25.07.2024 Today’s Inspiration from FoxBusiness.com: How President and CEO John Furner Leads the Nation’s Largest Private Employer, Walmart
Dear Students,
Quick – can you name the nation’s largest private employer? Walmart! And, if you got that one, can you guess their 2023 revenues? Would you have estimated over $611B (among which $100B is ecommerce sales)? That’s more than four times the projected FY 2025 budget of the entire state of New York!
With this in mind, running Walmart, a 60+ year-old American multinational retail corporation, with a staggering 2.1M employees worldwide, is no small feat. Enter John Furner, President and CEO since November 2019, who began as a Store Associate in 1993, when the organization was still known as “Wal-Mart” (it was later simplified to facilitate online commerce). Working his way up from Store Manager to District Manager to Buyer, Furner, who studied Marketing and later graduated from the Sam M. Walton College of Business, learned the value of dedication and resourcefulness from working on his grandfather’s farm as a child.
As Furner so aptly maintains in the article below, the company’s enduring success requires strong communication, listening and commercial awareness skills among its executives. Critical thinking, analytical skills and curiosity, not to mention leadership and teamwork, are key elements, as well. The following quote from Furner, a father of four, sums this up nicely: “…there are…many times when you ‘have to listen externally’. … A lot of times in the morning, in the evening, I’m listening to what’s going on externally and just trying to keep perspective.”
A valuable outlook, indeed, for any ambitious international students amongst you who are aspiring to a global leadership role.
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Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner shares the lessons he’s learned that help him lead the company today.
www.foxbusiness.com
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Best,
Amy-Louise