December 31, 2024 • 39 mins
When Sam Walton penned his now-legendary 1986 letter to his associates, he likely never imagined how it would echo through the decades, shaping the culture of a retail empire. Joining Andy Wilson to dissect this remarkable piece of corporate history is Sam Dunn, a former Walmart executive turned assistant dean at BYU Marriott School of Business, who brings a wealth of inside knowledge about the leadership titan. Their dialogue traverses the landscape of Walton's 'do it, try it, fix it' philosophy and the competitive spirit that continues to drive Walmart's success.
Andy and Sam share the profound impact Walton's mentorship had on them, unveiling the lessons that transcended the retail industry to inform leadership across the board.
As they honor the legacy of a man whose humility and accessibility transformed the concept of leadership, the conversation naturally flows into the modern-day relevance of servant leadership in retail and omnichannel environments.
Sam and Andy discuss the continuation of Walton's values under the stewardship of his son, Rob Walton, and other influential figures like Don Soderquist, "the keeper of the culture."
The episode culminates with a heartfelt letter from Walton himself, which stands as a testament to his approachable and genuine leadership style. Listen closely as Andy and Sam unravel the threads of Walmart's culture and the enduring principles that have made it an exemplar of servant leadership and family involvement in business.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Servant
Leadership Today.
My name is Andy Wilson and I amso glad that you joined us
today, and my guest, sam Dunn,welcome.
Thank you, andy, good to bewith you.
It is so good to have Sam on.
We complete a part one.
(00:22):
This is the part two of ourLeadership Today segment and,
sam, quickly you did a greatintroduction of yourself earlier
Tell people a bit about you andthen we're just going to get
straight into this great topictoday around leadership.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Andy, yes, well, by way of introduction, I had an
opportunity to work with you formany years at Walmart.
I was primarily in financeroles and strategy roles with
the company.
I had the opportunity to leadthe finance teams for a couple
of our important divisions, likethe Sam's Club division, our
Walmartcom division, andactually worked overseas a
(01:00):
couple of times as well Threeyears and.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I've seen you there a couple of times, I think Right
in Japan.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Four years in Japan and retired in 2016 as a senior
vice president with the company.
And now my encore career, andy,has been as an assistant dean
and director of the BusinessCareer Center at the BYU
Marriott School of Business.
Byu Brigham Young Universityhappens to be my alma mater.
(01:26):
Really good to be back therenow.
These students are keeping meyoung If that's possible they
sure are and I love working withthem and helping them as
they're developing their careerplans.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, great, great.
Well, sam, welcome today.
I'm so glad to have you and, asI said earlier, sam, in our
earlier podcast, you're such agreat friend.
We've been friends 20 plusyears.
We have been and we've done alot together.
We have had a lot of greatconversations, enjoyed every bit
(01:58):
of it.
I know Me too.
Okay, today we're going to talkabout Sam Walton and there'll
be other things that we're goingto talk about.
Sam Walton and there'll beother things that we're going to
talk about.
But Sam and I had theopportunity to grow up at
Walmart and, like you said,almost 30 years there, from both
of us different roles,different responsibilities, but
(02:19):
we were personally,professionally impacted by the
many great leaders around us.
Right, sam, we were, we leadersaround us.
Right, sam, we were, we were,yes, man, we were.
And you know, one of the thingstoday that we're going to dive
into is in July 1986.
Now, I know some of you weren'tborn then, but I will tell you.
(02:39):
Something great happened thatday at Walmart.
Sam Walton wrote a letter andhe wrote a letter to the Walmart
associates and on June, the30th 1986, I happened to be a
part of being able to listen tothis letter, of being able to
(03:07):
listen to this letter and I wantto tell you it's amazing.
It's amazing because that wasthe year I got promoted as the
officer of the company, in 1986.
And I was a district managerand had 12 stores back in the
day as a regional vice president.
There's 100 plus stores and10,000 plus associates, and so I
(03:31):
have the opportunity to be inthe auditorium on that Saturday
morning, sam, when he read thisletter.
And so let's take this apart abit and I'm going to read some
of it to you.
And this letter was shared withour associates.
But Sam talks about.
In his beginning he said thatwe were a diverse collection of
(03:55):
mostly average people.
He called it a melting pot, ifyou will, and I'm reading of
former retailers, housewives,college trainees and people from
all walks of life.
Most companies are that thereare a group of very diverse
individuals, even more so todaythan ever, which is awesome.
(04:16):
I love the diversity that'shappening in our companies and
organizations and all the thingsthat happen because we're
learning and we're so muchbetter today because of that.
And then he goes on.
That says one of our qualitiesstrong qualities is we like to
(04:36):
win.
Sam, we loved the win atWalmart, didn't we?
We loved it.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I think Sam Walden was perhaps one of the most
competitive people I've ever met.
Yeah, and I think that it goesback even to his childhood, andy
.
He was a competitor.
His football team, which hequarterbacked in Missouri, won
the state championship.
He was competitive, he loved it.
He expected us to becompetitive.
(05:02):
Yeah, and the thing that Ilearned from him in that regard
was he respected the competition.
Right, it was easy to walk intoa competitor's store that
didn't look good and find allthe things that were wrong with
it Right, but he would, in themidst of all the chaos or the
mess that might be there or theempty shelves, he would find at
(05:23):
least one or two things that hecould walk out of there with
right, learn from and you, youbetter do the same.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I've.
I've been on the store walkswith him and we we would come
out and uh, and he would say,what do you found?
And I remember that one guysaid you know he talked about
everything bad and then he wascorrected strongly and we all
were sent back in to findsomething good.
(05:49):
I was glad to God that I didn'tsay it, I'm glad I was in the
background.
You know I was a buyer then atWalmart and we were.
You know we would sometimes gettapped to fuel his plane and go
to store trips.
But you know he also said,through the years, sam, I think
(06:10):
it was so good, I know we still.
That's part of our culturetoday is he said.
You know, he said here in theletter we said through the years
, do it, try it, fix it.
How do you apply that today,sam?
I love, do it try it, fix it.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
How do you apply that today, sam?
I love do it.
Try it, fix it.
We used to have it hanging onthe walls around Walmart.
You're right, and Sam was afirm believer that you didn't
need a perfect plan, you justneeded a good plan.
And there's a saying by thefamous World War II General,
george Patton a good planviolently executed today is
(06:49):
better than a great plantomorrow.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
And I think we had a great leader around Walmart that
had that banner over somewherein his office, right.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yes, we did, and that was the mentality.
And if I could share an examplewith you, andy, please, you
mentioned the letter publishedin 86, the year you were
promoted to officer level.
I actually was hired into thecompany the following year, in
87, but this letter was stillresonating, it was still
(07:17):
something people were talkingabout.
They had copies of it at theirdesk and the reason I got hired
into Walmart was because Walmart, which at the time was running
discount stores the biggest boxI think we operated was about
80,000 square feet.
That's correct, 80,000.
Yeah, 80.
And we didn't have very many ofthose.
Much of the store count wasmuch smaller than that.
(07:40):
But Sam had, through his visitsto competitors in Europe, seen
this concept, a one-stop shopconcept, primarily in France,
called the hypermarche or thehypermarket concept, and he
thought we could do that.
Nobody else is doing that inthe US, but we could do it.
(08:01):
So he came back from his tripwith Helen and he tasked a group
of people to go put togetherwhat was called Hypermart USA,
and this means we were going tobe selling fresh foods, you know
, random wheat items, meat andproduce and all those things
that we'd never dealt withbefore at Walmart and they were
(08:23):
looking for somebody with anaccounting and finance
background.
He had grocery experience and Ihappened to be working for a
little chain down in Texascalled Brookshire's a great
company a family owned company.
Oh yeah, definitely Not very big, about a hundred stores, and I
got hired to help set up theaccounting system for these new
(08:43):
product lines that we were goingto be carrying.
So I was on this project team.
Well, you remember, the firstHypermart we opened was in
Garland, texas.
It was 240,000 square feet.
Andy, we didn't have any cluehow to manage a store that was
three times bigger than anyother store.
We operated Right and a lot ofpeople said this is a mistake,
(09:07):
we shouldn't be in this business, we're not good at it.
We didn't have our own supplychains lined up, we had to rely
on wholesalers.
Yeah, but Sam was committed Doit, try it and fix it.
David Glass was committed,right, and Rob Walton was
committed.
David Glass was committed,right, and Rob Walton was
committed.
And we stayed the course and wequickly realized the Hypermarts
(09:29):
were just too big.
Right, we needed somethingsmaller and we came up with
another concept called theSupercenter just a year after
the Hypermarts opened Right andopened the first one in, I think
, washington, missouri, and thenshortly after in Wagner,
oklahoma, and it wasn't longbefore we were converting all of
our discount stores into supercenters.
And today, when people thinkabout Walmart.
(09:52):
That's what they think about.
They don't remember thediscount stores.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
You know I remember the many Friday meetings and
again, I was a young officer atthe time and the area that they
put me in was one of the worstperforming areas in the company.
But the only thing I was gladabout is that my news wasn't
quite as bad as your news in thehypermark that I had to report
(10:17):
on.
So not that I was glad, but Iknew that, no matter how bad
mine was, yours was going to bebetter or worse.
I mean you were right.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
We had the dubious distinction, Andy.
That store in Garland was thefirst store to ever register a
$1 million shrinkage inventory.
Yeah, I think all of us thoughtwe were doomed for the door,
you know, after that happened.
But again, Sam was patientenough to say it's OK.
We're going to learn from this.
(10:47):
We're going to figure out howto improve our controls, how to
improve our shrinkage, and andthose stores ended up changing
the nature of the whole companyand the future of the company.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Well, I think that's what you have to focus here on
is that part of great leadershipis not only is having that
vision.
Yes, the second part of that isbeing able to navigate all
those obstacles and learn fromthose mistakes, learn how to
improve systems, learn that it'stoo large and it was, and
(11:21):
that's one of the things we didbut think of today.
And it was, and that's one ofthe things we did but think of
(11:42):
today.
If that happen, mark failurehad to happen.
Moment it changed Walmart, itwas the growth factor in the
grocery machine out of somethingthat at that time looked like a
failure company's future in agood way.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
You know, there were other retailers Target and Kmart
, for example who were primarycompetitors, who dabbled in it.
They all opened their versionof a super center or a hypermart
, but the only company thatreally committed to it turned
out to be Walmart, and thatchanged everything.
(12:23):
If I could give you one morequick example, andy, we around
the year 2000,.
Sam had passed by then, rob wasthe chairman and Amazon had
come along and Amazon turned outto be a very formidable
competitor, one that we kind ofignored for a number of years
(12:45):
because they never made moneyand we thought, you know,
there's no way they would havestaying power.
But they were obsessivelycommitted to the customer.
They were definitely focused onbuilding a platform that could
serve the world not just the USbut the world and ultimately
(13:07):
they've succeeded very well atit.
But around the year 2000, leeScott, our CEO, decided we
better start paying attention tothem and we launched our own
internet business, walmartcom,and moved it out to the San
Francisco Bay Area, and Leeasked if I would go out as the
(13:27):
CFO of that business and I wasworking alongside Greg Penner
and other great leaders tryingto create a website, trying to
market the way Amazon wasmarketing to their customers.
Amazon was marketing to theircustomers.
And another example of we losta ton of money in the first
(13:48):
couple of years that I was there, but the company again
committed to it and said do it,try it, fix it.
And now we've learned.
Walmart has learned and DougMcMillan talked about it today
when we met with him at thealumni officer luncheon that
they've embraced the technologyand integrated it into Walmart's
(14:11):
way of doing businesses.
People are still first.
And that's important.
But they've embraced thetechnology and now, with this
omni-channel approach thatWalmart has taken, wow, great
things are happening.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You bet, you bet.
So there are going to bestruggles, there are going to be
setbacks in any business,especially when you're swimming
upstream, which we're going totalk a bit more about that in a
minute.
But when you do that, you haveto be committed and that's the
(14:44):
number one principle at Walmart.
At Walmart, we grew up around.
There's 10 principles that Samtalked about a lot.
All our great leaders talkedabout those, but the number one
principle is commit to yourbusiness.
Now, the two stories Sam justshared with you is that it shows
you that we were committed tothe business.
(15:05):
Story one we already talkedabout the success of super
centers.
Come out of being committed.
Story number two look at whatWalmart is now doing around
Omnichannel and it's changingthe company again, yes, into a
the future of retail.
The future of retail isomnichannel.
It's, you know, this is ourstore, you know, and that's
(15:28):
exactly what, what we can dotoday, and not only do we don't
have to go, we can pick up, wecan have a delivery, we can have
a drum, you know, a drone tofly it down, whatever.
That's the future of retail.
It's so exciting.
So principle number one committo your business.
And then, principle number twoshare your profits with your
(15:51):
associates and treat them aspartners.
Now back to the letter of 1986.
Let's go back to that, sampartners.
Now back to the letter of 1986.
Let's go back to that, sam,because what sam sam, what sam
walton said in the letter wasthat he said he goes on and
talks about the, that he saidthe principles of good
leadership needs to happen atall levels.
(16:14):
He said so often these articlesto be a good leader, we first
must be a good servant and putthe interest of our associates
first.
You know when I was, when Ireally began to think about the
name of this, this, this program.
(16:34):
You know, of course, doingbusiness in Bentonville.
That's our, that's our program.
This focuses on retail andomnichannel and my passion was
to launch something aroundleadership and, uh, and
collaborating with the team here.
We, we talked a lot about itand the, the team here, said
(16:55):
they, they gave me this and we,through our just collaboration.
They said servant leadershiptoday.
They added today, I just hadservant leadership, but the
group here of younger leaderssaid servant leadership should
be today.
It's not something of the past,it's something of present.
(17:18):
And I love that they added thatbecause it changed some of my
thinking around.
Of course, the letter is 1986,but the principles that Sam is
sharing with us can be appliedtoday.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Andy.
They're lasting principles,they're eternal principles, and
I'd like to just share anotherquick anecdote with you on this
concept of servant leadership.
There's an element toleadership in a leader never
asking an associate or asubordinate to do something that
they're not willing to dothemselves, and I think Sam was
(17:54):
a great example of that.
When Sam passed away away in1992, you and I were both at the
company and you remember themood and you remember the
reaction, frankly, by themarkets they were.
There was a lot of concernabout what's going to happen to
this company when this verycharismatic, strong-willed and
(18:15):
competitive founder has justpassed away and the mantle of
leadership of the chairmanshipfell on his son, rob, and Rob
was the chairman for I don'tknow, I think at least 30 years
after Sam passed, and much ofthe growth that we've talked
about happened on Rob's watch.
He seldom has asked for orreceived all the credit that I
(18:38):
think he's due for the way thathe stepped into his father's
footsteps and led the company,selecting great leaders to guide
it and being willing to investand keeping the family engaged
in the business.
A quick story about Rob'sservant leadership.
A quick story about Rob'sservant leadership.
(19:04):
I was asked to go to Mexico tomanage our office there back in
1992.
This was our first ventureoutside the US and it frankly
came on the heels of Sam's death.
Sam had, just before he passed,kind of made a handshake deal
which he was always really goodat doing deals on napkins and
with handshakes with the biggestretailer in Mexico, and the
venture was a joint venture toopen Sam's Clubs in Mexico.
(19:28):
There was no wholesale clubsbeing operated there at the time
.
Well, sam passed, that dealcould have gone by the wayside,
but Rob picked up the baton andhe said we're gonna, we're gonna
make this happen.
So, uh, I was on a plane downto mexico, a plane that rob was
flying.
You know he was a pilot, as youknow it is a pilot right and we
(19:51):
were down there back and forthhaving meetings with the the
company seafront was the name ofthat company.
You remember them and gettingthese Sam's Clubs designed and
deciding where to put them andso forth.
And I remember the first time wewent down, we get to the hotel
that we're staying at and, intypical Walmart fashion, this
(20:12):
was not a luxury hotel, it was agood hotel, kind of a
mid-priced hotel called theSevilla Palace, and we walk up
to the desk and I'm with Rob anda it was a good hotel, a
mid-priced hotel called theSevilla Palace and we walk up to
the desk and I'm with Rob and asmall group and you might
remember, at that time, andy, wehad a policy that you stayed
two to a room.
Oh yeah, on any trip, you know,you and I have room together,
(20:32):
right, and we've roomed with alot of different people around
the company and that was thepolicy at the time.
Yeah, and it was to cut costsand it has some residual
benefits too.
I mean, you got to talkbusiness while you were rooming
together and I got to the deskand I'm thinking well, rob's
going to have his own room.
He's the chairman of the boardand we're at the desk and he
(20:53):
turns to me and he says Sam,would you mind rooming with me?
I almost said no.
I was frankly, petrified at thethought of sharing a room with
Rob, thinking what if I snore,what if I keep the chairman
awake?
But we were there for like aweek, and he and I shared a room
(21:15):
.
At the time he was training forthe Ironman triathlon.
He was a really good athlete,great biker and runner, and he
would get up every morning andrun and you and I, of course,
have a long history of runningtogether and I would go run with
him and, andy, just that onelittle incident of a leader
(21:35):
doing what he was asking us todo changed my perception of him,
probably changed his perceptionof me, I hope in a positive way
.
I think so, because it led tofuture promotions and gave me an
opportunity to know him in away I wouldn't have otherwise.
And you know, just, I justthink about that example all the
(21:56):
time in my own life and howimportant it was and I important
it was, and I think it's alesson for every leader.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You know, sam, I've not ever heard you tell that
story.
As you know, Rob was alsocharged in my real estate
division yes, he was, youremember, and I was tasked to
open all the stores inCalifornia, all the way up to
Oregon and Montana, arizona, youname it all up to there.
(22:26):
And so I would go on realestate trips.
And the first real estate tripI went on.
We were out west, where I flewthe plane, of course there was a
co-pilot sitting next to himand with the real estate group,
and they asked me to go, since Iwas going to open all the west.
And, uh, the same thinghappened.
Yeah, we walked up to the deskand you know, and and rob looked
(22:50):
at me and said, yeah, andy, youknow you might share a room
with me.
And I almost said no, you know,I mean, I didn't know that that
happened to you.
I'm surprised.
All these years, and you know,as you mentioned, I was a runner
and you and we got up everymorning in California and as we
made that trip, five-day trip,all the way up to west coast and
back, we ran every day togetherand you know, until this day, I
(23:14):
I I'm just like you what animpact that made on my life
right and I think it built arelationship because after that
we would have greatconversations about the markets
in California, the real estate.
I learned a lot being with thatreal estate team what they look
for and how they did it, howthey negotiated, et cetera, of
(23:34):
your talent in organizations,what we're talking about and as
leaders, and here's what Samsaid about that.
He said a great leader willtreat people good and add the
(24:02):
human factor of all aspect ofbusiness and, like you said, we
were getting that, that aspectof business with given to us.
You know, not only during theday, but those conversations you
would have and those thosetimes we would spend running,
those times we would spendtalking business.
So much happened outside of thework day, right, you know
because of what you talked aboutoutside of the workday.
Right, you know because of whatyou talked about and you know
what we talk about.
(24:22):
Rob he carried on theseprinciples that Sam talked about
because he's because you said,treat your associate as partners
.
I really felt that I wastreated as a partner, no doubt
about it.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
You know, as a partner.
I think all of us felt that Iwas treated as a partner, no
doubt about it.
You know, as a partner, I thinkall of us felt that way.
Andy Mm-hmm, you know it wasone of the great blessings of
being with a company with thatkind of a culture.
Right, you were considered tobe an associate, right?
You know that's a big word,associate, right, or partner.
At Sam's Clubs we use the termpartner.
You know I was thinking ofanother incident you were
(25:00):
talking about committing to thebusiness.
Andy, you might remember, I cameback from Mexico.
I'd been there three years andI was given the opportunity to
lead the finance team for theWalmart US business.
And that's when you and Ireally got to know each other
and started to work together alot.
Us business.
And that's when you and Ireally got to know each other
and started to work together alot.
But my timing could not havebeen worse.
(25:21):
Going into that job, we had had,as a company, 99 consecutive
quarters of profit growth.
99 consecutive quarters, almost20 years profit growth, never
missing a quarter.
And that quarter that came backfrom mexico and stepped into
this role was the first time wehad a down quarter.
(25:43):
We made money, but we made lessthan we had the prior year.
That had never happened before.
You remember that?
Oh, like yesterday, and, andthe mood was not good and, uh,
there was a lot of concern and,um, andly, bill Fields who was,
I think, a good mentor for bothof us and really a great leader
(26:04):
in many respects made a decisionthat he was going to leave the
company and go run anothercompany, and so he left.
And here we are now.
We just finished this quarter.
We didn't make the quarter andour leader just left and David
Glass, who was the CEO, and RobWalton, the chairman, made a
(26:30):
decision not to replace Bill.
We went for over a year with nopresident of our division and
instead we had two guys whoreally were kind of rivals.
You know a team of rivals.
Right, it was Tom Coughlin andLee Scott Mm-hmm.
To their credit, they found away to work together and they
(26:51):
marshaled all of us around fivecommitments.
Do you remember the fivecommitments?
I can still recite them, wow.
Yes, you bring back greatmemories and, andy, everybody in
the company knew what thosefive commitments were and I
brought along with me today aquarter.
I hope your audience can seethis quarter Because you might
remember, we taped a quarter toour name badges.
(27:14):
I do remember that as a reminderof how bad that quarter had
been and that we didn't want togo through that again and we
said we're going to keep thequarter taped to the name badge
until we can get back on track.
Well, the very next quarter wewere back on track, we were
committed and then we hadprobably, I'd say five or six of
(27:35):
the best years, historicallyspeaking, the company ever had
in terms of profit and salesgrowth, because of the
commitment that everyone madeand that those leaders made.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
You know, you're right, sam, and we were
committed.
And the other thing, that oneof the principles is that
communicate everything possibleto your team, to your associates
.
And I remember thecommunication after that picked
up oh, wow, yes, I mean, we werecommunicating at such a higher
(28:11):
level.
I mean we were talking aboutour business in detail.
We were back to doing verybasic things of operating,
executing.
We were we, it, it.
The reason those next severalyears were good is because we
learned so much.
For that.
That one back quarter, yeah,and I think if it'd been number
(28:34):
86 it wouldn't have been bad as99, but anyway it was still bad.
But anyway, the point is welearned from that and I think
that's leaders, you know, whenthere there are things like that
happen, you've got to learnfrom those things.
But here's the thing thatdidn't change.
Okay, the principles didn'tchange.
(28:54):
No, we changed.
We made lots of, we did to getback on track, but we didn't
change the principles of thecompany or the values of the
company.
We didn't change those becausethose were our foundational
pieces and the foundationalpieces of how we operated, yes,
(29:15):
and we just needed to get backon track.
That's right, you know, and wedid and and so you were bringing
up some great points.
Um sam, you know, um sam usedto tell us to behave like, or he
said, behave as a servantleader.
(29:36):
And you know, I think throughthe tough quarter we all had to
step up and be a servant leadereven more.
Because, you know, at thatpoint I was running, you know, a
region of operating stores 100plus stores and the message you
know that.
I know, I know I stay closer tothe business, I know I travel
(29:59):
more.
I know I travel more, I know Ilisten more.
We all were so in tune that wegot to change this and we did.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
And we did, and we did.
And, andy, I think that servingleadership today, there's
really only one true kind ofleadership in my opinion, and
that is servant leadership.
Right, a person can callthemselves a leader, they might
get elected to be a leader, theymight be appointed to be a
leader, but unless they're trulya servant leader, they are not
(30:34):
going to lead in the way that'sgoing to motivate and inspire
others to follow them, andthat's something that we were
blessed with during our timetogether working for that
company was a whole string ofreally good servant leaders.
We were, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I want to read a couple more points on Sam's
letter, sam, because it ties somuch into what you're talking
about.
But you know Sam talks about.
He says you know, we got to getto know our people, their
families, their problems, theirhopes, ambitions, their dreams.
He says we have to appreciateand praise them as individuals.
(31:12):
There's two other points herethat's so good.
He said another importantprinciple for us to live and
stay with our people throughgood times and bad times.
Yeah, um, and that's so true.
And then he said life.
He says this sam wasn't aroundon the 99th quarter.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
No, he wasn't, but he'd already passed.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
But his wisdom was and here's what he says, and
he'd already shared this with usin 86.
He said Life is a business ofmomentum.
Sometimes you're up, sometimesyou're down.
In down times your associatesneed your love, support more
than anything else.
Unfortunately, many managersignore people.
(31:59):
When there's trouble, they runfrom people rather than deal
with their problems.
He said run to it.
We ran to the issues thatcaused 99.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
We did.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Because we already had this wisdom.
We already had this knowledge.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
We knew what to do.
We knew it had been modeled forus.
It had had this knowledge.
We knew what to do, we knew ithad been modeled for us.
It had been taught us, right, weknew what to do.
Okay, sam had an uncannyability to surround himself with
the right people, yeah, yeah,and as I think about people like
Jack Shoemaker, david Glass,don Soderquist or Paul Carter, I
(32:38):
can go on.
Right, david Glass, donSoderquist or Paul Carter, I can
go on he could identify peoplewho embraced those same values
and principles that he embracedOne of the things.
You worked very closely, andy,both during our time with the
company and later on with DonSoderquist.
Right, don has passed now, buthis legacy certainly lives on
(33:00):
and we all called him the keeperof the culture.
We did, yeah, and I would sayhis son-in-law, roland Ford, who
I had the privilege of workingfor toward the end of my career,
was kind of stepped into thoseshoes when Don left the company
and was a keeper of the cultureas well, and they were always
bringing us back to theseprinciples that we're talking
(33:21):
about.
No matter what was going on andwhat new thing we were working
on and what new business we wereacquiring or developing, they
would always bring us back tothe cultural underpinnings in
the foundation.
And every time I would go to aWalmart year beginning meeting
and Don would speak.
(33:41):
I knew exactly what he wasgoing to tell you.
Yeah, but it never got old.
No, the culture, the cultureRight, the culture of the
company, yes, and once youestablish that foundation, that
cultural foundation, yeah, oh,you can really build a tall
building, yeah, you're right.
And that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
You know, I had the privilege to work with Don for
almost seven years and when Donleft Walmart, he established the
Center for Leadership andEthics at John Brown University
and we had two divisions.
We had an academic where weworked on the academic side,
then we had a for-profit or abusiness side on the academic
(34:22):
side.
Than we had a for-profit or abusiness side and, and um, and
you know, one of the greatestthings I look back on my career
was working with him because we,once we launched surgical
center, we worked with companiesaround the world, at several
global companies, and at somepoint I think I was in eight or
ten countries somewhere.
Anyway, the point is that I got, I got intimate conversations
(34:45):
with don about leadership and Iwould sometimes we'd be on a
train for a couple hours or aplane for 12 hours, it's you
know wherever.
But the point was I got to leanin and listen to his thoughts,
his wisdom, his knowledge, hisstories.
And here's the point to ourviewers, sir, you said earlier,
(35:09):
surround yourself with greatpeople and when lean into your
leader, lean in, ask questions,build that relationship.
Lean in, ask questions, buildthat relationship, be asked, ask
(35:30):
for examples and then, as yousaid earlier then, watch that
leader, when, when you're, whenyou're working and traveling and
and listen to how they navigatethese conversations and take
every just don't waste a moment.
That is, and I'm sure I wastedmoments, but I also was older
and I knew that this was amoment that I needed to pay
(35:55):
attention and I would tell allof our viewers today you know,
pay attention to your leaders,listen and learn from them.
And you know, and I hope greatand the other thing, great
leaders leave your legacy.
That's what we have here.
We have a legacy principles andconversations and letters.
(36:17):
So write letters to youremployees, your associates, and
talk to them.
As Sam wrote this letter to usand I'm going to close with this
letter, this is so classic Istill get emotional about it
actually, but he says thanks forletting me share my opinions
with you on this early Saturdaymorning on June 30th, 30th 1986.
(36:38):
He said helen and I are takingoff for a vacation this week.
Hope to get out to idahomontana, montana and into canada
.
We'll take our tent.
I think it's like the richestman in the world at that time
yeah, you're america.
Okay, sorry about that.
Anyways, we'll take our tent,our sleeping bags and do some
(37:04):
camping and cooking out, cookingout along the way should be fun
.
And he says, my good friends,you did it again in june.
Our customers appreciating you,so do I.
Thanks sam um.
Pretty powerful in it.
Yeah, when you think about whatit it.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
what that did was made sam accessible and we had
the the open door policy atwalmart and walmart still has
that policy open door, yeah,where you can raise your
concerns when you have them andit made him accessible also.
He said hey, I'm really notthat different than you are,
(37:47):
fellow associates.
I'm about to go on a campingtrip with my wife and we're
going to go tromp around in thebackcountry and we're taking our
sleeping bags and our tents andI appreciate you and I hope you
get the chance to go out andtake some vacation time with all
the great work you've done.
That was Sam, and my guess is heprobably stopped at a few
(38:09):
stores along the way.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I promise you he stopped at a lot of stores.
Sam Dunn, it's been so great tochat with you today.
My friend, I have learned somuch from you.
I've watched you, uh, I havelistened to you.
I have.
I have asked your thoughts andopinions so many times on issues
and you have always given megreat wisdom and, uh, and the
(38:33):
thing about it we we've ourfriendship is uh has stayed
through all of that.
You know all of it and, sam, Ican't thank you enough for being
here.
It just it blesses me deeplythat you took time today to sit
with me.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Thanks for having me, Andy.
It's been just as marvelous forme.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yeah, okay, to our viewers.
Thank you for joining us onServant Leadership today.
It means so much that youlisten in and view us.
You can always check us out onall of our social media
platforms.
Actually, your favoritestreaming platform, we're there.
Apple, spotify, youtube we arethere.
And you can check us out on ourwebsite at Doing Business in
(39:12):
Bentonville.
Thank you very much.
Have a wonderful day.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Servant
Leadership Today.
My name is Andy Wilson and I amso glad that you joined us
today, and my guest, sam Dunn,welcome.
Thank you, andy, good to bewith you.
It is so good to have Sam on.
We complete a part one.
(00:22):
This is the part two of ourLeadership Today segment and,
sam, quickly you did a greatintroduction of yourself earlier
Tell people a bit about you andthen we're just going to get
straight into this great topictoday around leadership.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Andy, yes, well, by way of introduction, I had an
opportunity to work with you formany years at Walmart.
I was primarily in financeroles and strategy roles with
the company.
I had the opportunity to leadthe finance teams for a couple
of our important divisions, likethe Sam's Club division, our
Walmartcom division, andactually worked overseas a
(01:00):
couple of times as well Threeyears and.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I've seen you there a couple of times, I think Right
in Japan.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Four years in Japan and retired in 2016 as a senior
vice president with the company.
And now my encore career, andy,has been as an assistant dean
and director of the BusinessCareer Center at the BYU
Marriott School of Business.
Byu Brigham Young Universityhappens to be my alma mater.
(01:26):
Really good to be back therenow.
These students are keeping meyoung If that's possible they
sure are and I love working withthem and helping them as
they're developing their careerplans.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, great, great.
Well, sam, welcome today.
I'm so glad to have you and, asI said earlier, sam, in our
earlier podcast, you're such agreat friend.
We've been friends 20 plusyears.
We have been and we've done alot together.
We have had a lot of greatconversations, enjoyed every bit
(01:58):
of it.
I know Me too.
Okay, today we're going to talkabout Sam Walton and there'll
be other things that we're goingto talk about.
Sam Walton and there'll beother things that we're going to
talk about.
But Sam and I had theopportunity to grow up at
Walmart and, like you said,almost 30 years there, from both
of us different roles,different responsibilities, but
(02:19):
we were personally,professionally impacted by the
many great leaders around us.
Right, sam, we were, we leadersaround us.
Right, sam, we were, we were,yes, man, we were.
And you know, one of the thingstoday that we're going to dive
into is in July 1986.
Now, I know some of you weren'tborn then, but I will tell you.
(02:39):
Something great happened thatday at Walmart.
Sam Walton wrote a letter andhe wrote a letter to the Walmart
associates and on June, the30th 1986, I happened to be a
part of being able to listen tothis letter, of being able to
(03:07):
listen to this letter and I wantto tell you it's amazing.
It's amazing because that wasthe year I got promoted as the
officer of the company, in 1986.
And I was a district managerand had 12 stores back in the
day as a regional vice president.
There's 100 plus stores and10,000 plus associates, and so I
(03:31):
have the opportunity to be inthe auditorium on that Saturday
morning, sam, when he read thisletter.
And so let's take this apart abit and I'm going to read some
of it to you.
And this letter was shared withour associates.
But Sam talks about.
In his beginning he said thatwe were a diverse collection of
(03:55):
mostly average people.
He called it a melting pot, ifyou will, and I'm reading of
former retailers, housewives,college trainees and people from
all walks of life.
Most companies are that thereare a group of very diverse
individuals, even more so todaythan ever, which is awesome.
(04:16):
I love the diversity that'shappening in our companies and
organizations and all the thingsthat happen because we're
learning and we're so muchbetter today because of that.
And then he goes on.
That says one of our qualitiesstrong qualities is we like to
(04:36):
win.
Sam, we loved the win atWalmart, didn't we?
We loved it.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I think Sam Walden was perhaps one of the most
competitive people I've ever met.
Yeah, and I think that it goesback even to his childhood, andy
.
He was a competitor.
His football team, which hequarterbacked in Missouri, won
the state championship.
He was competitive, he loved it.
He expected us to becompetitive.
(05:02):
Yeah, and the thing that Ilearned from him in that regard
was he respected the competition.
Right, it was easy to walk intoa competitor's store that
didn't look good and find allthe things that were wrong with
it Right, but he would, in themidst of all the chaos or the
mess that might be there or theempty shelves, he would find at
(05:23):
least one or two things that hecould walk out of there with
right, learn from and you, youbetter do the same.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I've.
I've been on the store walkswith him and we we would come
out and uh, and he would say,what do you found?
And I remember that one guysaid you know he talked about
everything bad and then he wascorrected strongly and we all
were sent back in to findsomething good.
(05:49):
I was glad to God that I didn'tsay it, I'm glad I was in the
background.
You know I was a buyer then atWalmart and we were.
You know we would sometimes gettapped to fuel his plane and go
to store trips.
But you know he also said,through the years, sam, I think
(06:10):
it was so good, I know we still.
That's part of our culturetoday is he said.
You know, he said here in theletter we said through the years
, do it, try it, fix it.
How do you apply that today,sam?
I love, do it try it, fix it.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
How do you apply that today, sam?
I love do it.
Try it, fix it.
We used to have it hanging onthe walls around Walmart.
You're right, and Sam was afirm believer that you didn't
need a perfect plan, you justneeded a good plan.
And there's a saying by thefamous World War II General,
george Patton a good planviolently executed today is
(06:49):
better than a great plantomorrow.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
And I think we had a great leader around Walmart that
had that banner over somewherein his office, right.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yes, we did, and that was the mentality.
And if I could share an examplewith you, andy, please, you
mentioned the letter publishedin 86, the year you were
promoted to officer level.
I actually was hired into thecompany the following year, in
87, but this letter was stillresonating, it was still
(07:17):
something people were talkingabout.
They had copies of it at theirdesk and the reason I got hired
into Walmart was because Walmart, which at the time was running
discount stores the biggest boxI think we operated was about
80,000 square feet.
That's correct, 80,000.
Yeah, 80.
And we didn't have very many ofthose.
Much of the store count wasmuch smaller than that.
(07:40):
But Sam had, through his visitsto competitors in Europe, seen
this concept, a one-stop shopconcept, primarily in France,
called the hypermarche or thehypermarket concept, and he
thought we could do that.
Nobody else is doing that inthe US, but we could do it.
(08:01):
So he came back from his tripwith Helen and he tasked a group
of people to go put togetherwhat was called Hypermart USA,
and this means we were going tobe selling fresh foods, you know
, random wheat items, meat andproduce and all those things
that we'd never dealt withbefore at Walmart and they were
(08:23):
looking for somebody with anaccounting and finance
background.
He had grocery experience and Ihappened to be working for a
little chain down in Texascalled Brookshire's a great
company a family owned company.
Oh yeah, definitely Not very big, about a hundred stores, and I
got hired to help set up theaccounting system for these new
(08:43):
product lines that we were goingto be carrying.
So I was on this project team.
Well, you remember, the firstHypermart we opened was in
Garland, texas.
It was 240,000 square feet.
Andy, we didn't have any cluehow to manage a store that was
three times bigger than anyother store.
We operated Right and a lot ofpeople said this is a mistake,
(09:07):
we shouldn't be in this business, we're not good at it.
We didn't have our own supplychains lined up, we had to rely
on wholesalers.
Yeah, but Sam was committed Doit, try it and fix it.
David Glass was committed,right, and Rob Walton was
committed.
David Glass was committed,right, and Rob Walton was
committed.
And we stayed the course and wequickly realized the Hypermarts
(09:29):
were just too big.
Right, we needed somethingsmaller and we came up with
another concept called theSupercenter just a year after
the Hypermarts opened Right andopened the first one in, I think
, washington, missouri, and thenshortly after in Wagner,
oklahoma, and it wasn't longbefore we were converting all of
our discount stores into supercenters.
And today, when people thinkabout Walmart.
(09:52):
That's what they think about.
They don't remember thediscount stores.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
You know I remember the many Friday meetings and
again, I was a young officer atthe time and the area that they
put me in was one of the worstperforming areas in the company.
But the only thing I was gladabout is that my news wasn't
quite as bad as your news in thehypermark that I had to report
(10:17):
on.
So not that I was glad, but Iknew that, no matter how bad
mine was, yours was going to bebetter or worse.
I mean you were right.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
We had the dubious distinction, Andy.
That store in Garland was thefirst store to ever register a
$1 million shrinkage inventory.
Yeah, I think all of us thoughtwe were doomed for the door,
you know, after that happened.
But again, Sam was patientenough to say it's OK.
We're going to learn from this.
(10:47):
We're going to figure out howto improve our controls, how to
improve our shrinkage, and andthose stores ended up changing
the nature of the whole companyand the future of the company.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Well, I think that's what you have to focus here on
is that part of great leadershipis not only is having that
vision.
Yes, the second part of that isbeing able to navigate all
those obstacles and learn fromthose mistakes, learn how to
improve systems, learn that it'stoo large and it was, and
(11:21):
that's one of the things we didbut think of today.
And it was, and that's one ofthe things we did but think of
(11:42):
today.
If that happen, mark failurehad to happen.
Moment it changed Walmart, itwas the growth factor in the
grocery machine out of somethingthat at that time looked like a
failure company's future in agood way.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
You know, there were other retailers Target and Kmart
, for example who were primarycompetitors, who dabbled in it.
They all opened their versionof a super center or a hypermart
, but the only company thatreally committed to it turned
out to be Walmart, and thatchanged everything.
(12:23):
If I could give you one morequick example, andy, we around
the year 2000,.
Sam had passed by then, rob wasthe chairman and Amazon had
come along and Amazon turned outto be a very formidable
competitor, one that we kind ofignored for a number of years
(12:45):
because they never made moneyand we thought, you know,
there's no way they would havestaying power.
But they were obsessivelycommitted to the customer.
They were definitely focused onbuilding a platform that could
serve the world not just the USbut the world and ultimately
(13:07):
they've succeeded very well atit.
But around the year 2000, leeScott, our CEO, decided we
better start paying attention tothem and we launched our own
internet business, walmartcom,and moved it out to the San
Francisco Bay Area, and Leeasked if I would go out as the
(13:27):
CFO of that business and I wasworking alongside Greg Penner
and other great leaders tryingto create a website, trying to
market the way Amazon wasmarketing to their customers.
Amazon was marketing to theircustomers.
And another example of we losta ton of money in the first
(13:48):
couple of years that I was there, but the company again
committed to it and said do it,try it, fix it.
And now we've learned.
Walmart has learned and DougMcMillan talked about it today
when we met with him at thealumni officer luncheon that
they've embraced the technologyand integrated it into Walmart's
(14:11):
way of doing businesses.
People are still first.
And that's important.
But they've embraced thetechnology and now, with this
omni-channel approach thatWalmart has taken, wow, great
things are happening.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You bet, you bet.
So there are going to bestruggles, there are going to be
setbacks in any business,especially when you're swimming
upstream, which we're going totalk a bit more about that in a
minute.
But when you do that, you haveto be committed and that's the
(14:44):
number one principle at Walmart.
At Walmart, we grew up around.
There's 10 principles that Samtalked about a lot.
All our great leaders talkedabout those, but the number one
principle is commit to yourbusiness.
Now, the two stories Sam justshared with you is that it shows
you that we were committed tothe business.
(15:05):
Story one we already talkedabout the success of super
centers.
Come out of being committed.
Story number two look at whatWalmart is now doing around
Omnichannel and it's changingthe company again, yes, into a
the future of retail.
The future of retail isomnichannel.
It's, you know, this is ourstore, you know, and that's
(15:28):
exactly what, what we can dotoday, and not only do we don't
have to go, we can pick up, wecan have a delivery, we can have
a drum, you know, a drone tofly it down, whatever.
That's the future of retail.
It's so exciting.
So principle number one committo your business.
And then, principle number twoshare your profits with your
(15:51):
associates and treat them aspartners.
Now back to the letter of 1986.
Let's go back to that, sampartners.
Now back to the letter of 1986.
Let's go back to that, sam,because what sam sam, what sam
walton said in the letter wasthat he said he goes on and
talks about the, that he saidthe principles of good
leadership needs to happen atall levels.
(16:14):
He said so often these articlesto be a good leader, we first
must be a good servant and putthe interest of our associates
first.
You know when I was, when Ireally began to think about the
name of this, this, this program.
(16:34):
You know, of course, doingbusiness in Bentonville.
That's our, that's our program.
This focuses on retail andomnichannel and my passion was
to launch something aroundleadership and, uh, and
collaborating with the team here.
We, we talked a lot about itand the, the team here, said
(16:55):
they, they gave me this and we,through our just collaboration.
They said servant leadershiptoday.
They added today, I just hadservant leadership, but the
group here of younger leaderssaid servant leadership should
be today.
It's not something of the past,it's something of present.
(17:18):
And I love that they added thatbecause it changed some of my
thinking around.
Of course, the letter is 1986,but the principles that Sam is
sharing with us can be appliedtoday.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Andy.
They're lasting principles,they're eternal principles, and
I'd like to just share anotherquick anecdote with you on this
concept of servant leadership.
There's an element toleadership in a leader never
asking an associate or asubordinate to do something that
they're not willing to dothemselves, and I think Sam was
(17:54):
a great example of that.
When Sam passed away away in1992, you and I were both at the
company and you remember themood and you remember the
reaction, frankly, by themarkets they were.
There was a lot of concernabout what's going to happen to
this company when this verycharismatic, strong-willed and
(18:15):
competitive founder has justpassed away and the mantle of
leadership of the chairmanshipfell on his son, rob, and Rob
was the chairman for I don'tknow, I think at least 30 years
after Sam passed, and much ofthe growth that we've talked
about happened on Rob's watch.
He seldom has asked for orreceived all the credit that I
(18:38):
think he's due for the way thathe stepped into his father's
footsteps and led the company,selecting great leaders to guide
it and being willing to investand keeping the family engaged
in the business.
A quick story about Rob'sservant leadership.
A quick story about Rob'sservant leadership.
(19:04):
I was asked to go to Mexico tomanage our office there back in
1992.
This was our first ventureoutside the US and it frankly
came on the heels of Sam's death.
Sam had, just before he passed,kind of made a handshake deal
which he was always really goodat doing deals on napkins and
with handshakes with the biggestretailer in Mexico, and the
venture was a joint venture toopen Sam's Clubs in Mexico.
(19:28):
There was no wholesale clubsbeing operated there at the time
.
Well, sam passed, that dealcould have gone by the wayside,
but Rob picked up the baton andhe said we're gonna, we're gonna
make this happen.
So, uh, I was on a plane downto mexico, a plane that rob was
flying.
You know he was a pilot, as youknow it is a pilot right and we
(19:51):
were down there back and forthhaving meetings with the the
company seafront was the name ofthat company.
You remember them and gettingthese Sam's Clubs designed and
deciding where to put them andso forth.
And I remember the first time wewent down, we get to the hotel
that we're staying at and, intypical Walmart fashion, this
(20:12):
was not a luxury hotel, it was agood hotel, kind of a
mid-priced hotel called theSevilla Palace, and we walk up
to the desk and I'm with Rob anda it was a good hotel, a
mid-priced hotel called theSevilla Palace and we walk up to
the desk and I'm with Rob and asmall group and you might
remember, at that time, andy, wehad a policy that you stayed
two to a room.
Oh yeah, on any trip, you know,you and I have room together,
(20:32):
right, and we've roomed with alot of different people around
the company and that was thepolicy at the time.
Yeah, and it was to cut costsand it has some residual
benefits too.
I mean, you got to talkbusiness while you were rooming
together and I got to the deskand I'm thinking well, rob's
going to have his own room.
He's the chairman of the boardand we're at the desk and he
(20:53):
turns to me and he says Sam,would you mind rooming with me?
I almost said no.
I was frankly, petrified at thethought of sharing a room with
Rob, thinking what if I snore,what if I keep the chairman
awake?
But we were there for like aweek, and he and I shared a room
(21:15):
.
At the time he was training forthe Ironman triathlon.
He was a really good athlete,great biker and runner, and he
would get up every morning andrun and you and I, of course,
have a long history of runningtogether and I would go run with
him and, andy, just that onelittle incident of a leader
(21:35):
doing what he was asking us todo changed my perception of him,
probably changed his perceptionof me, I hope in a positive way
.
I think so, because it led tofuture promotions and gave me an
opportunity to know him in away I wouldn't have otherwise.
And you know, just, I justthink about that example all the
(21:56):
time in my own life and howimportant it was and I important
it was, and I think it's alesson for every leader.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You know, sam, I've not ever heard you tell that
story.
As you know, Rob was alsocharged in my real estate
division yes, he was, youremember, and I was tasked to
open all the stores inCalifornia, all the way up to
Oregon and Montana, arizona, youname it all up to there.
(22:26):
And so I would go on realestate trips.
And the first real estate tripI went on.
We were out west, where I flewthe plane, of course there was a
co-pilot sitting next to himand with the real estate group,
and they asked me to go, since Iwas going to open all the west.
And, uh, the same thinghappened.
Yeah, we walked up to the deskand you know, and and rob looked
(22:50):
at me and said, yeah, andy, youknow you might share a room
with me.
And I almost said no, you know,I mean, I didn't know that that
happened to you.
I'm surprised.
All these years, and you know,as you mentioned, I was a runner
and you and we got up everymorning in California and as we
made that trip, five-day trip,all the way up to west coast and
back, we ran every day togetherand you know, until this day, I
(23:14):
I I'm just like you what animpact that made on my life
right and I think it built arelationship because after that
we would have greatconversations about the markets
in California, the real estate.
I learned a lot being with thatreal estate team what they look
for and how they did it, howthey negotiated, et cetera, of
(23:34):
your talent in organizations,what we're talking about and as
leaders, and here's what Samsaid about that.
He said a great leader willtreat people good and add the
(24:02):
human factor of all aspect ofbusiness and, like you said, we
were getting that, that aspectof business with given to us.
You know, not only during theday, but those conversations you
would have and those thosetimes we would spend running,
those times we would spendtalking business.
So much happened outside of thework day, right, you know
because of what you talked aboutoutside of the workday.
Right, you know because of whatyou talked about and you know
what we talk about.
(24:22):
Rob he carried on theseprinciples that Sam talked about
because he's because you said,treat your associate as partners
.
I really felt that I wastreated as a partner, no doubt
about it.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
You know, as a partner.
I think all of us felt that Iwas treated as a partner, no
doubt about it.
You know, as a partner, I thinkall of us felt that way.
Andy Mm-hmm, you know it wasone of the great blessings of
being with a company with thatkind of a culture.
Right, you were considered tobe an associate, right?
You know that's a big word,associate, right, or partner.
At Sam's Clubs we use the termpartner.
You know I was thinking ofanother incident you were
(25:00):
talking about committing to thebusiness.
Andy, you might remember, I cameback from Mexico.
I'd been there three years andI was given the opportunity to
lead the finance team for theWalmart US business.
And that's when you and Ireally got to know each other
and started to work together alot.
Us business.
And that's when you and Ireally got to know each other
and started to work together alot.
But my timing could not havebeen worse.
(25:21):
Going into that job, we had had,as a company, 99 consecutive
quarters of profit growth.
99 consecutive quarters, almost20 years profit growth, never
missing a quarter.
And that quarter that came backfrom mexico and stepped into
this role was the first time wehad a down quarter.
(25:43):
We made money, but we made lessthan we had the prior year.
That had never happened before.
You remember that?
Oh, like yesterday, and, andthe mood was not good and, uh,
there was a lot of concern and,um, andly, bill Fields who was,
I think, a good mentor for bothof us and really a great leader
(26:04):
in many respects made a decisionthat he was going to leave the
company and go run anothercompany, and so he left.
And here we are now.
We just finished this quarter.
We didn't make the quarter andour leader just left and David
Glass, who was the CEO, and RobWalton, the chairman, made a
(26:30):
decision not to replace Bill.
We went for over a year with nopresident of our division and
instead we had two guys whoreally were kind of rivals.
You know a team of rivals.
Right, it was Tom Coughlin andLee Scott Mm-hmm.
To their credit, they found away to work together and they
(26:51):
marshaled all of us around fivecommitments.
Do you remember the fivecommitments?
I can still recite them, wow.
Yes, you bring back greatmemories and, andy, everybody in
the company knew what thosefive commitments were and I
brought along with me today aquarter.
I hope your audience can seethis quarter Because you might
remember, we taped a quarter toour name badges.
(27:14):
I do remember that as a reminderof how bad that quarter had
been and that we didn't want togo through that again and we
said we're going to keep thequarter taped to the name badge
until we can get back on track.
Well, the very next quarter wewere back on track, we were
committed and then we hadprobably, I'd say five or six of
(27:35):
the best years, historicallyspeaking, the company ever had
in terms of profit and salesgrowth, because of the
commitment that everyone madeand that those leaders made.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
You know, you're right, sam, and we were
committed.
And the other thing, that oneof the principles is that
communicate everything possibleto your team, to your associates
.
And I remember thecommunication after that picked
up oh, wow, yes, I mean, we werecommunicating at such a higher
(28:11):
level.
I mean we were talking aboutour business in detail.
We were back to doing verybasic things of operating,
executing.
We were we, it, it.
The reason those next severalyears were good is because we
learned so much.
For that.
That one back quarter, yeah,and I think if it'd been number
(28:34):
86 it wouldn't have been bad as99, but anyway it was still bad.
But anyway, the point is welearned from that and I think
that's leaders, you know, whenthere there are things like that
happen, you've got to learnfrom those things.
But here's the thing thatdidn't change.
Okay, the principles didn'tchange.
(28:54):
No, we changed.
We made lots of, we did to getback on track, but we didn't
change the principles of thecompany or the values of the
company.
