Doug McMillon arrived at Walmart stores in the summer of 1984, when he was just 17 years old. In his early days, he earned $6 an hour unloading trucks that arrived with new products. Today, as CEO of the world’s largest retailer, he generates more than $25 million a year. With all his trajectory, which positions him as one of the most famous executives in the world, he provides a list of tips for advancement.
McMillon’s story is a testament to effort in reaching the top, 30 years after joining the company. As he told Stratechery, he obtained promotion after promotion by volunteering to cover for his boss when he was out of town. His figure is so prominent, that he explained to the media that many of Walmart’s 2.1 million employees send him emails asking how to emulate his success in the company.
To which, according to himself, he responded: “Volunteer to cover for your boss. One of the reasons why I had the opportunities I had was that I raised my hand when my boss was out of town and visited stores or something like that,” he detailed. The CEO added that he even told them that he would offer to “substitute for their boss in meetings, whether or not he was prepared to answer all the questions that arose.”
“Be a team player”
The 57-year-old McMillon gave two more tips for climbing the ranks of a company from bottom to top like he did : “do your job well and be a team player”.
“Don’t take your current job for granted. The next job doesn’t come if you don’t do well in the one you have. Be a great team player: you learn to lead, you learn to influence by the way you interact with your teammates,” he added. “Treat them well, help them, help them do a better job,” he stated in the interview.
In this context, McMillon concluded that over the years he became a low-risk promotion. “Then I put myself in an environment where I became a low-risk promotion because people had already seen me doing the work,” he told Stratechery
Walmart surpasses $100 billion in online sales
Walmart exceeded 100 billion dollars in global e-commerce sales in 2023. McMillon has been instrumental in enabling the supermarket giant to compete with other ecommerce heavyweights like Amazon. Thus, the company is increasingly where it always wanted to be: “an omnichannel retailer that leverages its stores to differentiate its offering from conventional ecommerce,” Stratechery states
