officer at Sam's Club. Now that means he had
- 4:48Speaker 1: a balance sheet responsibility. He was not spending money, as
- 4:53Speaker 1: they say on operations. He was our being efficient about it,
- 4:56Speaker 1: and he was making money on the growth side, the
- 4:58Speaker 1: revenue side. So he's runn both sides of balance sheet
- 5:02Speaker 1: and Walmart has really identified him as somebody who can
- 5:08Speaker 1: be an operator, a scaler, and a systems leader. He's
- 5:14Speaker 1: my kind of guy because he's also just good people
- 5:17Speaker 1: and he's a humble spirit, and he's passionate about financial literacy.
- 5:21Speaker 2: He and I spent.
- 5:24Speaker 1: An hour on the phone just talking about financial literacy
- 5:26Speaker 1: as a civil rights issue of this generation and.
- 5:28Speaker 2: His passion to embed this within the.
- 5:32Speaker 1: Walmart framework, which we'll get into heat as education includes
- 5:36Speaker 1: Nottingham Trent University. And yeah, he's just a really cool guy.
- 5:42Speaker 1: So welcome on the podcast. My new friend Karen.
- 5:47Speaker 3: Thank you, Tom. That was amazing.
- 5:49Speaker 4: I might just have you follow me around all day
- 5:51Speaker 4: and in my heightman really kind of you. Thank you
- 5:55Speaker 4: for having me a really kind introduction. And I think
- 5:59Speaker 4: I've gone the best job in the world because I
- 6:02Speaker 4: get to work with our one point four million associates
- 6:06Speaker 4: and I get a ton of energy from doing that.
- 6:09Speaker 4: I started my journey with Walmart as a sixteen year
- 6:12Speaker 4: old back in the UK nearly thirty years ago. Never
- 6:16Speaker 4: thought I'd work in another country, let alone do a
- 6:19Speaker 4: role like this one. But I've been really fortunate to
- 6:22Speaker 4: have had the journey. I have to have had the
- 6:25Speaker 4: support of people along the way to help me as
- 6:27Speaker 4: I navigated being a store manager and a district manager
- 6:30Speaker 4: and then moving into other roles like e commerce and
- 6:33Speaker 4: merchandising and as you said, at.
- 6:35Speaker 3: Sam's and international.
- 6:38Speaker 4: And this role is fascinating because I get to work
- 6:42Speaker 4: with all of our team and our stores and our
- 6:43Speaker 4: supply chain, but also work with our real estate team
- 6:47Speaker 4: and determine where we build new stores and new supply
- 6:49Speaker 4: chain buildings, and how we remodel the ones we've got
- 6:52Speaker 4: and make sure that they're fit for purpose, but also
- 6:55Speaker 4: working with our last mile team who do all the
- 6:57Speaker 4: deliveries to our customers, our transation team, and then our
- 7:01Speaker 4: energy team as well, because we obviously need energy to
- 7:04Speaker 4: operate and want to make sure we've been mindful of
- 7:07Speaker 4: how we purchase and use energy. So it's a really
- 7:10Speaker 4: fascinating job that balancers the day to day and operating,
- 7:14Speaker 4: but also building for the future, building capabilities that we'll
- 7:18Speaker 4: need to serve customers, and all of it grounded in
- 7:22Speaker 4: our people and leading our one point four million people
- 7:26Speaker 4: and helping them have the best experience at Walmart, so
- 7:30Speaker 4: in turn, they can give our customers a great experience.
- 7:34Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question that you won't see coming,
- 7:38Speaker 1: but it's always fascinated me. You're in this huge position
- 7:43Speaker 1: and you're sitting there with a Walmart invest on. Now,
- 7:47Speaker 1: I didn't know what you're gonna be wearing, and we
- 7:48Speaker 1: didn't talk about it, but I've noticed that a lot
- 7:51Speaker 1: of the senior executives dress just like that. I've seen
- 7:55Speaker 1: Doug McMillan in a vest before, the former chairman. See
- 8:00Speaker 1: I'm sure John Don's in vest from time to time.
- 8:03Speaker 1: But when I was visiting the campus, the original campus
- 8:06Speaker 1: which looked like a.
- 8:06Speaker 2: School looked like a schoolhouse to me.
- 8:10Speaker 1: And the CEO's office was large, was as small as
- 8:14Speaker 1: you know, a restroom of a hotel suite back then.
- 8:19Speaker 1: And then you guys moved to this new headquarters you
- 8:21Speaker 1: built in Bendonville, and you guys do a great job
- 8:23Speaker 1: of growing Bendonville. But even in this new campus, there's
- 8:26Speaker 1: still this humble spirit that permeates. It's almost like you
- 8:31Speaker 1: guys are allergic to arrogance, which I love.
- 8:34Speaker 2: You're allergic to attitude.
- 8:36Speaker 1: You're allergic to self importance that anybody who comes around
- 8:39Speaker 1: with their nose up and like snody probably has to go,
- 8:44Speaker 1: I mean, what is and again, what's with the vest?
- 8:47Speaker 1: What you I think you? I don't see you. You probably
- 8:50Speaker 1: have a name tag? Oh yeah, there it is the
- 8:52Speaker 1: name tag. What is the message that that's sending? And
- 8:56Speaker 1: then I want to get to their origin story after this?
- 8:58Speaker 1: What is the message on?
- 9:01Speaker 3: Our culture is very humble.
- 9:03Speaker 4: That came from our founder and we work really hard
- 9:06Speaker 4: to try and keep it. And even though we are
- 9:08Speaker 4: large and we have an enormous business and we serve
- 9:11Speaker 4: millions of customers and have you know, thousands of stores
- 9:14Speaker 4: a customers interaction with us is one.
- 9:16Speaker 3: At a time.
- 9:17Speaker 4: So whilst you can zoom out and look at the
- 9:20Speaker 4: financials and see the numbers, but a customers interaction is
- 9:23Speaker 4: one at a time. Can they get what they need?
- 9:25Speaker 4: Did they get good service? Are they happy with the
- 9:28Speaker 4: price they paid? And they know they've got a great
- 9:30Speaker 4: price and the lowest prices. That's what someone's looking for.
- 9:33Speaker 4: So we try and keep that humility because that keeps
- 9:36Speaker 4: you grounded in what matters. The other part to that,
- 9:39Speaker 4: you know, we know we can always be better, and
- 9:42Speaker 4: the last thing you want is to get this hubris
- 9:44Speaker 4: or arrogance where you think you've cracked it, because the
- 9:47Speaker 4: minute you do that, a customer will show you where
- 9:49Speaker 4: you got it wrong, or a competitor will show you
- 9:52Speaker 4: where they're doing something differently.
- 9:53Speaker 3: That's resonating. So we try to keep that.
- 9:56Speaker 4: I think it's it's inherent, but we also want to
- 9:58Speaker 4: nurture it and keep it there.
- 10:00Speaker 3: The a couple of reasons. I wear it.
- 10:06Speaker 4: When I go to a store, people think I'm there
- 10:09Speaker 4: to inspect how the store is and how it's looking.
- 10:13Speaker 4: What I'm really interested in, how are our associates doing
- 10:15Speaker 4: and what's on their minds, and the faster I can
- 10:19Speaker 4: get an associate to open up and to feel a
- 10:22Speaker 4: level of trust that they can be unvarnished and not
- 10:25Speaker 4: sugarcoat what they're saying. The faster I can get to
- 10:28Speaker 4: what's really going on, and then I can go back
- 10:30Speaker 4: and make sure if there's an opportunity there, we can
- 10:32Speaker 4: grasp it and run and get after it. If something's
- 10:35Speaker 4: not right, we can get the right people on it
- 10:37Speaker 4: to fix it as quick as we can, and we
- 10:39Speaker 4: can get moving. And I love getting out to stores.
- 10:43Speaker 4: I get a ton of energy from it. Even if
- 10:44Speaker 4: a store isn't great, I still walk away energize because
- 10:48Speaker 4: I'm getting to spend time with our people, and you're
- 10:50Speaker 4: also getting to spent time where the real work happens,
- 10:53Speaker 4: like in the store or in the distribution center, or
- 10:55Speaker 4: in the delivery truck where we're really serving the customer.
- 10:58Speaker 4: So the found if I show up in a sports
- 11:03Speaker 4: coat or a jacket, immediately I walk in the door,
- 11:07Speaker 4: I'm some guy in a suit from the home office.
- 11:11Speaker 3: In my vest a, I'm wearing what our associates wear.
- 11:14Speaker 4: It says happy to help on the back, and that
- 11:16Speaker 4: means I'm happy to help anyone who asks me, I'm
- 11:19Speaker 4: there to serve just as they are, but it also
- 11:22Speaker 4: puts me, puts me on their level. My colleague Cedric,
- 11:25Speaker 4: he wears different sneakers because if you're into sneakers, you
- 11:28Speaker 4: see his sneakers, it breaks the ice.
- 11:30Speaker 3: You got something to talk about. So he's very intentional about.
- 11:33Speaker 4: How he breaks the ice and builds that just a
- 11:36Speaker 4: tiny thing that can help get a connection with someone faster.
- 11:40Speaker 4: But it's all in service to hardle I get to
- 11:42Speaker 4: the to the unvarnished. And if I'm in a vest
- 11:46Speaker 4: I'm just some guy with a funny accent in a vest,
- 11:50Speaker 4: I'm not this this suit that's here from the home
- 11:52Speaker 4: office to check up on us, and let's tell.
