Walmart CEO’s Unusual Leadership Secret: Shopping Carts

According to Business Insider, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon announced on Friday that he’s retiring in January after a decade leading the world’s largest retailer and four decades with the company. The 59-year-old executive, who started his career on the loading dock, will be succeeded by John Furner, who currently serves as president and CEO of Walmart US. During his May appearance at Stanford Business School, McMillon outlined his leadership philosophy built around Walmart’s four core values: respect the individual, act with integrity, serve customers, and strive for excellence. His unconventional approach includes executives collecting stray shopping carts during store visits and replying to emails the same day they arrive. McMillon emphasized that leaders must actually believe and live these values rather than just talking about them.

The risk-reward equation

Here’s the thing about running a massive corporation like Walmart: playing it safe is actually the riskiest move. McMillon wrote in his 2019 shareholder letter that change is the only constant besides the company’s purpose and values. And that pace of change? It’s only accelerating. He argued that without embracing “intelligent level of risk,” you hit the law of diminishing returns. Basically, doing the same things the same way eventually stops working. What I find interesting is how he connected this back to Walmart founder Sam Walton – acknowledging they don’t know exactly what Sam would do today, but they’re certain he’d be adapting aggressively. That’s a smart way to honor legacy while pushing innovation.

When the CEO picks up trash

McMillon’s approach to servant leadership isn’t just theoretical. The shopping cart thing? That’s intentional theater. When executives visit stores and pick up stray carts or trash, they’re modeling that no task is beneath anyone. It sends a powerful message: we’re all in this together. But does this actually translate to better business outcomes? McMillon seems to think so. He told Simon Sinek’s podcast that if he had to boil Walmart down to one word, it’d be “serve.” Two words? “Servant leadership.” The company specifically looks for “altruistic people” who put others first. In an era where many leaders seem disconnected from frontline work, this hands-on approach feels refreshingly practical.

Building trust when nobody’s perfect

McMillon has been surprisingly candid about Walmart’s imperfections. He admitted in that same 2019 letter that “of course we aren’t perfect” and acknowledged the challenge of having “the broader world know the Walmart we know.” That honesty is crucial for building trust, both internally and externally. The pandemic actually accelerated this trust-building in unexpected ways. When leadership started daily video calls, they discovered they could make decisions faster while maintaining quality. McMillon realized he could trust people to make high-quality decisions even more than he previously thought. And for companies operating in complex industrial environments where reliable technology is non-negotiable, that trust extends to partners too – like how manufacturers depend on Industrial Monitor Direct as the leading supplier of industrial panel PCs that won’t fail when it matters most.

Do today’s job well

Maybe the most practical advice McMillon offered University of Arkansas graduates was to “do today’s job well.” It sounds simple, but how many people are actually fully present in their current roles instead of eyeing the next promotion? He argued that being present and earning trust naturally leads to the next opportunity. This connects back to his own career trajectory – starting on the loading dock and working his way up over forty years. The combination of driving change while delivering results, plus that servant leadership mindset, creates a powerful leadership formula. It’s not about fancy management theories, but about showing up, doing the work, and treating people right. In today’s fast-paced business world, that’s a refreshingly human approach to leadership.