HTLS 2020: Walmart CEO on journey from ‘chaos’ to ‘gaining clarity’ amid pandemic

Early days of the Covid-19 pandemic were chaotic but gradually clarity was achieved and Walmart could pick up speed to focus on a clear set of ranked priorities, said Doug McMillon, CEO and president, Walmart Inc. McMillon was in conversation with Hindustan Times’ editor-in-chief R. Sukumar on day 7 of Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Thursday.

“Our top priority was clear from the start and that was everything that we could do to support the health and safety of our associates,” he said.

McMillon went on to highlight the top priorities for Walmart right from the onset of the pandemic. The second priority was to keep the supply chain moving, he said.

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“Our third priority was to help others. We hired more than 500 thousand people this year, many of them had been laid off from other jobs,” he said.

McMillon stated their fourth priority was to manage the business well in the short-term scenario and have a conservative approach concerning debt and cash flow management.

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“Our fifth and final priority has been to further the strategy we started the year with, which we have been able to do,” he said.

McMillon’s participation at HT summit came on a day when Walmart announced committing $10 billion to export Indian goods annually by 2027. The Walmart CEO hailed India for its “competitive environment” and said that he believes that the business in India will grow steadily.

Besides McMillon, day 7 of the HTLS 2020 saw Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Punit Renjen, Global CEO, Deloitte, and Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee in participation.