- 11:55Speaker 3: Him what he wants to hear. I have no pride
- 11:58Speaker 3: in all that.
- 11:58Speaker 4: If we've done something and it hasn't worked, I'd rather
- 12:01Speaker 4: just know that as quick as possible so we can
- 12:03Speaker 4: cost correct. It will never hurt my feelings. If we
- 12:06Speaker 4: tried and we screwed it up. I'd just rather go
- 12:08Speaker 4: as fast as we can. Retails that I love retail
- 12:11Speaker 4: for lots of reasons, but one of the things I
- 12:14Speaker 4: love about it is the pace and we can try
- 12:17Speaker 4: something Monday and we know if it's working by Tuesday,
- 12:20Speaker 4: and if we.
- 12:21Speaker 3: Like it, let's go. And if we don't, okay, cost
- 12:23Speaker 3: correct go again.
- 12:24Speaker 2: Wow, but we're.
- 12:25Speaker 4: Very very fast, And back to Sam Well and John
- 12:30Speaker 4: tells his story. Still to this day, our financial week
- 12:36Speaker 4: starts on a Saturday, so we don't start the week.
- 12:39Speaker 3: On a Monday. We start with Saturday.
- 12:43Speaker 4: So to John tells his story of why Sam did that,
- 12:46Speaker 4: and it was so we had a two day head
- 12:47Speaker 4: start on all his competition because everyone else started work Monday,
- 12:51Speaker 4: we start Saturday. And Sam used to have a meeting
- 12:54Speaker 4: on a Saturday morning where they would review the business
- 12:57Speaker 4: from Friday. They talk about what was working, what wasn't,
- 13:00Speaker 4: and then we would make decisions and change course. And
- 13:03Speaker 4: all of our operators are being in the room in
- 13:05Speaker 4: that Saturday meeting. They'd then go start executing. So you
- 13:09Speaker 4: time's a two day head start over ten twenty years.
- 13:13Speaker 4: When everyone else comes in Monday morning to get going,
- 13:15Speaker 4: we'd already started on Saturday. John just explains how that
- 13:19Speaker 4: was such a small thing but it had a compounding
- 13:22Speaker 4: impact and for us, it's just an example of this
- 13:27Speaker 4: urgency to move and if we've done something that you
- 13:31Speaker 4: know a customer's not happy about. We want to deal
- 13:33Speaker 4: with it quickly. Let's fix it fast. After this, and
- 13:37Speaker 4: we have a meeting on a Friday afternoon where all
- 13:41Speaker 4: of our market managers, so this would be a leader
- 13:43Speaker 4: that maybe is responsible for ten or twelve stores, They
- 13:47Speaker 4: all dial in and we do it in a greatly
- 13:49Speaker 4: god a toorium with a massive zoom screen. Everybody's face
- 13:52Speaker 4: up there. And then we have all of our merchants,
- 13:55Speaker 4: our marketing team, our tech teams, our supply chain teams
- 13:58Speaker 4: in the auditorium, and our market managers are able to
- 14:01Speaker 4: raise feedback and we say, what's on your mind. It
- 14:04Speaker 4: can be good, it can be bad, it can be
- 14:06Speaker 4: this is an opportunity.
- 14:07Speaker 3: It can be I've tried this, it's really working fast. Great.
- 14:11Speaker 4: Tell everybody else so everyone else can adopt it and
- 14:13Speaker 4: copy it. Or it can be Look, this problem's occurred
- 14:16Speaker 4: and it's given me a lot of drama and I
- 14:18Speaker 4: need help with it. And then again in that room,
- 14:20Speaker 4: we'll try and apply the urgency. Well, let's fix it
- 14:22Speaker 4: before we all go home.
- 14:23Speaker 3: For the weekend.
- 14:24Speaker 4: Let's fix it today, so it's done today, or it's
- 14:26Speaker 4: fixed over the weekends. We're not carrying a problem into
- 14:29Speaker 4: next week. So I love those forums where we get
- 14:32Speaker 4: to hear the unvarnished from the front line, And a
- 14:36Speaker 4: big part of what I do is helping encourage that
- 14:39Speaker 4: feedback and create the space for it to come, and
- 14:42Speaker 4: then creating the urgency to make sure we fix things.
- 14:46Speaker 4: And we have a phrase like the best ideas come
- 14:48Speaker 4: from the field, like I had to stand by that
- 14:50Speaker 4: all day long. The people doing the work, ripping open
- 14:52Speaker 4: the box, using the technology, they know what works and
- 14:55Speaker 4: what doesn't. The trick is building enough of a level
- 14:59Speaker 4: of trust to hear it and then acting upon it,
- 15:02Speaker 4: not just listening and doing nothing, acting upon it and
- 15:05Speaker 4: fixing it. And as you do that over a period
- 15:08Speaker 4: of time, you really build trust because then when someone's
- 15:11Speaker 4: giving you feedback and you're acting upon it, you're dealing
- 15:13Speaker 4: with it. That builds a level of trust. Then that okay, yeah,
- 15:16Speaker 4: if my feedback goes somewhere, Hey, I'm not going to
- 15:18Speaker 4: get in serious trouble for saying it. There's no bounce back,
- 15:22Speaker 4: there's no comeback, there's no repercussion. We just want to
- 15:25Speaker 4: I don't want the unvarnished. I've loads of people telling
- 15:27Speaker 4: me how it should be and what it could be
- 15:29Speaker 4: and sugarcoating it. So I'd much rather get the unvarnished
- 15:32Speaker 4: because then we can get moving and actually make decisions.
- 15:37Speaker 2: Where are the decency in you come from?
- 15:39Speaker 1: I've noticed it in our first conversation. I've noticed it
- 15:44Speaker 1: amongst again a number of the senior leaders there. So
- 15:47Speaker 1: it's certainly that somebody is nurtured and cultivated as a
- 15:50Speaker 1: culture coming from Sam Walton's origin. But you can't buy that,
- 15:54Speaker 1: you can't instruct that. It has to be the roots
- 15:57Speaker 1: of that. So very quickly, where does your decency come from?
- 16:01Speaker 1: I trusted you within two minutes of us me.
- 16:06Speaker 3: I credit my parents in a big way. My mom
- 16:09Speaker 3: and dad. They were both school teachers.
- 16:12Speaker 4: They left Ireland to come to England for work, and
- 16:15Speaker 4: then we were brought up in England. But they both
- 16:18Speaker 4: grew up on farms, so they're no strangers to hard
- 16:20Speaker 4: work or standards. And my mom's came my dad's Paul,
- 16:29Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, for sure that And then look, I
- 16:31Speaker 4: started with a company when I was sixteen, so I
- 16:34Speaker 4: grew up in Walmart, so I grew up in our
- 16:37Speaker 4: culture and was fortunate to have the coaching, the guidance,
- 16:41Speaker 4: the high expectations of different management, store managers, district managers,
- 16:47Speaker 4: and leaders I worked with and other associates I worked alongside,
- 16:51Speaker 4: and they teach you the standard, they teach the expectation,
- 16:54Speaker 4: They teach you how to do the job, but also
- 16:56Speaker 4: what to do. And I'm very, very grateful and fortunate
- 17:00Speaker 4: to have had that schooling. It's fascinating that Walmart, based
- 17:05Speaker 4: here in Arkansas, was able to transmit that culture so
- 17:09Speaker 4: effectively four thousand miles away to the UK, and that
- 17:14Speaker 4: when I moved then in twenty fourteen, from the UK
- 17:17Speaker 4: over to the States, it was like, you know, fitting
- 17:21Speaker 4: like a glove, like all the culture. Some of the
- 17:24Speaker 4: processes were different. Obviously, the language is a bit different,
- 17:27Speaker 4: so I had to learn all that, my accents different,
- 17:30Speaker 4: But the culture, the values, our purpose are identical, and
- 17:37Speaker 4: you touched on that role. I was very fortunate to
- 17:39Speaker 4: go and travel around the world and spend time in
- 17:41Speaker 4: different parts of our business.
- 17:43Speaker 3: In Africa and Canada and China.
- 17:45Speaker 4: And Mexico and Chile, and the same is true of
- 17:48Speaker 4: that culture. It's really incredible that we've been able to
- 17:52Speaker 4: do that, but also that I feel a very high accountability.
- 17:56Speaker 4: Then to maintain that and to respect that and honor that,
- 18:00Speaker 4: and nurture it and ensure it stays that way because
- 18:03Speaker 4: I'm such a beneficiary of it.
- 18:07Speaker 1: It seems like the lesson number one from this podcast
- 18:11Speaker 1: is not actually tied to actually the business. It's leadership.
- 18:15Speaker 1: And what I'm hearing is you can be you need
- 18:20Speaker 1: to be Uh. You can have humility without hubris. You
- 18:24Speaker 1: can have confidence without being cocky.
- 18:27Speaker 4: Uh.
- 18:28Speaker 1: You should have absolutely believe in what you're doing, have
- 18:31Speaker 1: a strong set of values. Lead from the front, but
- 18:35Speaker 1: don't don't need to be obnoxious to puff your chests.
