Incoming Walmart chief govt John Furner began on the mega retailer as an hourly worker stocking cabinets. Now, the most important U.S. firm by income is relying on him to information it via its subsequent chapter.
CEO Doug McMillon on Friday introduced his retirement after a decade as chief of the No. 1 firm on the Fortune 500. His final day might be Jan. 31.
Furner, 51, began his Walmart journey at a backyard middle within the firm’s hometown of Bentonville, Ark., however will, beginning in February, now tackle the duty of main the corporate’s 2.1 million workers and operations at its almost 11,000 shops throughout 19 international locations.
After finding out advertising administration on the College of Arkansas, Furner rose via the ranks at Walmart from retailer supervisor to district supervisor and purchaser, then on the company facet as divisional common supervisor, and VP of worldwide sourcing. He even spent two years in Shenzhen with Walmart China working merchandising and advertising.
Most not too long ago he served in high-profile positions as president and CEO of first Sam’s Membership after which Walmart U.S.
“John understands each dimension of our enterprise—from the gross sales ground to international technique. He has confirmed he can ship outcomes whereas residing our values,” Greg Penner, Walmart’s chairman of the board, stated in a assertion.
On his approach out the door, McMillon additionally gave credit score to Furner, who he stated he has labored intently with for 20 years.
“He loves this firm and his fellow associates, he deeply understands our enterprise so effectively, and he has the precise traits to steer us into the longer term. He’s a service provider, an operator, an innovator and a builder,” McMillon stated Friday in a publish on LinkedIn.
Furner’s funding in workers
Partly due to his humble beginnings as a retailer affiliate, Furner has throughout his tenure helped oversee a large remodeling of how Walmart pays its retailer managers. In an effort to spice up morale and retention, Walmart provided its highest performing managers pay packages price between $420,000 and $620,000 per 12 months.
The employees’ base wage was raised to between $130,000 and $160,000—greater than double the median yearly wage of an American employee. The remaining is made up of huge inventory grants and annual bonuses, which Furner stated was meant to “make managers really feel like house owners.”
The corporate additionally introduced again a bonus program for retailer workers. Some qualifying workers may doubtlessly earn as much as $1,000 per 12 months from this system based mostly on their years of service, in keeping with the corporate.
Whilst AI threatens the roles of employees throughout industries, Furner has stated its worker depend over the approaching 5 years will stay regular even when employees are extra productive. The roles that do disappear might be changed with new positions inside the firm, he added.
“We’re extending individuals’s profession and people jobs pay higher. The attrition charges are actually low,” Furner stated throughout the Brainstorm Tech convention in Park Metropolis, Utah in September.
Partly due to these modifications, the corporate claimed a prime 10 spot on Fortune’s Finest Massive Workplaces in retail for 2024.
Why Walmart selected John Furner as CEO
A part of Furner’s administration philosophy could have been influenced partly by his household and early experiences. Engaged on the farm together with his grandfather as a baby, Furner realized the worth of exhausting work.
“I realized with him that the animals don’t take Sundays and Saturdays and Wednesdays off,” he stated, in keeping with Fox Information. “They’re at all times up. You stand up early within the morning. You go drive the fence line to be sure that a cow hadn’t pushed his approach via.”
His grandfather’s hands-on method additionally utilized to fixing issues. When he wanted one thing, Furner’s grandfather, who he stated was a product of the Nice Melancholy, most popular to piece collectively an answer by hand as an alternative of shopping for one thing.
“In a enterprise, there’s so many distinctive conditions that simply land on you that there might not be a transparent reply, however between your group, your assets, American ingenuity and creativity—There’s in all probability a solution to resolve it,” he stated.
Furner’s penchant for exhausting work and artistic downside fixing got here in helpful throughout his most current high-profile roles as president and CEO of Sam’s Membership after which Walmart U.S. Throughout his stint as chief of Sam’s Membership, Furner oversaw 11 consecutive quarters of optimistic development and took on competitor Costco partly by making the corporate leaner and shutting shops.
Then, when the corporate was hit with an unprecedented problem within the type of the COVID-19 pandemic, Furner helped the corporate beef up its provide chain and achievement facilities to satisfy the second.
As he advised Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the Nationwide Retail Federation in 2020, Walmart reshaped it enterprise, deprioritizing optical and auto-care facilities whereas investing in its grocery enterprise to satisfy demand from what he referred to as the “stock-up section,” the place clients rushed to construct up their provide of all the pieces from bathroom paper to consumables.
Then, the corporate invested deeply in achievement facilities in addition to pick-up and supply providers to adapt to the “make money working from home” period and skyrocketing on-line purchases.
In consequence, web gross sales grew in each 2020 and 2021, regardless of the pandemic disruption. In 2021 alone, Walmart’s web gross sales for its U.S. enterprise grew by an eye-popping $29 billion, significantly outpacing the earlier 12 months’s gross sales development, whereas its ecommerce operations grew by 79%.