We didn't change those becausethose were our foundational
pieces and the foundationalpieces of how we operated, yes,
(29:15):
and we just needed to get backon track.
That's right, you know, and wedid and and so you were bringing
up some great points.
Um sam, you know, um sam usedto tell us to behave like, or he
said, behave as a servantleader.
(29:36):
And you know, I think throughthe tough quarter we all had to
step up and be a servant leadereven more.
Because, you know, at thatpoint I was running, you know, a
region of operating stores 100plus stores and the message you
know that.
I know, I know I stay closer tothe business, I know I travel
(29:59):
more.
I know I travel more, I know Ilisten more.
We all were so in tune that wegot to change this and we did.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
And we did, and we did.
And, andy, I think that servingleadership today, there's
really only one true kind ofleadership in my opinion, and
that is servant leadership.
Right, a person can callthemselves a leader, they might
get elected to be a leader, theymight be appointed to be a
leader, but unless they're trulya servant leader, they are not
(30:34):
going to lead in the way that'sgoing to motivate and inspire
others to follow them, andthat's something that we were
blessed with during our timetogether working for that
company was a whole string ofreally good servant leaders.
We were, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I want to read a couple more points on Sam's
letter, sam, because it ties somuch into what you're talking
about.
But you know Sam talks about.
He says you know, we got to getto know our people, their
families, their problems, theirhopes, ambitions, their dreams.
He says we have to appreciateand praise them as individuals.
(31:12):
There's two other points herethat's so good.
He said another importantprinciple for us to live and
stay with our people throughgood times and bad times.
Yeah, um, and that's so true.
And then he said life.
He says this sam wasn't aroundon the 99th quarter.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
No, he wasn't, but he'd already passed.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
But his wisdom was and here's what he says, and
he'd already shared this with usin 86.
He said Life is a business ofmomentum.
Sometimes you're up, sometimesyou're down.
In down times your associatesneed your love, support more
than anything else.
Unfortunately, many managersignore people.
(31:59):
When there's trouble, they runfrom people rather than deal
with their problems.
He said run to it.
We ran to the issues thatcaused 99.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
We did.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Because we already had this wisdom.
We already had this knowledge.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
We knew what to do.
We knew it had been modeled forus.
It had had this knowledge.
We knew what to do, we knew ithad been modeled for us.
It had been taught us, right, weknew what to do.
Okay, sam had an uncannyability to surround himself with
the right people, yeah, yeah,and as I think about people like
Jack Shoemaker, david Glass,don Soderquist or Paul Carter, I
(32:38):
can go on.
Right, david Glass, donSoderquist or Paul Carter, I can
go on he could identify peoplewho embraced those same values
and principles that he embracedOne of the things.
You worked very closely, andy,both during our time with the
company and later on with DonSoderquist.
Right, don has passed now, buthis legacy certainly lives on
(33:00):
and we all called him the keeperof the culture.
We did, yeah, and I would sayhis son-in-law, roland Ford, who
I had the privilege of workingfor toward the end of my career,
was kind of stepped into thoseshoes when Don left the company
and was a keeper of the cultureas well, and they were always
bringing us back to theseprinciples that we're talking
(33:21):
about.
No matter what was going on andwhat new thing we were working
on and what new business we wereacquiring or developing, they
would always bring us back tothe cultural underpinnings in
the foundation.
And every time I would go to aWalmart year beginning meeting
and Don would speak.
(33:41):
I knew exactly what he wasgoing to tell you.
Yeah, but it never got old.
No, the culture, the cultureRight, the culture of the
company, yes, and once youestablish that foundation, that
cultural foundation, yeah, oh,you can really build a tall
building, yeah, you're right.
And that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
You know, I had the privilege to work with Don for
almost seven years and when Donleft Walmart, he established the
Center for Leadership andEthics at John Brown University
and we had two divisions.
We had an academic where weworked on the academic side,
then we had a for-profit or abusiness side on the academic
(34:22):
side.
Than we had a for-profit or abusiness side and, and um, and
you know, one of the greatestthings I look back on my career
was working with him because we,once we launched surgical
center, we worked with companiesaround the world, at several
global companies, and at somepoint I think I was in eight or
ten countries somewhere.
Anyway, the point is that I got, I got intimate conversations
(34:45):
with don about leadership and Iwould sometimes we'd be on a
train for a couple hours or aplane for 12 hours, it's you
know wherever.
But the point was I got to leanin and listen to his thoughts,
his wisdom, his knowledge, hisstories.
And here's the point to ourviewers, sir, you said earlier,
(35:09):
surround yourself with greatpeople and when lean into your
leader, lean in, ask questions,build that relationship.
Lean in, ask questions, buildthat relationship, be asked, ask
(35:30):
for examples and then, as yousaid earlier then, watch that
leader, when, when you're, whenyou're working and traveling and
and listen to how they navigatethese conversations and take
every just don't waste a moment.
That is, and I'm sure I wastedmoments, but I also was older
and I knew that this was amoment that I needed to pay
(35:55):
attention and I would tell allof our viewers today you know,
pay attention to your leaders,listen and learn from them.
And you know, and I hope greatand the other thing, great
leaders leave your legacy.
That's what we have here.
We have a legacy principles andconversations and letters.
(36:17):
So write letters to youremployees, your associates, and
talk to them.
As Sam wrote this letter to usand I'm going to close with this
letter, this is so classic Istill get emotional about it
actually, but he says thanks forletting me share my opinions
with you on this early Saturdaymorning on June 30th, 30th 1986.
(36:38):
He said helen and I are takingoff for a vacation this week.
Hope to get out to idahomontana, montana and into canada
.
We'll take our tent.
I think it's like the richestman in the world at that time
yeah, you're america.
Okay, sorry about that.
Anyways, we'll take our tent,our sleeping bags and do some
(37:04):
camping and cooking out, cookingout along the way should be fun
.
And he says, my good friends,you did it again in june.
Our customers appreciating you,so do I.
Thanks sam um.
Pretty powerful in it.
Yeah, when you think about whatit it.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
what that did was made sam accessible and we had
the the open door policy atwalmart and walmart still has
that policy open door, yeah,where you can raise your
concerns when you have them andit made him accessible also.
He said hey, I'm really notthat different than you are,
(37:47):
fellow associates.
I'm about to go on a campingtrip with my wife and we're
going to go tromp around in thebackcountry and we're taking our
sleeping bags and our tents andI appreciate you and I hope you
get the chance to go out andtake some vacation time with all
the great work you've done.
That was Sam, and my guess is heprobably stopped at a few
(38:09):
stores along the way.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I promise you he stopped at a lot of stores.
Sam Dunn, it's been so great tochat with you today.
My friend, I have learned somuch from you.
I've watched you, uh, I havelistened to you.
I have.
I have asked your thoughts andopinions so many times on issues
and you have always given megreat wisdom and, uh, and the
(38:33):
thing about it we we've ourfriendship is uh has stayed
through all of that.
You know all of it and, sam, Ican't thank you enough for being
here.
It just it blesses me deeplythat you took time today to sit
with me.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Thanks for having me, Andy.
It's been just as marvelous forme.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yeah, okay, to our viewers.
Thank you for joining us onServant Leadership today.
It means so much that youlisten in and view us.
You can always check us out onall of our social media
platforms.
Actually, your favoritestreaming platform, we're there.
Apple, spotify, youtube we arethere.
And you can check us out on ourwebsite at Doing Business in
(39:12):
Bentonville.
Thank you very much.
Have a wonderful day.
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