- 18:40Speaker 1: In fact, that is a not only a distraction, it's
- 18:43Speaker 1: it's it's corrosive to both building confidence, confetency, getting people
- 18:51Speaker 1: follow you. Am I getting this right?
- 18:53Speaker 3: I think all of those things. And then the other
- 18:55Speaker 3: one for me is there's a a book.
- 19:00Speaker 4: Read by a guy called wil Gadara and it's called
- 19:03Speaker 4: Unreasonable Hospitality, and he quotes his father in that book
- 19:07Speaker 4: a lot, and his dad had a phrase that perspective
- 19:10Speaker 4: has an expiration date, no matter how long you try
- 19:12Speaker 4: and hold onto it. And his bookies about the restaurant
- 19:16Speaker 4: industry and service and He's saying, you know, when you're
- 19:18Speaker 4: a busboy busing tables, you'll remember that, But twenty years
- 19:23Speaker 4: when you're maybe running that restaurant or either manager or
- 19:25Speaker 4: something else, you'll forget what it felt like to do
- 19:28Speaker 4: that job. So for me, that perspective has an expiration date.
- 19:33Speaker 4: Like I've worked a customer service desk in Walmart.
- 19:36Speaker 3: Yes, but it was twenty years ago. So I know
- 19:39Speaker 3: the functions of how to do it.
- 19:41Speaker 4: I know the policy, I know how the register works,
- 19:43Speaker 4: I know how to serve somebody and be kind of
- 19:44Speaker 4: everything else, but I've forgotten what it feels like to
- 19:48Speaker 4: do that job for seven hours or eight hours at
- 19:50Speaker 4: a time, or to have to.
- 19:53Speaker 3: Deal with it.
- 19:53Speaker 4: So this perspective bit is important to me, particularly in
- 19:57Speaker 4: this role. I'm not a qualify truck driver, so I've
- 20:01Speaker 4: done a lot of jobs in Walmart. I've done most
- 20:03Speaker 4: of the jobs in a store, but I've never got
- 20:06Speaker 4: a CDL to drive a semi, so I don't have
- 20:11Speaker 4: that perspective of what it's.
- 20:12Speaker 3: Like to do that for a living.
- 20:14Speaker 4: So the only way I can get even close to
- 20:16Speaker 4: get in that perspective is to jump in a cab
- 20:18Speaker 4: and sit with a driver for a few hours and
- 20:21Speaker 4: drive with them and ask them questions and then listen.
- 20:25Speaker 4: And I love when I get to do that that
- 20:28Speaker 4: some of our drivers. Our drivers are some of the
- 20:30Speaker 4: best on the road. They're phenomenal people. They work really hard,
- 20:33Speaker 4: they're very conscientious and care deeply about their jobs and
- 20:37Speaker 4: one another, and I love spending time with them. But
- 20:40Speaker 4: that's an example of this. I think all those things
- 20:45Speaker 4: you said, plus this notion of staying close to who's
- 20:48Speaker 4: actually doing the work, and then listening to what they're
- 20:51Speaker 4: working on, listening to what they're saying, listening to what's
- 20:54Speaker 4: working well, go faster, listen to what's not working so
- 20:57Speaker 4: well so you can fix it or address it. And
- 21:01Speaker 4: if you're able to do that, you unlock so much value.
- 21:06Speaker 4: If we're doing something that's slowing us down, slowing down
- 21:10Speaker 4: a million people is not a good use of time.
- 21:14Speaker 4: So on our scale and our size and the volume
- 21:17Speaker 4: and the complexity of what we do, the simpler we
- 21:20Speaker 4: can make it and the more frictionless we can make it,
- 21:24Speaker 4: and that directly translates into how we serve our.
- 21:27Speaker 2: Customers and profit.
- 21:29Speaker 3: Yeah, let's say the top line, bottom line, all of it.
- 21:32Speaker 4: But if I just go through what's that associate experience
- 21:35Speaker 4: that directly impacts what our customer experience is and that
- 21:38Speaker 4: so that's where we put a lot of our focus
- 21:41Speaker 4: and energy to improve that.
- 21:43Speaker 1: When we were offline before we started the podcast, I
- 21:47Speaker 1: got I'd done something that I tell people not to do.
- 21:49Speaker 1: I started intellectualizing and complicating a simple issue, and I
- 21:54Speaker 1: was trying to make the perfect best of the good.
- 21:56Speaker 1: I already had good, but I want it perfect because
- 21:59Speaker 1: I'm affect perfection. And Kieran did what he just did
- 22:02Speaker 1: for you off camera. He said, basically, John, we're just
- 22:06Speaker 1: trying the customer or what the end, they just they're
- 22:09Speaker 1: just trying to meet rent today. They're just trying to
- 22:11Speaker 1: they're trying to have a good moment. They're just trying
- 22:13Speaker 1: to solve a problem. And you're doing that for them,
- 22:16Speaker 1: and let's stay you know I think it Just stay
- 22:18Speaker 1: focused on that and the other stuff will sort of
- 22:21Speaker 1: take care of itself or it won't. And that aligns
- 22:24Speaker 1: with what I tell people all the day, all the time,
- 22:25Speaker 1: which is ignore the noise. So sometimes you need to
- 22:29Speaker 1: be reminded by someone else of your own core values
- 22:33Speaker 1: to reinforce and get you back online. When I go
- 22:36Speaker 1: to a city, I always tell the driver get off
- 22:38Speaker 1: the freeway, go to an inner city, go to a
- 22:40Speaker 1: rural area. Don't just take me to the nice hotel.
- 22:43Speaker 1: I want to see how people are living in Columbus, Ohio,
- 22:47Speaker 1: or wherever it is, Dallas, Texas. So I get that
- 22:50Speaker 1: sense of the post field. It's the same thing that
- 22:53Speaker 1: Kieran just said in a different way. So you see
- 22:55Speaker 1: these leadership values translate. I want to get a couple
- 22:58Speaker 1: of really good questions in it before we run out
- 23:01Speaker 1: of times. As you can hear, I enjoyed talking to him,
- 23:03Speaker 1: and we could go on for an hour, an hour,
- 23:05Speaker 1: hours and hours on these topics where we don't have
- 23:07Speaker 1: limited time, and I want you to get lessons out
- 23:08Speaker 1: of this number two. We're talking about leadership and lessons
- 23:11Speaker 1: and core values and what matters, what doesn't please. Everybody
- 23:15Speaker 1: obsess on that because otherwise you'll win the battle and
- 23:18Speaker 1: you'll lose the war. People may want to do business
- 23:21Speaker 1: with you, but if you're obnoxious, are people think you're arrogant,
- 23:26Speaker 1: they're just unlikable. You're not warm, You'll lose a business.
- 23:30Speaker 1: You won't know how and won't know why. If you're
- 23:31Speaker 1: not relatable. So don't stop looking at if your Instagram
- 23:34Speaker 1: feed and start looking at your customer feed and how
- 23:38Speaker 1: to feed your customer.
- 23:41Speaker 2: Well.
- 23:41Speaker 1: Sam Walton is the epitome of what we're talking about here.
- 23:44Speaker 1: He started while Mart at forty four. I think the
- 23:47Speaker 1: era when he took a public it was fifty one ish,
- 23:51Speaker 1: but he was started at forty four with a pickup
- 23:54Speaker 1: truck and a storefront. Get us quickly. I don't want
- 23:57Speaker 1: to spend a lot of time on this, but I think
- 23:58Speaker 1: it's worth a few minutes. Tell us about that origin
- 24:00Speaker 1: experience and the struggles he had that he would have
- 24:03Speaker 1: been understand went easy, and the pull through to how
- 24:07Speaker 1: that is Walmart today, and then we'll go to some
- 24:09Speaker 1: questions about the current operations.
- 24:11Speaker 4: Yeah sure, and look I'm repeating history. I've studied and
- 24:15Speaker 4: learned and have been fortunate to hear from people that
- 24:18Speaker 4: knew him. But he passed in nineteen ninety two, so
- 24:23Speaker 4: I was ten eleven years old when he passed and
- 24:26Speaker 4: had never been to the States. So it's a real,
- 24:31Speaker 4: real honor to get to speak to people who still
- 24:33Speaker 4: work for us or who have worked for us, that
- 24:35Speaker 4: would have known him, spent time with him and interacted
- 24:38Speaker 4: with him, and hear their first hand accounts of that.
- 24:41Speaker 4: But yeah, Sam started in rural America. It was after
- 24:47Speaker 4: the Great Depression. He got into discount retail through franchising,
- 24:51Speaker 4: so he worked and got a Ben Franklin store franchise.
- 24:57Speaker 4: He was good, he was a student of the business,
- 25:00Speaker 4: he was curious, he took risks, he wasn't afraid to
- 25:05Speaker 4: do something different and swim upstream, and he made that
- 25:08Speaker 4: Ben Franklin incredibly successful. But then his landlord saw what
- 25:14Speaker 4: he was doing and wanted a bit of that business
- 25:16Speaker 4: for himself. And when Sam's lease ran out, he didn't
- 25:19Speaker 4: renew it and he basically said, no, you're done.
- 25:22Speaker 3: I'm not renewing, and he let So Sam had to
- 25:25Speaker 3: leave this story.
- 25:26Speaker 4: Just spent all these years building up and making really successful,
- 25:29Speaker 4: and someone else came in and took it over.
- 25:31Speaker 3: So you're right, at the age.
