Doug McMillon
Some of the wealthiest people in the world became wealthy by saving money.
Companies with cultures that celebrate diverse opinions and encourage the exchange of ideas have an advantage when solving difficult problems. A company that doesn't is at a clear disadvantage.
Finding inventory in the backroom is not always a joy.
One of the realities of fresh and perishable food is if you don't sell it, you throw it away or give it away.
My first job with Walmart was unloading trucks in a warehouse. Then I worked as an assistant manager in a store, and I was lucky enough to get into our buyer-training program. I loved merchandising and had a career path that led me through Sam's Club and Walmart International.
You can compare the retail business to basketball. You have to have a plan, you have to hustle, you have to rely on each other, and there's a scoreboard on the wall.
Walmart was built on the idea that we could give our customers access to the items they need every day at the lowest prices by eliminating waste and managing our expenses better than the competition.
Hurricane Katrina touched our customers, communities we serve, and our associates in a profound way.
2/3 of our management associates come from our hourly ranks. We put in place academies to help people with education. We've put a dollar a day college program in to help people get college hours if they want to advance their degrees.
Low prices at Walmart are a given. Customers almost take that for granted. But they also want to save time, and that goal is increasing in importance relative to just saving money.
Big problems don't rest on the shoulders of government or corporations alone.
Our country frequently seems more divided than ever on how to approach everything from climate change to the economy. I think the path to understanding begins with honest, open conversations.
I always wanted a Jeep.
Look around at things that just aren't getting done. Maybe there's a project you could tackle. Maybe there's an issue that always gets back-burnered for other priorities. Challenge yourself to take on those difficult assignments. They're learning opportunities, and you have a chance to change something for the better.
When I joined Walmart, I just had a team mindset, but I look back on it now, and I realize some of those early jobs I had, I was trying to help other people and rally the team. It ended up people started looking at me as a leader.
We simply won't be here if we don't take care of the very things that allow us to exist: our associates, customers, suppliers and the planet. That's not up for debate.
Our associates are the heroes of our company's story. They work hard to make a difference in the lives of millions of customers.
Sometimes, you can learn more from criticism than you can from flattery.
It's really simple: If you're not meeting the wants and needs of the customer, you're done. There's not a lot of loyalty here.
Yeah, we're trying to learn from Sam Walton, learn from competition, and on a global basis be able to be the very best as we try to bring it all together.
You see the rise and fall of Sears and others. It's just a reminder that this can happen to us too.
We will do all we can to try and keep prices from going up.
Walmart is not arrogant. We could go away at any minute. I think most of us act that way every day. If you're not willing to fail - and we are failing at some things - you're going to go away.
We want what's best for our customers, our associates and our communities.
If the consumer generally feels like they are going to have a job... access to money... we will see them spend that.
My family raised bird dogs when I was growing up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and I'm a gun owner myself.
Deciding to listen with open ears and an open heart brings us together. We need to seek to really understand each other. We need to demonstrate empathy. If we can make these individual connections, we can strengthen our communities and nation.
I think the growing interest in stakeholder capitalism stems from companies genuinely invested in doing good for our world, because it's the right thing to do and because businesses who take this approach are stronger.
Shipping packages one at a time is not only wasteful and environmentally unsustainable, it isn't cost-effective.
Technology - the Internet, mobile and analytics - is being used to do anything and everything a customer doesn't want to.
Retailers come and go.
Getting the job you want always starts with excelling at the one you have.
The best leaders lead through influence and collaboration,regardless of their title.
Businesses grow and they don't change enough and they decline over time. Retailers do that on a bit of a faster cycle.
We have a long heritage as a company of serving responsible hunters and sportsmen and women, and we're going to continue doing so.
If you want to think of a company as a system, design the system to benefit all. So how can you raise wages, increase training, and reduce carbon, and provide low-prices? We believe that it's possible to deliver, and I find a lot of other likeminded CEOs, as it relates to thinking that way.
We know for sure that customers want to save money. Everybody wants a value. And we also know people want to save time.
Customers want to save money and time and have the broadest assortment of items, and we think that by bringing e-commerce and digital capabilities together with the stores, we can do things that a pure e-commerce player can't.
In the world there is a debate over inequity, and sometimes we get caught up in that, and retail does in general.
We believe in learning from other people.
Our job is to create great store experiences for customers and online and in every way we can service them.
We don't really care how the customers want to shop. We want to be in the position to serve them in any of those ways.
As chairman, I commit to keeping Business Roundtable CEOs at the forefront of constructive public policy debates as we pursue an agenda of greater growth and opportunity for all Americans.
If Black and African-Americans could participate in our economy at the same level that others do, it'd be a boost to GDP growth.
We want to serve the country. We want to help the country get stronger.
We hope to contribute to bringing the country together as it relates to things like inclusion. But we hope to help other - solve other problems, too, if we're asked.
Fuel prices are really a pressure point, and they have had an impact on food and other things as well.
If you want to copy somebody, you're going to be second at best, and always a step behind.
I went to graduate school and paid good money to get an education that's worth something, but I learned more in the first six months at Wal-Mart than I learned in 5 1/2 years of post-secondary education.