Some great insights from this rare interview with Doug McMillon, Walmart's CEO. Here are my top 10: ๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง๐๐: "At the root of it all, though, it's a people business and it's a merchandising business. Today, it's increasingly a technology business. The supply chain is critical, of course, and real estate still plays a key role." ๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ ๐ก๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ข๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ: "Don't take your current job for granted, the next job doesn't come if you don't do the one you've got well. The second piece of advice was be a great teammate... And then the third one was volunteer for something extra, volunteer for something hard." ๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ญ๐ก ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฑ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ฌ: "We've always thought that a blend was best, and there are probably times where that blend is 80/20 instead of 70/30, depending on the moment that we're in. But Sam Walton would bring in great people from the outside to help build the retail business." ๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐-๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ค-๐๐ง๐-๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ฌ: "The e-commerce store is the interesting one. We've seen it all and done it all. We operate around the world in different formats, different brands. We've got large stores, small stores, all these different formats. So we know that space pretty well, but the e-commerce business was different." ๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐ญ'๐ฌ ๐๐๐ซ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐-๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐๐: "There was a period of time when there was too much debate inside the company about the significance of e-commerce, there were leaders who believed it would never be any bigger than the catalog business, there were leaders that believed it would never be profitable." ๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ง๐ข๐๐ก๐๐ง๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐๐ข๐ฅ: "It's always been clear to me that this was an 'and' โ there are going to be stores, there will be store curbside pickup, there will be delivery of various forms, there'll be stores and e-commerce." Continue in the comments... ๐ Thank you Karl Haller for sharing this!
Last but definitely not least: ๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐๐๐ก ๐ข๐ง ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐๐ข๐ฅ: "I think it is, and if I were to restate it in my own experience here, I would say this story is actually about people changing, and if you looked at what had to happen inside the company to enable what you just said, we had to learn about design, product management, working in an agile fashion, working across our silos in a different way."
Great advice!.
A retail #MasterClass
Retail Disruptor | TheMarker 40/40
2mo2 more insights: ๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ญ.๐๐จ๐ฆ: "Our view, my view, was that you need all of the above. The stores are an asset, and they have a great assortment in them and they're close to people. Being within 10 miles of 90% of America is a huge advantage, especially with fresh food at a good price. But we must also, if you think long-term and you think about what the company wants to accomplish, you must have a big and important first-party e-commerce business, and you must have a marketplace, and the things that go along with the marketplace." ๐ฅ ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐-๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐ก๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ข๐๐๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ฌ: "It did take this period of time where we had independence before we eventually could put them together and really start to leverage omnichannel." On the importance of grocery pickup: "When we started in California and then Denver, and a team started working to put everything in place to do grocery pickup and in the beginning we even had a separate app. It was an orange online grocery app."