Doug McMillon: CEO of Walmart

Success is the result of abundant knowledge. Human mind is capable of absorbing as much as knowledge we feed to it. A person working in a particular field acquires deeper and deeper knowledge of that field. But the essential part is to extend that horizon ‘wide’ along with the ‘deep dive’. Walmart made a smart move to handover the CEO position to a person whose mind is equipped with the knowledge from basic to the advance level. Doug McMillon – a true learner who has successfully extended his knowledge horizons in every possible direction.

Doug, 51, became the fifth CEO of the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, in 2014. Unlike some other big shot CEOs his story begins right from the bottom. Doug joined the company in his summer vacations way back when he was just a teenager. His summer internship may not have given him glamorous paychecks but was the beginning towards his 2014 journey. As a summer student he was handed over the work of unloading the trucks at one of the Walmart distribution centers.

Born on 17^th October, 1966, Doug was raised with his parents in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The McMillon family moved to Bentonville, Arkansas when Doug was just 16. In 1984, he took the summer job at Walmart as they were now residing in the retailer giant’s hometown. McMillon holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and he went further to get a masters in MBA from University of Tulsa.

During his MBA degree, McMillon joined Walmart in 1990 as a buyer trainee in the athletic department of the Walmart store in Tulsa. After successfully completing his MBA in 1991 he decided to move back to the Walmart’s, and his own, hometown, Bentonville where he joined the buyer trainee program. McMillon took numerous job roles including buyer and merchandiser, working for the deals in the food, clothing, and crafts departments, etc. This marked the beginning of a consistent raise in McMillon’s career.

From a general merchandise manager of Walmart’s wholesale store, Sam’s Club, to reaching at the company’s highest position i.e. CEO in 2006 proves McMillon’s worth and efforts. Under his leadership the Sam’s Club focused mainly on the small-business owners and boosted its growth with respect to the strong contenders like Costco. In the year 2009, McMillon took over Mike Duke to lead Walmart’s international division. His efforts again worked like a magic on the company and shot the profits to a whopping 29% with the introduction of ‘everyday low price’ mantra into the international market.

McMillon’s consistent success rate pushed Walmart to replace the CEO of the company. After all they still wanted to be in the business and compete with rapidly growing e-retailers like Amazon. Then came the big decision to move McMillon to the board of directors of Walmart. And, on February 1, 2014 Doug McMillon was promoted to the CEO of Walmart once again replacing Mike Duke.

McMillon, during his role as a CEO till now, has focused on his company employees like no one has ever done before. He has constantly raised the wages of his employees from the moment he took over the CEO seat. He believes in the statement, ‘happier workers and better customer service’. The increased competition with e-retailers like Amazon, McMillon’s long-term goal is to increase investments in e-commerce business and create a ‘seamless shopping experience’. The biggest challenge Doug McMillon is facing is the expansion of Walmart into Asia’s two major countries, India and China.

One thing to learn and to believe in this man’s vision is that he has managed to rise up from the dock and sit on the high-profile chair just in the span of three decades. His abilities, courage to take risks and strategic business methods has and, in future, definitely lead the company to the positions it has never seen before.