- 25:32Speaker 4: Of forty four, Sam had to start over. And I
- 25:37Speaker 4: am forty five.
- 25:37Speaker 1: Now.
- 25:38Speaker 4: I remember last year talking about this and reflecting, Man,
- 25:41Speaker 4: he's forty four, that's my age. Like the notion that
- 25:44Speaker 4: you'd totally start over at this stage was so so interesting.
- 25:48Speaker 3: But yeah, he got started.
- 25:51Speaker 2: They tried to steal his business idea essentially right.
- 25:54Speaker 3: Essentially, or just saw what he'd been able to do.
- 25:56Speaker 4: And I think the landlord wanted it for one of
- 25:58Speaker 4: his family and thought he could let Sam out of
- 26:00Speaker 4: the way and let let his son take over. But
- 26:03Speaker 4: so Sam got going. I think learned that lesson. He
- 26:06Speaker 4: borrowed money from his father in law, and then he
- 26:09Speaker 4: did the same thing over again in a different city.
- 26:11Speaker 3: Which happened to be Bent and Bill, Arkansas. And here
- 26:16Speaker 3: we are all these.
- 26:17Speaker 4: Years later, and the store he founded on the square
- 26:22Speaker 4: is now a museum.
- 26:23Speaker 3: You can go in there and walk around it.
- 26:25Speaker 4: So that that's fascinating us to think of what that
- 26:28Speaker 4: small town five and dime was and what it became.
- 26:30Speaker 4: He then, you know, realized, as that was being really successful,
- 26:34Speaker 4: as he started expanding, he grew the size of the
- 26:37Speaker 4: store and built a slightly bigger store. The story is
- 26:42Speaker 4: Walmart came around because they couldn't afford to call it
- 26:44Speaker 4: walton Mark, and Walmart was cheaper, so that's why it's Walmart.
- 26:48Speaker 4: It was, you know, three less letters to buy on
- 26:51Speaker 4: the signage. And I would say the seventies and we're
- 26:55Speaker 4: really around building realizing when you break down the costs
- 26:59Speaker 4: of retail, where was the money being spent.
- 27:01Speaker 3: If we could do distribution.
- 27:03Speaker 4: And supply chain ourselves, that was margin. We didn't have
- 27:07Speaker 4: to pay somebody else. If we were able to go
- 27:10Speaker 4: and buy ourselves rather than buying through a distributor, we
- 27:14Speaker 4: could save some money then pass that money back onto
- 27:16Speaker 4: our customers. So I think those early lessons of operating
- 27:19Speaker 4: with every day low cost came through in the seventies.
- 27:22Speaker 4: The eighties then became scaling and true of distribution and transportation.
- 27:27Speaker 4: If we could do ourselves, we could save money, control
- 27:31Speaker 4: it and do it well, but also pass those savings
- 27:33Speaker 4: onto the customer. And then in the eighties, I think
- 27:35Speaker 4: you saw that really scale with technology powering it as well,
- 27:39Speaker 4: and realizing the importance of data and being able to
- 27:42Speaker 4: connect data to drive the business and equip our leaders.
- 27:46Speaker 4: Then we, you know, after several attempts, came upon the
- 27:49Speaker 4: supercenter format, which has been a powerhouse of retail. I
- 27:53Speaker 4: would say, of just a really effective destination for customers
- 27:58Speaker 4: to get what they need with really really low prices,
- 28:02Speaker 4: really a broad assortment and the different services and everything
- 28:06Speaker 4: in one go. And what started in fairly rural towns
- 28:10Speaker 4: then started to go into larger towns and cities and
- 28:13Speaker 4: obviously where we could then support it. There might be
- 28:15Speaker 4: two or three Walmarts rather than just one in a town.
- 28:18Speaker 4: So then you get into the two thousands, and I'd
- 28:21Speaker 4: say it was more around going within the US and growing,
- 28:23Speaker 4: but also going overseas and you know Walmart, but as
- 28:27Speaker 4: the chain in the United Kingdom that I worked for
- 28:30Speaker 4: in ninety nine. I'll come back to that because there's
- 28:35Speaker 4: an important story about financial literacy there. And then we
- 28:39Speaker 4: know grew into other market We went into Mexico I
- 28:41Speaker 4: think in ninety two, as do As ninety nine, and
- 28:44Speaker 4: other markets around the world. And then then I think
- 28:47Speaker 4: the as the customer changed, we then had to evolve
- 28:50Speaker 4: into e commerce and adjusting our business and changing how
- 28:55Speaker 4: we work to serve customers in new ways and the
- 28:57Speaker 4: way that they wanted to be served both on line
- 29:00Speaker 4: and in store.
- 29:01Speaker 3: So that's a quick history.
- 29:05Speaker 4: John book probably takes you up to the you know,
- 29:08Speaker 4: early two thousands.
- 29:09Speaker 1: So being in Bittonville was a bit of an an accident,
- 29:15Speaker 1: so to speak. In other words, that wasn't the first store,
- 29:20Speaker 1: that was the restart, right.
- 29:22Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, he was in newpaul Aarkansas.
- 29:25Speaker 1: I think Wow and Benonville, and today Bittonville is basically
- 29:30Speaker 1: I say it, you won't say it. Uh, it's basically
- 29:33Speaker 1: you know many many It's like Walmart USA. You've built
- 29:37Speaker 1: You've built an economy for Bittonville which is fabulous, a
- 29:40Speaker 1: middle class and a working class and all these opportunities,
- 29:44Speaker 1: a really sophisticated place around the success of being Walmart's headquarters.
- 29:52Speaker 2: And that was a bit of an accident, in other.
- 29:55Speaker 1: Words, Bntonville was an accidental recipient of that first story
- 30:00Speaker 1: not working out.
- 30:01Speaker 3: Yeah, we're very fortunate.
- 30:03Speaker 4: I mean I've lived in dozens of places around the
- 30:06Speaker 4: world and around this country, and it's a.
- 30:09Speaker 3: Great place to live, great place.
- 30:11Speaker 4: To bring up kids, and very outdoors and you know,
- 30:15Speaker 4: Arkansas called the natural state for good reason.
- 30:18Speaker 3: So we're very fortunate.
- 30:20Speaker 4: And yeah, the town's changed a lot, for sure over
- 30:23Speaker 4: the years. I first came here in two thousand and three,
- 30:27Speaker 4: so I've been able to see some of how it's
- 30:28Speaker 4: changed over the years. But yeah, it's a great place
- 30:32Speaker 4: to live, as I said, to raise a family and
- 30:36Speaker 4: good people, you know, hard working, respectful people. Origins in
- 30:41Speaker 4: agriculture and farming and that's still true today.
- 30:46Speaker 1: Tell me about tell the audience the difference between Sam's
- 30:51Speaker 1: Club in Walmart? Why do you have both? Are there
- 30:57Speaker 1: other brands that people don't know about? Why the differentiation?
- 31:01Speaker 1: Why do not just have Walmart? And then I want
- 31:04Speaker 1: to get into wealth creation and financial literacy and your
- 31:08Speaker 1: associates and is it possible, by the way, to do
- 31:11Speaker 1: that with your employee group. But let I'm trying to
- 31:13Speaker 1: cover a lot of ground in this podcast.
- 31:15Speaker 2: Yeah, sure.
- 31:16Speaker 4: Sam's is a membership club, So customers paid paid to
- 31:20Speaker 4: become a member, and then for that membership, for what
- 31:24Speaker 4: they've paid, we want to make sure we give them value.
- 31:28Speaker 4: And that value might be in the form of lower
- 31:30Speaker 4: priced items. It might be in the form of services
- 31:33Speaker 4: and uh and an assortment that they can't get elsewhere,
- 31:39Speaker 4: or it might be in the form of convenience and
- 31:42Speaker 4: things that we offer them.
- 31:43Speaker 3: So Salms is a great part of Walmart.
- 31:45Speaker 4: It's a great business within a business. It has a
- 31:50Speaker 4: distinct value proposition to its members. People love Sam's and
- 31:55Speaker 4: that the people that work there do a phenomenal job
- 31:57Speaker 4: of curating the assortment that they offer. It's limited items,
- 32:01Speaker 4: so it might be five or six thousand items as
- 32:04Speaker 4: opposed to the couple one hundred thousand items you'd find
- 32:08Speaker 4: in a supercenter. Wow, it's at a value, it's with
- 32:12Speaker 4: a convenience, and then it has a lot of added
- 32:14Speaker 4: value services like meat and bakery and cafeteria and optical
- 32:19Speaker 4: and pharmacy and tire and auto care center, so a
- 32:24Speaker 4: lot of services that complement the core membership but plays
- 32:29Speaker 4: an important role in a lot of customers, a lot
- 32:32Speaker 4: of members' lives. And you know a lot of small
- 32:37Speaker 4: businesses and people who host.
- 32:39Speaker 3: Whether that's through their work or through their church, or.
- 32:42Speaker 4: Through their school or family, that they would want to
- 32:46Speaker 4: access Sam's for the prepared meals or the items and
- 32:51Speaker 4: services that they offer that suit what they need.
- 32:54Speaker 3: We shot both, honestly.
- 32:57Speaker 4: We love going to the club to see what's new
- 32:59Speaker 4: and what's that exciting, and my boys will often ask
- 33:03Speaker 4: to go some weekends.
