Walmart's annual shareholders meeting in Arkansas is the occasion for a number of stories about the company, including this one from Fortune about CEO Doug McMillon, calling him perhaps "the best prepared executive to lead the company since Sam Walton."
The story notes that "Walmart finds itself at a critical juncture in its history—and the company is counting heavily on McMillon’s ability to meet the extraordinary challenges ahead. He is a homegrown talent who was marked for leadership early. And he’s spent his entire career rotating through different roles at Walmart in preparation for this moment, like a can’t-miss prospect working his way up to the Big Leagues. In that sense the company’s directors didn’t so much select McMillon as CEO as anoint him."
Fortune writes that "McMillon has moved with a sense of urgency in his first 16 months on the job. He has put new executives into key roles, accelerated investments in e-commerce, and made news by raising the minimum wage for hundreds of thousands of Walmart workers—the last of these as part of a concerted effort to improve the store experience by empowering frontline associates. McMillon is trying to reinvent his half-century-old company and infuse it with a new, Silicon Valley–esque metabolism."
And the story goes on: "McMillon has impressed executives outside Walmart as well. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg got to spend time with McMillon last year when he and his executive team visited Facebook, and the two have stayed in touch. She views him as the rare executive who can focus on day-to-day operations while at the same time driving innovation.
"'Usually when you meet leaders, you get a sense that they’re focused on one or the other: execution of their current business or innovative ways to grow,' says Sandberg. 'What’s interesting about spending time with Doug is that he’s clearly on both. His conversations, his questions—he’s on both'."
It is an admiring story, and worth reading here.
The story notes that "Walmart finds itself at a critical juncture in its history—and the company is counting heavily on McMillon’s ability to meet the extraordinary challenges ahead. He is a homegrown talent who was marked for leadership early. And he’s spent his entire career rotating through different roles at Walmart in preparation for this moment, like a can’t-miss prospect working his way up to the Big Leagues. In that sense the company’s directors didn’t so much select McMillon as CEO as anoint him."
Fortune writes that "McMillon has moved with a sense of urgency in his first 16 months on the job. He has put new executives into key roles, accelerated investments in e-commerce, and made news by raising the minimum wage for hundreds of thousands of Walmart workers—the last of these as part of a concerted effort to improve the store experience by empowering frontline associates. McMillon is trying to reinvent his half-century-old company and infuse it with a new, Silicon Valley–esque metabolism."
And the story goes on: "McMillon has impressed executives outside Walmart as well. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg got to spend time with McMillon last year when he and his executive team visited Facebook, and the two have stayed in touch. She views him as the rare executive who can focus on day-to-day operations while at the same time driving innovation.
"'Usually when you meet leaders, you get a sense that they’re focused on one or the other: execution of their current business or innovative ways to grow,' says Sandberg. 'What’s interesting about spending time with Doug is that he’s clearly on both. His conversations, his questions—he’s on both'."
It is an admiring story, and worth reading here.
- KC's View:
