Fortune Magazine Profiles Doug McMillon
by June 4, 2015 2:05 pm 387 views
During what is arguably the most anticipated week of the year for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., its chief executive is the subject of a profile published on the web Thursday by American business magazine Fortune.
Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart since Feb. 1, 2014, was featured by the magazine as “The man who’s reinventing Walmart.”
To read the full article, click here.
The lengthy and in-depth article, written by Brian O’Keefe, chronicled McMillon’s path from hourly Walmart employee unloading trucks in a warehouse to becoming just the fourth CEO to lead the retail giant in the years since founder Sam Walton left the job in 1988.
O’Keefe wrote on a variety of topics, both personal and professional, including McMillon’s recollection of his first day as CEO.
“McMillon arrived early on [Feb. 1, 2014] and reported to his new workspace — the same modest, 15-by-17-foot room with cheap wood paneling that has belonged to each chief executive of the company going back to Mr. Sam himself,” O’Keefe wrote. “That’s when McMillon froze up a little. ‘I couldn’t sit behind the desk,’ he says.
“So he didn’t. He plopped down on the visitors’ side and began working from there. After a while Mike Duke, his predecessor as CEO and until days earlier his boss, stopped in to check on him. Gesturing across the desk, McMillon said, ‘I can’t really go over there. I’m expecting you to be there.’ He added reverentially, ‘This is Sam Walton’s office.’
“Duke laughed sympathetically and then nodded to the empty chair. ‘You’ve been appointed by the board of directors to be CEO,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to get on with it.’
A version of the story also appears in the June 15 issue of Fortune magazine with the headline “The Chosen One.”
Walmart’s annual shareholders meeting begins Friday at 7 a.m. inside Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.