- 33:05Speaker 3: And then, as you'd expect, spend a.
- 33:06Speaker 4: Lot of time in Walmart as well. And then the
- 33:09Speaker 4: interesting bit with with e comm now is that people
- 33:12Speaker 4: can access everything I've just said from their phone as
- 33:15Speaker 4: well and get it delivered to home. And sometimes you know,
- 33:20Speaker 4: people shop a bit of both and and maybe different
- 33:23Speaker 4: items that they want.
- 33:24Speaker 3: So that's how Salms works. It's a great part of Walmart.
- 33:29Speaker 4: We I think it leverages the best of Walmart, but
- 33:32Speaker 4: it's also unique and distinct in who they are and
- 33:35Speaker 4: who they're serving and how they're serving them. And then,
- 33:37Speaker 4: of course in Walmart, we serve everyone. We serve everyone,
- 33:42Speaker 4: and we're really proud to do that and honored to
- 33:44Speaker 4: play that role. And whether you're looking for your groceries
- 33:47Speaker 4: for the week, whether you're looking for a snack and
- 33:50Speaker 4: you're on a road trip, whether you're looking for a
- 33:53Speaker 4: birthday present, or to you know, you're doing a project,
- 33:57Speaker 4: you need some tools or some equipment to fix up
- 33:59Speaker 4: a part out of your house, or if you can't
- 34:01Speaker 4: need an oil change, or you need a prescription delivered.
- 34:04Speaker 3: We've got you.
- 34:05Speaker 2: Look massager.
- 34:08Speaker 3: That one of my favorite things. You seen it, you'll
- 34:12Speaker 3: get it.
- 34:13Speaker 4: One of my favorite things is watching a kid get
- 34:17Speaker 4: a bike for the first time. And oftentimes you know
- 34:22Speaker 4: their parents' grandparents, whoever's buying it will bring them to
- 34:24Speaker 4: Walmart and they'll get their bike.
- 34:25Speaker 3: And I've been able to do it with my boys.
- 34:27Speaker 4: And when you walk out the store with a bike,
- 34:31Speaker 4: how kind every other customer every a cell sit in
- 34:34Speaker 4: that story is kind of giving high fives to that
- 34:37Speaker 4: kid who's walking out with their bike. I love seeing that,
- 34:40Speaker 4: just the delight on this kid's face, but how how
- 34:43Speaker 4: much impacts everyone else who's in the store when they
- 34:46Speaker 4: see that happening. And as I said, I've been fortunate
- 34:49Speaker 4: to do it as the the dad buying it, But
- 34:51Speaker 4: if I ever see a parent or whoever it may be,
- 34:54Speaker 4: buying a bike for a kid, I love just seeing
- 34:57Speaker 4: that that moment that that kid's going to remember and
- 34:59Speaker 4: that we get to play a part in that as
- 35:02Speaker 4: the retailer that sold them.
- 35:05Speaker 1: So recently, that's cool, very cool, and I love I
- 35:08Speaker 1: love the massage I'm using right now by the way
- 35:10Speaker 1: from Walmart.
- 35:11Speaker 3: It's very good.
- 35:12Speaker 1: So so recently Walmart said we're not gonna fire our
- 35:18Speaker 1: associates because of AI. We're gonna teach them AI, which
- 35:23Speaker 1: I think is really quite brilliant of a move to
- 35:26Speaker 1: mate and it's counterintuitive to a lot of what a
- 35:29Speaker 1: lot of other folks are doing. You can you keep
- 35:31Speaker 1: reinventing yourself, reimagining in a time where affordability is really
- 35:35Speaker 1: a real problem, where gas fuel prices are up, essentials
- 35:41Speaker 1: are up, cost of living is up, in jobs seem
- 35:44Speaker 1: down or at conflict. People don't know that you can
- 35:49Speaker 1: have a career at Walmart. Can you tell talk very
- 35:51Speaker 1: quickly about I was shocked to hear this, but I
- 35:53Speaker 1: went to one of your meetings. The managers, the store managers.
- 35:58Speaker 1: The store managers are doing incredibly well. So somebody get well.
- 36:02Speaker 1: I don't want to tell the audience how much a
- 36:05Speaker 1: store manager can make.
- 36:07Speaker 2: Please.
- 36:08Speaker 4: Yeah, some store managers will be be north of three
- 36:12Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars. What so we are seventy five percent
- 36:19Speaker 4: of our management started as alleys, and I'm one of those.
- 36:23Speaker 4: I started on I was sixteen and was on an
- 36:25Speaker 4: hourly wage and fell in love with a company and
- 36:28Speaker 4: just grew at the higher end. You can go even
- 36:31Speaker 4: north of that. We've got some a touch in five
- 36:34Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars.
- 36:35Speaker 1: But I met somebody making five hundred thousand dollars who
- 36:38Speaker 1: I was a stun a store manager.
- 36:40Speaker 4: Yeah, and we we don't mind what your background is.
- 36:44Speaker 4: We don't mind what your level of education is. We
- 36:47Speaker 4: don't mind where you're from, how you grew up, whatever
- 36:50Speaker 4: start you had in life. As long as you can
- 36:53Speaker 4: work hard you're curious to learn. If you're going to
- 36:57Speaker 4: lead people, we want you to be kind and lead
- 36:58Speaker 4: people properly. And you're willing to change and adapt and evolve,
- 37:03Speaker 4: there's a role for you in a place for you here.
- 37:06Speaker 4: I get a ton of energy from seeing people progress
- 37:08Speaker 4: and grow in the company I've been fortunate to do it.
- 37:11Speaker 4: I think it's important that all of us, as leaders
- 37:13Speaker 4: and management, help others get on. I I did go
- 37:20Speaker 4: to law school. I well two things on our let's
- 37:23Speaker 4: go quick back to financial literacy. When I started with
- 37:27Speaker 4: a company, I remember in my onboarding it was an
- 37:30Speaker 4: associate called Sue was doing the onboarding and she encouraged
- 37:35Speaker 4: me to sign up for our associate share ownership program.
- 37:38Speaker 3: So set the scene.
- 37:39Speaker 4: I'm sixteen, I'm doing fifteen hours a week and I
- 37:42Speaker 4: earned two pounds eighty four an hour, so I wasn't
- 37:44Speaker 4: earning big bucks.
- 37:46Speaker 2: This is you boat this in the UK.
- 37:48Speaker 4: But she encouraged to sign up for this and the
- 37:50Speaker 4: minimum I could save was five pounds a week, so
- 37:53Speaker 4: twenty bucks a month. So I did because this lady
- 37:57Speaker 4: was so passionate about it and encouraged me to do it.
- 38:01Speaker 4: Fast forward two years Walmart's just acquired Asda. I'm going
- 38:04Speaker 4: off to university, and all that saving that I've been
- 38:07Speaker 4: able to invest into the Walmart stock meant I could
- 38:10Speaker 4: go to university with a pot of money to pay
- 38:13Speaker 4: my tuition, and no it was twelve five hundred pounds.
- 38:19Speaker 4: So just because that lady encouraged me to do it,
- 38:22Speaker 4: I have this sum of money that then I'm able
- 38:25Speaker 4: to use to avoid going into debt. Now, I worked
- 38:28Speaker 4: all the way through college as well, so that didn't
- 38:29Speaker 4: pay the whole way, but it helped me massively just
- 38:32Speaker 4: because of her encouraging me to do it.
- 38:34Speaker 3: So that's one way back.
- 38:35Speaker 2: Then.
- 38:36Speaker 4: Then fast forward and I'm about to graduate and I'm
- 38:41Speaker 4: sat in the breakroom in the store and my store
- 38:43Speaker 4: manager sat down with me and several of my friends,
- 38:46Speaker 4: and she asked us all what we're going to do.
- 38:48Speaker 4: And her name was Hella Milford, and I said, I
- 38:50Speaker 4: don't know what I'm going to do, but I know
- 38:51Speaker 4: it won't be law I knew after I'd studied it,
- 38:55Speaker 4: I didn't want to go and be a lawyer and
- 38:56Speaker 4: build people and that be what my life was. And
- 39:00Speaker 4: she encouraged me to pursue staying at Walmart and develop
- 39:05Speaker 4: and take on more responsibility. And she helped me, you know,
- 39:09Speaker 4: go through and then get an interview to go on
- 39:11Speaker 4: a management training program and that was two thousand and three,
- 39:16Speaker 4: and from there I went on to become a store
- 39:18Speaker 4: manager myself. I did that in several stores and a
- 39:21Speaker 4: district manager, and then into e commerce, then moved over
- 39:24Speaker 4: to the States. And I was very fortunate to have
- 39:27Speaker 4: had her guidance and the fact she took that minute
- 39:31Speaker 4: and it was probably five minutes total to do that.
- 39:34Speaker 4: So with that in mind, as I stand in front
- 39:36Speaker 4: of our store managers and talk about the role they
- 39:39Speaker 4: play and the impact they can have, I guarantee if
- 39:44Speaker 4: I asked any group of leaders in our business, they
- 39:47Speaker 4: would all be able to say someone's name who invested
- 39:50Speaker 4: a little bit of time or encouragement or a bit
- 39:53Speaker 4: of guidance. And they may not have been getting that
- 39:55Speaker 4: at home, and it just happened that someone at work
- 39:57Speaker 4: gave them a nudge or a bit of direction, but
- 40:00Speaker 4: it helped them get on a path that they've been
- 40:02Speaker 4: able to continue and grow and work hard and achieve.
