Newsmaker: Walmart President Doug McMillon, the out of the box thinker

The informal chief of the world's largest retailer, which just bought Flipkart, has been making an energetic transition to e-commerce in the past few years

Doug McMillon, the president and CEO of Walmart, represents the old-school big box retail, but he can easily pass off as someone who’s been a part of the startup universe for long. A rub-off effect perhaps of Flipkart, which Walmart has acquired for $16 billion after a prolonged negotiation cutting across many countries. McMillon spoke to employees of Flipkart in a townhall meeting soon after the deal wearing jeans and T-shirt with the embossed logo of the Bengaluru-based e-commerce company that it has just bagged. At a roundtable with editors on Thursday, Doug, as he’s popularly called, came similarly dressed, while sharing camaraderie with Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal.

Replying to a question on his meetings with government representatives, the man of the moment said he was here to complete a business transaction and not for photo-ops with anybody. But there were photo-ops as well. The picture of him and Binny shaking hands made it to the front page of several newspapers; so did another one with Flipkart employees bonding with their new boss.

A top executive of another multinational who had worked with Doug earlier said he’s known as a people person. “He makes people feel special. Very few have that ability,’’ he said. Even as chief executive, he finds time to respond to every text message and email he gets, he added. Another striking aspect about Doug, says another person who has known the Walmart chief for some time, is that he believes in both the art and science of retail. “He follows the Sam Walton philosophy of display magic. Stack them high, let them fly.”                       

Despite his traditional retail roots, with its emphasis on item merchandising, Doug has known for some time that e-commerce is a reality Walmart must embrace to be able to compete, especially with rivals such as Amazon, which has more than an edge in the Internet-led business. Walmart, a latecomer in the online space, has to catch up fast, and Doug is leading the team to adapt to the changing dynamics. For that, he has chosen the M&A route again and again. And every time, there was an aggressive rival that Walmart was trying to put down.   

In 2016, Doug took the bold decision to acquire American online company Jet.com for around $3.3 billion when it was getting tough to fight Amazon. Then there was JD.com, the Chinese platform with which Walmart signed a strategic alliance two years ago to take on Alibaba. The two have been stepping up the tie-up ever since. There were other mergers on the way both for online and offline, many of which didn’t work. The Flipkart bet is the largest M&A deal that the world has seen so far in e-commerce. Even now, Amazon has been the primary reason for Walmart to take the bet, people in the know believe.      

In an interview to CNBC after the Jet.com deal, Doug said he knew he would hit it off with Jet founder Marc Lore. No surprise, Lore was appointed the e-commerce CEO of Walmart. Now after the various meetings at which he and Binny have been together, they seem to be getting along famously too. For now, Binny as the group CEO of Flipkart will manage the show as part of the Walmart family.         

When Walmart announced in 2013 that Doug would be appointed chief executive, there were media reports talking about how he had begun at the very bottom of the company that he was about to lead. He had unloaded trucks at a Walmart distribution centre for two summers before he finished high school. He did his Bachelors from the University of Arkansas in 1989, and after completing his MBA from the University of Tulsa, he went back to work at Walmart as a buyer and enrolled in the company’s buyer training programme.

His rise has been steady. From a general merchandise manager at Sam’s Club, the wholesale store division of Walmart, to taking up an executive role at the company. In 2005, he was appointed president and CEO of Sam’s Club, and then in 2009, he became the head of Walmart’s international arm. During this time, the company’s business from overseas markets outpaced the growth of the business back home. That made Doug a contender for the top job. In 2014, he took over as the CEO of Walmart, the fifth chief executive in the company.