Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Leading with Purpose in Uncertain Times

Summary

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon describes leading through technological and geopolitical uncertainty by holding to the company’s purpose while changing its capabilities, operating model, and pace. His central message: be people-led and technology-powered, learn continuously, and act faster when the need for change becomes clear.

Strategy, purpose, and profitability

Walmart’s purpose—“save money, live better”—has broadened in practice to include saving customers time, strengthening communities and the planet, and contributing to health care.

McMillon says Walmart made major investments in people, lower prices, e-commerce, and modernizing its technology stack. These investments reduced operating income as a share of sales from about 6% when he became CEO to just over 4%; the margin had previously peaked above 8%.

Walmart funded those investments through lower profitability rather than asking customers to pay more. More recently, e-commerce has supported membership, advertising, and other income streams, helping lift operating income while Walmart continues to invest in wages and keep prices low.

McMillon frames environmental and social initiatives as practical business decisions when they reduce costs, improve the customer or associate experience, or strengthen the business over the long term. For example, Walmart shifted from paying to remove baled cardboard to charging for it, generating an estimated $50 million P&L benefit in one year.

AI, digital commerce, and the workforce

Walmart sees AI primarily as a growth opportunity, not just a cost-cutting tool. Its aim is to make online shopping more multimedia, personalized, and contextual—beyond the traditional search bar and product list.

McMillon expects AI to change every job, eliminate some tasks and roles, and create new ones. Walmart’s stated goal is to equip associates to learn and adapt while remaining a large employer.

The company has provided associates with ChatGPT licenses and other tools. Its AI priorities include improving shopping, equipping associates, increasing productivity, and managing inventory better.

Walmart appointed product-management leader Daniel Danker to help accelerate its AI transformation. His remit includes product management, design, technology prioritization, and AI-related change management.

Walmart aims to excel at applying AI rather than building frontier computing infrastructure itself. Modernized technology platforms are intended to make it easier to incorporate AI.

Workforce development includes Walmart Academies and Live Better U, which pays college tuition and book costs. Walmart also trains and certifies employees for technical roles, such as maintaining automated distribution-center systems and store HVAC equipment. Some related services have begun to be sold externally and could develop into a profit center.

Operating playbooks and organizational tactics

• Preserve what should not change; make the rest open to change. During his early tenure, McMillon emphasized the enduring purpose and four core values—respect for the individual, integrity, service to the customer, and striving for excellence—while treating other parts of the business as changeable.
• Build continuous transformation capability. Walmart’s e-commerce push required new capabilities, including design and product management, and a shift from decisions led mainly by operations and merchants to working backward from customer needs. McMillon says large companies need ongoing learning, mindset shifts, structural changes, and a faster pace of organizational change—not a one-time transformation program.
• Use scenario planning for uncertainty. For tariff-sensitive seasonal goods such as Halloween costumes, Walmart runs “what if” analyses on tariff levels, resulting prices, expected demand, and alternative sourcing. The team also considers how financially pressured families prioritize purchases—for example, children’s needs ahead of adults’—before deciding volumes and sources.
• Manage inventory carefully. Walmart adjusts sourcing countries, production locations, timing, and product flows. McMillon emphasizes balancing the cost of excess inventory and markdowns against lost sales from having too little.
• Delegate quickly in a crisis. During the pandemic, Walmart moved from weekly or monthly leadership rhythms to daily and weekly decision-making. Leaders delegated choices to teams and asked them to report back on what they decided and why, rather than waiting for complete information.
• Stay close to frontline operations. McMillon makes unannounced visits to stores and Sam’s Clubs and says these visits generate follow-up actions and insights that can benefit the wider company.
• Bring employees along through honesty and repetition. McMillon recommends explaining the purpose of change, being transparent about uncertainty, providing tools and support, meeting in person to build trust, acknowledging failures, and moving on when an approach does not work.
• Act when convinced. His advice to leaders is to listen to their judgment and avoid delaying necessary change because they fear the organization cannot handle it or worry about others’ reactions.

Key metrics and examples

Walmart was described as serving 255 million customer visits per week and employing 2.1 million associates worldwide. It operates in 19 countries.

McMillon said a little over two-thirds of what Walmart sells in the U.S. is made or grown domestically; the remaining goods come from more than 100 countries.

McMillon said Walmart’s customer reputation for convenience has grown to roughly the same intensity as its reputation for low prices, though he believes its digital commerce experience still has substantial room to improve.

Presenters/source: Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart; interviewed by Adi Ignatius of Harvard Business Review.