- 40:05Speaker 4: But it's really important for all of us to help others,
- 40:07Speaker 4: and that's a big part of what makes warm out
- 40:10Speaker 4: special is the opportunities that are open to people, and that, yes,
- 40:15Speaker 4: for a retailer, yes, we sell basics and things that
- 40:18Speaker 4: people need and things that people love, and.
- 40:21Speaker 3: It's a very.
- 40:23Speaker 4: Functional thing that we may do. But there is opportunity
- 40:26Speaker 4: within that, and we're an enormous employer and we don't mind.
- 40:31Speaker 4: We don't mind what your background. As I said, we
- 40:34Speaker 4: just want people who can work hard, are curious to learn,
- 40:39Speaker 4: and they're adaptable, and that they'll treat people kindly and
- 40:42Speaker 4: and be good leaders of people and make sure that
- 40:45Speaker 4: as we keep growing and keep scaling, that that's who
- 40:48Speaker 4: we've got as part of our team and part of
- 40:51Speaker 4: our culture. The AI bit John for me on AI
- 40:55Speaker 4: and automation anything like that. Our primary function is like,
- 40:59Speaker 4: how do we can growing? And if I can use
- 41:02Speaker 4: AI to find more ways to grow or to enable
- 41:06Speaker 4: more capacity within our business, that's a good thing. Then
- 41:10Speaker 4: go and look for how can I use it to
- 41:12Speaker 4: help improve our associates work experience or our customer's shopping
- 41:16Speaker 4: experience and those two are usually pretty linked.
- 41:20Speaker 3: How can we do that? And then we get to
- 41:23Speaker 3: where can it help us with cost?
- 41:25Speaker 4: But we decided quite early on as we started to
- 41:28Speaker 4: hear all the projections and some of the concerns that
- 41:31Speaker 4: are out there around it. As long as we're serving people,
- 41:35Speaker 4: we want to have people serving people, and that's something
- 41:39Speaker 4: that guides us. It's what makes us special, we believe,
- 41:42Speaker 4: and those of us that have been here a long time,
- 41:45Speaker 4: those that have been here for a few years, you know,
- 41:49Speaker 4: we've got a really clear purpose to help people save
- 41:51Speaker 4: money and live better, with really clear values of how
- 41:54Speaker 4: we will act and how we will operate and how
- 41:56Speaker 4: we will lead our respect and integrity and serve this
- 42:00Speaker 4: and doing that with excellence. So we sit through all
- 42:03Speaker 4: of that and there's such a strong foundation for us
- 42:07Speaker 4: and guiding principles for how to operate and whether it's
- 42:11Speaker 4: a I or anything else, and we apply our values
- 42:15Speaker 4: our purpose to them, and that's what guides I.
- 42:18Speaker 1: Remind people who obsessed with technology, and I'm a technologist,
- 42:23Speaker 1: I'm a technological geek. I love technology, but I remind
- 42:27Speaker 1: people who think that it can replace humans. I remind
- 42:30Speaker 1: people that even the most sophisticated dating app, the whole
- 42:34Speaker 1: purpose of that is so that you actually meet somebody
- 42:37Speaker 1: in person. So you're trying to get to the personal interaction.
- 42:41Speaker 1: And so technology can be catalytic, it can be very
- 42:44Speaker 1: it saves time, saves money, But at the end of
- 42:47Speaker 1: the day, you're trying to get to that that the
- 42:50Speaker 1: differentiator is going to be in large part that customer interaction,
- 42:54Speaker 1: that personal interaction.
- 42:55Speaker 4: As they agree, so I think, I actually think as
- 42:59Speaker 4: technologlogy plays a bigger role and plays more of a
- 43:03Speaker 4: role in our lives, people crave the human interaction even
- 43:07Speaker 4: more and it might only be a smile or a
- 43:10Speaker 4: kind word, or a kind gesture, or just to chat
- 43:14Speaker 4: with someone. But that's why we're so bullish on our
- 43:17Speaker 4: stores and our physical footprint. It enables us to do
- 43:22Speaker 4: an e comm and do it really fast. So it's
- 43:24Speaker 4: a really strong network that we have. But it's also
- 43:27Speaker 4: about the human connection and our people. We have a phrase,
- 43:31Speaker 4: our people make the difference. It's on everybody's name badge.
- 43:33Speaker 4: We absolutely believe that our people make the difference.
- 43:38Speaker 2: As we turn the corner. Here around the corner.
- 43:41Speaker 1: To wrap up this interview, let's focus now we're quickly
- 43:44Speaker 1: on financial literacy. You and I both believe it is
- 43:47Speaker 1: the civil rights issue. I don't put it worth with
- 43:50Speaker 1: your mouth. I believe it is the civil rights issue
- 43:52Speaker 1: of this generation. You believe it's critically important inside outside
- 43:56Speaker 1: the store. I was with some of your leaders at
- 43:59Speaker 1: one of your store your store manager meetings where people
- 44:01Speaker 1: got to recognize and it was a black lady who
- 44:04Speaker 1: came up. Her husband was there with her, and she
- 44:07Speaker 1: had she had a high school education, She came up
- 44:10Speaker 1: through Walmart. She was incredibly smart, and she was making
- 44:13Speaker 1: five hundred thousand dollars a year. And that's when you said,
- 44:16Speaker 1: some people make five one thousand a year, she's one
- 44:18Speaker 1: of them. I was blown away. I mean, it puts
- 44:21Speaker 1: her in the top tier of all earners in wealth
- 44:24Speaker 1: creators in America. Now, it's not just what you make,
- 44:27Speaker 1: is what you keep. So whether you're making five one
- 44:30Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year or fifty thousand or twenty five thousand,
- 44:34Speaker 1: my guest says, you think that this financial literacy piece
- 44:37Speaker 1: is really important to keeping your associates happy and comfortable
- 44:42Speaker 1: and calms that can focus on the customer experience, help
- 44:45Speaker 1: me understand, help the audience understand why you have decided
- 44:49Speaker 1: to make to be the internal advocate and on Operation
- 44:52Speaker 1: Hope is honored to be a partner with Walmart in
- 44:55Speaker 1: this activity and people will hear more about that in
- 44:58Speaker 1: weeks and months to come, what we're going to be
- 45:00Speaker 1: doing together in the addition of financial literacy for all coalition.
- 45:03Speaker 1: Why is this important to you personally in organizationally.
- 45:08Speaker 3: No, it's really simple.
- 45:10Speaker 4: I've been a beneficiary of it, and I think it's
- 45:14Speaker 4: important when you've done that to help others. And the
- 45:16Speaker 4: role I've got, the role that we've got as Walmart,
- 45:18Speaker 4: we're able to have an outsized impact. And when we're
- 45:22Speaker 4: able to do that, we should and on this, you know,
- 45:24Speaker 4: it affects everybody.
- 45:27Speaker 3: I look at where someone.
- 45:29Speaker 4: May have had a lifestyle change, they get a new job,
- 45:31Speaker 4: or they you know, get married or have kids, or
- 45:34Speaker 4: they buy a home, or when something you know, something
- 45:36Speaker 4: bad happens and that they're in an accident and they
- 45:39Speaker 4: have a crisis that they've got to work through, or
- 45:42Speaker 4: they get a healthcare diagnosis that that changes things. Those
- 45:47Speaker 4: are moments that everyone will go through. I'm good, bad
- 45:51Speaker 4: and everything in between. We'll all go through those moments.
- 45:54Speaker 4: And if your financial health is in a tough but
- 46:00Speaker 4: it will make all those things worse. If your financial
- 46:04Speaker 4: health is in a stronger sport or and a healthier spot.
- 46:07Speaker 4: It may not make those things go away, it may
- 46:09Speaker 4: not make them easy, but it could make them easier.
- 46:12Speaker 4: And you know, we employ a million four people and
- 46:16Speaker 4: we serve tens of millions every week, so we have
- 46:20Speaker 4: a really we have an opportunity there to help people,
- 46:24Speaker 4: and our purpose is to help people save money so
- 46:26Speaker 4: they can live better. And immediately go to price on
- 46:30Speaker 4: that well, yet lower prices, I get more money, I
- 46:32Speaker 4: can do more with it.
- 46:33Speaker 3: And we're really.
- 46:33Speaker 4: Proud to have low prices and take our responsibility there
- 46:37Speaker 4: very seriously. But that saved money, live better goes beyond
- 46:41Speaker 4: that as well. And then as I think about within
- 46:43Speaker 4: our associates and that example you gave of the lady
- 46:48Speaker 4: that spoke about her career, and when I sit down
- 46:51Speaker 4: with associates and ask them to tell me, you know,
- 46:53Speaker 4: particularly if I've got some who's been here for twenty
- 46:56Speaker 4: thirty years, like why do you stay? And it's not
- 46:59Speaker 4: uncommon front as to say, well, I was able to
- 47:01Speaker 4: put all three of my kids through school whilst working
- 47:04Speaker 4: at Walmart, and Walmart was flexible with shifts when I
- 47:07Speaker 4: was having my kids, so I was able to balance
- 47:10Speaker 4: work and life at the same time, or Walmart gave
- 47:13Speaker 4: me a chance when no one else would. Whatever I'd done,
- 47:16Speaker 4: whatever had happened, whatever had gone on, no one else
- 47:19Speaker 4: wanted to know me. But they gave me a shot.
- 47:21Speaker 4: And all they cared about was can you work harder?
- 47:23Speaker 3: You kind? And they gave me a shot.
- 47:26Speaker 4: And so I think, because that's so inherent in a
- 47:29Speaker 4: lot of our leaders and a lot of people that's
- 47:31Speaker 4: a store manager and whoever else who's grown up in
- 47:33Speaker 4: the business, When I then encourage our teams to do
- 47:36Speaker 4: more of that, it's not a hard leap for people
- 47:38Speaker 4: to make say, yeah, I believe in that, Yeah, I've
- 47:41Speaker 4: been fortunate.
- 47:41Speaker 3: I want to help others.
- 47:43Speaker 4: And then when we break it down to two who
- 47:45Speaker 4: helped me sign up for share safe or Helen who
- 47:50Speaker 4: encouraged me to pursue a career when I might not
- 47:52Speaker 4: otherwise have thought I could, it's not a big ask
- 47:56Speaker 4: that we make people to do this. It might be
- 47:58Speaker 4: one conversation or one comment or a couple of interactions
- 48:01Speaker 4: that can change the course of someone's life, or can
- 48:04Speaker 4: just you know, help them with their financial situation, particularly.
- 48:10Speaker 3: As they if they're going to grow. You know, we
- 48:11Speaker 3: don't mind.
- 48:12Speaker 4: If someone's with us for a couple of years and
- 48:14Speaker 4: then goes on to do something else, or if they
- 48:16Speaker 4: want to stay with us and have a career like
- 48:18Speaker 4: I've done for thirty odd years.
- 48:20Speaker 3: We're good either way.
- 48:21Speaker 4: But I'd hope that anyone's interaction with Walmart, they'll leave
- 48:24Speaker 4: better for it. And what we've also found there's a
- 48:30Speaker 4: role we can play because when someone comes into the workplace,
- 48:35Speaker 4: we're going to teach them how to do the job,
- 48:38Speaker 4: and we build out a network of what we call academies.
- 48:42Speaker 4: They've been going for ten years now in the United States.
- 48:45Speaker 4: We've had over three point five million people go through
- 48:48Speaker 4: an academy and get skills, and that might be specific
- 48:52Speaker 4: skills for a job, it might be broader skills, whatever
- 48:56Speaker 4: it may be. And that then led to what we
- 48:59Speaker 4: call LBU Better University, where someone's able to get a
- 49:03Speaker 4: college degree whilst they're working at Walmart. And and initially
- 49:08Speaker 4: it was for a dollar a day, and then after
- 49:10Speaker 4: a year we stopped that and now it's just part
- 49:12Speaker 4: of their benefits that they're able to get a degree
- 49:14Speaker 4: with us. And I love when I hear it, and
- 49:17Speaker 4: because we've been doing that a while now, you're seeing
- 49:19Speaker 4: people graduate, and we love when someone graduates, and we
- 49:22Speaker 4: make a great deal of that. No, we partner with
- 49:27Speaker 4: with other universities throughout the country, so they are credited.
- 49:30Speaker 4: They'll do their course with that university. So it's a
- 49:33Speaker 4: it's degree from the institution, but but we we fund
- 49:37Speaker 4: it and oftentimes will will help figure out courses that
- 49:41Speaker 4: might be suitable to then take on a bigger role
- 49:44Speaker 4: or a different, you know, structured job within Walmart. The
- 49:48Speaker 4: last bit I'll say on that that you know and
- 49:51Speaker 4: we talk about the store management and the leadership opportunity
- 49:55Speaker 4: to grow and take on more responsibility.
- 49:57Speaker 3: I'm also conscious not everybody wants to lead a lot
- 49:59Speaker 3: of people. I didn't think I did.
- 50:03Speaker 4: Then I did it and I realized I loved it,
- 50:04Speaker 4: but I wouldn't have seen I wanted to do it initially.
- 50:07Speaker 4: And we also have a couple of programs that we've
- 50:09Speaker 4: been really excited to see them working. Associate to Driver
- 50:13Speaker 4: and then Associate to Tech.
- 50:15Speaker 3: And this is where if.
- 50:16Speaker 4: You want to, you can apply and go on a
- 50:20Speaker 4: training program to become a fleet driver where you drive
- 50:25Speaker 4: a semi truck for Walmart, and we put you through
- 50:28Speaker 4: all the training and the qualification and come out of
- 50:31Speaker 4: the side and then you can become a fleet driver.
- 50:34Speaker 4: That's a role that pays, you know, between one hundred
- 50:37Speaker 4: and one hundred and thirty five.
- 50:38Speaker 3: Thousand dollars a year.
- 50:39Speaker 2: Wow.
- 50:40Speaker 4: So it's a well paid job that it's hard work.
- 50:42Speaker 4: You're on the road like, let's not be it's not easy, yeah,
- 50:46Speaker 4: and you've got to be safe and you've got to
- 50:48Speaker 4: drive and you know, there's a lot of people on
- 50:49Speaker 4: the road that aren't safe and you're there in a
- 50:51Speaker 4: Walmart truck. So we have very high standards and high expectations.
- 50:55Speaker 4: But our associates were able to apply for that, and
- 50:59Speaker 4: we've had several one hundred associates graduate and become fleet drivers,
- 51:02Speaker 4: which I love seeing that.
- 51:04Speaker 3: And then Associate to Tech.
- 51:05Speaker 4: So we have roughly ten thousand facilities maintenance technicians and
- 51:10Speaker 4: they would maintain the fridgers, the electrical, the plumbing in
- 51:13Speaker 4: our stores and in our supply chain buildings. We're able
- 51:17Speaker 4: to give some a role as a tech and then
- 51:20Speaker 4: train them and send them off to trade school to
- 51:23Speaker 4: get the qualifications they need to be equipped to maintain
- 51:26Speaker 4: our equipment and our assets. And our Associate to Tech
- 51:30Speaker 4: program is another one where someone who's worked for us
- 51:33Speaker 4: is able to apply and then they're able to earn
- 51:36Speaker 4: more money in a higher hourly rate, and they don't
- 51:38Speaker 4: have to take on load of management responsibilities if they
- 51:40Speaker 4: don't want.
- 51:41Speaker 3: But it's another pathway.
- 51:42Speaker 4: And I think that's the bottom line, would be the
- 51:46Speaker 4: pathways and the opportunities that are open to people here.
- 51:50Speaker 4: I think that's one that people don't often realize or
- 51:53Speaker 4: that they underestimate. Yes, we're a retailer, but we're an
- 51:57Speaker 4: enormous employer, and there are tons of opportunities and different
- 52:01Speaker 4: directions people can take, and a real breadth of skills
- 52:05Speaker 4: and careers within a retail.
- 52:09Speaker 1: I mean, you're really a country. You're really the size
- 52:11Speaker 1: of a small country in the body of a company,
- 52:15Speaker 1: and you have all of the mechanisms that a country
- 52:18Speaker 1: or a one of the biggest companies in the world
- 52:21Speaker 1: would have, and you need support for all that. And
- 52:24Speaker 1: that support is opportunity for people who might be watching
- 52:28Speaker 1: this podcast who can start at the bottom like you
- 52:32Speaker 1: and go to the top. I know we started a
- 52:35Speaker 1: little late, we have some technical issues as we may
- 52:38Speaker 1: be running out of time. This has been such an
- 52:39Speaker 1: important conversation. Do you have time for one more question.
- 52:42Speaker 1: It's okay if you don't, Yeah, go for it. Okay,
- 52:44Speaker 1: I'm going to combine three questions in the one because
- 52:47Speaker 1: we have a shorter on time and I can hell
- 52:49Speaker 1: what's going on here, And he's telling his people, look,
- 52:51Speaker 1: just hold off, I'll be done in a minute. He's
- 52:54Speaker 1: so gracious about it. Thank your support team for giving
- 52:56Speaker 1: me a bit more time. This is so important. I
- 52:59Speaker 1: was talking to when Doug Millan was CEO. There was
- 53:03Speaker 1: some brew haha in the country about this and that
- 53:05Speaker 1: and social issues and naming title and Doug called me.
- 53:09Speaker 1: I didn't call him. He called me and he said, look, John,
- 53:12Speaker 1: just to be clear, we're simple. We're going to keep
- 53:16Speaker 1: all our promises and it ain't not be on billboards
- 53:19Speaker 1: and all that stuff. Just so you know the data
- 53:21Speaker 1: is going to be Just check the data, check the numbers,
- 53:23Speaker 1: and know that we're surveycing and contracting and hiring and
- 53:28Speaker 1: doing all these things and hitting our marks. Keep us
- 53:30Speaker 1: honest by checking the numbers every quarter. And I have
- 53:34Speaker 1: and you guys have kept those promises. And I encourage
- 53:36Speaker 1: anybody else to look at you Visa VI your peers
- 53:40Speaker 1: so you can comment or not, but I want to
- 53:42Speaker 1: get that out there because somebody's going to be asking
- 53:43Speaker 1: and I want to just answer it straight up that
- 53:46Speaker 1: actually had that conversation. My guess is John Frenie would
- 53:49Speaker 1: feel the same way. Here's the combined question. Walmart serves urban, suburban,
- 53:54Speaker 1: and rural communities across the country, basically everybody. How do
- 53:58Speaker 1: you think about the company's relationshi to communities that rely
- 54:01Speaker 1: on Walmart as an economic anchor? What do you believe
- 54:05Speaker 1: people misunderstood or understand most about the modern retail workforce
- 54:09Speaker 1: and the opportunities that can come from it. Basically, we
- 54:11Speaker 1: just covered that, by the way, but you can accentuate
- 54:13Speaker 1: if you want, and looking ahead, what the success like
- 54:17Speaker 1: for Walmart in America over the next five to ten years,
- 54:20Speaker 1: not just as a business, but as a force in
- 54:23Speaker 1: people's lives in a community you operate in. Now, you
- 54:26Speaker 1: essentially partially answer two of those questions, But to me,
- 54:31Speaker 1: I want to end with a vision from your perspective,
- 54:35Speaker 1: how can Walmart or is Walmart being a force for
- 54:38Speaker 1: good in the next five or ten years from your perspective.
- 54:42Speaker 4: Yeah, I think Look, I think of it as a journey,
- 54:49Speaker 4: and you know, we want to be relevant to our customers.
- 54:53Speaker 4: We want to serve the communities soon we serve and
- 54:56Speaker 4: in the communities where we exist. But it's a journey
- 55:00Speaker 4: towards that, and we'll keep evolving and changing in line
- 55:04Speaker 4: with what our customers tell us they want.
- 55:07Speaker 3: You've seen us do that through history.
- 55:10Speaker 4: Our formats have evolved, the services we offer have evolved
- 55:15Speaker 4: to make sure we're serving our customers. We want to
- 55:17Speaker 4: be consistent and true to who we are, our culture,
- 55:21Speaker 4: our values, our beliefs. So I think that stays the same.
- 55:26Speaker 4: But outside of that, we're pretty open and willing to
- 55:29Speaker 4: change and evolve. And for me, the important bit is
- 55:33Speaker 4: that we take our people with us on that journey,
- 55:36Speaker 4: and roles may evolve and jobs may evolve, and will
- 55:39Speaker 4: give our people the skills to keep adapting and take
- 55:42Speaker 4: on new responsibilities. So we see, you know, we have
- 55:47Speaker 4: a really important role in every community that we serve
- 55:51Speaker 4: as a place that people shop and get what they need,
- 55:54Speaker 4: a place that helps them stretch their dollars if they
- 55:56Speaker 4: need that, a place that gives you know, employment and
- 56:01Speaker 4: careers and pathways to people. That that's a really important
- 56:06Speaker 4: part of who we are and what we do. And
- 56:08Speaker 4: then we want to play an active role in the
- 56:09Speaker 4: communities that we serve through the schools and churches and
- 56:12Speaker 4: different groups that are there to make sure we're part
- 56:14Speaker 4: of that community.
- 56:17Speaker 3: I think what are people misunderstand? I think I think
- 56:22Speaker 3: it's probably that opportunity bit, just.
- 56:24Speaker 4: The breadth and the scale of opportunity, on the scale
- 56:28Speaker 4: of opportunities and the breadth of that. You may work
- 56:33Speaker 4: in cyber security inside Walmart, you may work as an
- 56:38Speaker 4: economist inside Walmart, and you may work as a truck driver.
- 56:42Speaker 4: You may work as I did, making pizzas behind a
- 56:44Speaker 4: deli counter. There's an enormous breadth of roles and there's
- 56:49Speaker 4: an encouragement to switch lanes and try new things. And
- 56:53Speaker 4: if you're curious and willing to learn and go through
- 56:57Speaker 4: the journey of trying something new and going out of
- 57:01Speaker 4: your comfort zone, there's tons of opportunities for people.
- 57:06Speaker 3: And and I love that.
- 57:07Speaker 4: That is true no matter who you are, where you
- 57:09Speaker 4: come from, what your what your background is. I really
- 57:14Speaker 4: love that aspect of Walmart, that it's more about what
- 57:16Speaker 4: you do and how you do it. And then as
- 57:20Speaker 4: I look ahead, I think we're excited to keep evolving
- 57:24Speaker 4: with AI and automation, all these new capabilities that are
- 57:28Speaker 4: out there. We don't want to be late, so we
- 57:30Speaker 4: try and lots of things. We're really partnering with people
- 57:34Speaker 4: to help us try lots of things and put them
- 57:36Speaker 4: in front of customers and see what works. As I said,
- 57:39Speaker 4: wherever we're able to find more capacity to keep growing,
- 57:43Speaker 4: improve the experience our associates have whilst they're at work
- 57:46Speaker 4: and the experience our customers have. We're really open and
- 57:49Speaker 4: encouraged by some of what we've been able to do
- 57:51Speaker 4: and excite about what's ahead. But we're also grounded in,
- 57:56Speaker 4: you know, we serve people, and we want to make
- 57:59Speaker 4: sure people can get what they need, that they get
- 58:01Speaker 4: every day low price, and that they can trust us
- 58:04Speaker 4: on the price they're paying, and that we play a
- 58:06Speaker 4: convenient part in their lives. And what what what's great
- 58:10Speaker 4: is as someone's life changes, as they go from being
- 58:13Speaker 4: you know, single to maybe you know, starting a family,
- 58:16Speaker 4: to going through life, that we're able to play a
- 58:19Speaker 4: role with them no matter what it is they're going through.
- 58:22Speaker 4: And that's true for our team, it's true for our customers,
- 58:25Speaker 4: and we're very honored that we get to do that.
- 58:28Speaker 4: We take our responsibility seriously, but very positive and excited
- 58:33Speaker 4: about what the future holds.
- 58:36Speaker 1: I don't want your stay off upset with me, So
- 58:37Speaker 1: I'm going to end this podcast here because we could
- 58:40Speaker 1: talk forever.
- 58:41Speaker 2: As you said, you.
- 58:42Speaker 4: Imply there's the staff that there's no staff. Someone's going
- 58:45Speaker 4: to come and say you're late for your next meeting.
- 58:47Speaker 3: That's it.
- 58:47Speaker 4: But you're good, John Opah. It's a pleasure spending time
- 58:51Speaker 4: with you and your listeners. I appreciate all the support
- 58:56Speaker 4: and and it is genuinely support that that you give
- 58:59Speaker 4: to Walmart into all of us as leaders within Walmart.
- 59:03Speaker 4: And you know we are working together using Operation Hope
- 59:07Speaker 4: to give more financial tools to our associates, and we're
- 59:11Speaker 4: excited about the associates that are making use of that
- 59:14Speaker 4: and what they're benefiting from with that. So appreciate the partnership,
- 59:17Speaker 4: Appreciate the support and love spending time with yourself.
- 59:21Speaker 1: Thank you, you're You've got a new friend with me
- 59:23Speaker 1: here now now before I want to drop the mic
- 59:25Speaker 1: with this the guy with the pail name tag and
- 59:30Speaker 1: the vest and the humble spirit, drop the mic as
- 59:33Speaker 1: you walk off the stage. What size is your balance
- 59:37Speaker 1: sheet and assets? Asset base? And customer based employee base
- 59:42Speaker 1: underneath you tell the audience as you walk off the
- 59:45Speaker 1: off the stage in whatever dimensions you like.
- 59:49Speaker 4: Look, I'm really fortunate we have four thousand and six
- 59:54Speaker 4: hundred stores. We have just over one point four million associates,
- 59:59Speaker 4: and I get to be of that team.
- 1:00:02Speaker 3: And then yeah, look we we serve a lot of people.
- 1:00:05Speaker 4: And you can look at the numbers, and for sure
- 1:00:07Speaker 4: the numbers matter. They how you make sure you know
- 1:00:09Speaker 4: how you're doing. But we also try and do this
- 1:00:12Speaker 4: one person, one customer, want to sell one transaction, one
- 1:00:16Speaker 4: item at a time, because if you if you stay
- 1:00:19Speaker 4: out here too much, you miss the detail. And a
- 1:00:22Speaker 4: lot of what we spend time is diaveraging because average
- 1:00:25Speaker 4: has had a lot on a big base. So you've
- 1:00:27Speaker 4: got to the average and get into the detail to
- 1:00:29Speaker 4: understand where is it's really working well. That we can
- 1:00:31Speaker 4: learn from wherever we got some challenges and we can
- 1:00:34Speaker 4: go help and figure out how to improve. So, yeah,
- 1:00:37Speaker 4: that the scale is important, and we don't take that
- 1:00:42Speaker 4: for granted. But the way we win is one at
- 1:00:46Speaker 4: a time, and we've learned that over the years and
- 1:00:49Speaker 4: and and we we keep ourselves grounded with that as well.
- 1:00:53Speaker 1: So every every question was beautiful and direct, except this one,
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: a leaders only one here. My brother did not answer
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: how how how much he's a big baller, shot caller
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: and leader within Walmart. He was very humbled about that
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: and completely side stepped it. But the audience can figure
- 1:01:09Speaker 1: out for themselves. It's a lot Kierton, Thank you, brother,
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Please give everybody there
- 1:01:14Speaker 1: my best and we'll see you in the finish line.
- 1:01:16Speaker 3: I'll come out will thank you, Be safe, Take care.
- 1:01:19Speaker 2: God bless you.
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.