JF

John Furner

Things John Says on Podcasts

“In leadership, you can be frustrated when you get pushback, but it's not pushback. They're doing what we've asked them to do. They have incentives, they have metrics, they have things they're accountable to. Providing context, providing understanding, maintaining alignment is a really critical part of landing change in a big organization.” — John Furner, Masters of Scale “A lot of times we say loyalty in retail is the absence of something better. So we have to be the organization that is always thinking about how we get to better and best for the customer.” — John Furner, Masters of Scale “Innovation happens at the speed of trust, and trust forms at the individual level, and then it's extended to the team level. It's hard to trust people and to know people if you've only seen them as a box on the screen.” — John Furner, Masters of Scale “In the coming weeks we'll be launching agent profiles. As a customer, whether it's through your agent or our agent, you can delegate authority: what the agent can buy, or the spending limit. It's like having a family member that you've given your credit card to. There may be limits. My kids in college have a card with a limit that's different than mine, and around the 20th of the month I get a phone call.” — John Furner, Masters of Scale

Where to Find Them

John Furner has been a guest on Omni Talk Retail and Masters of Scale .

Recently: “Inside Walmart’s biggest shake-up in years, w/ CEO John Furner” on Masters of Scale (November 2026); “Live From NRF 2024 | Walmart U.S. CEO & President John Furner” on Omni Talk Retail (January 2024).

What They Said

“In leadership, you can be frustrated when you get pushback, but it's not pushback. They're doing what we've asked them to do. They have incentives, they have metrics, they have things they're accountable to. Providing context, providing understanding, maintaining alignment is a really critical part of landing change in a big organization.” — John Furner, Masters of Scale

Jeff Berman asked what has been the hardest part of moving fast. Walmart's CEO reframes internal resistance as people doing the jobs they were hired and measured to do.

Masters of Scale · 2026-11-12 Permalink → Listen →
Masters of Scale Around 06:57 into the episode
John Furner

…and why you wouldn't. But ultimately, it's about ensuring that our customers, our members, the guests that come in to shop online or in stores, that they have access to the things that we've been able to provide for a long time. And it's a great time to do that again from a position of strength.

Jeff Berman

What's been the hardest part about going fast?

John Furner

You have to recognize that our people, and in every organization, we have a lot of great people that were hired to do a job. And they have incentives, they have metrics, they have things that they're accountable to. And what's helped me is being a part of the company for the last 33 years. I started working in a garden center in Benville part-time as an average failed musician, I guess you could say. Doesn't pay well. And in college, I needed to make ends meet. And having the opportunity to have been in a number of roles in the United States, in Sam's Club, Walmart, U.S., I lived in China for a few years. I spent some time in Mexico. It does reinforce that there's a need for empathy and there's a need to understand what people on the front line are going through, what executives are going through, the different things they're trying to work through. It's a big, complex world. And the people we have in the organization, we've asked them to do something. In leadership, you can be frustrated when you get pushback, but it's not pushback. They're doing what we've asked them to do. So, you know, providing context, providing…

Jeff Berman

You may have heard something about this big AI thing that's going on in the world. I have a little bit about that. I don't think we necessarily think about Walmart as a tech-forward company, notwithstanding your size and everything that you do from a technological perspective. What have you done…

John Furner

Well, what's great about the company is we have a strong purpose that our founder left us with, to save people money, help people live better. That's been true for a long time. And for years, Jeff, if you would ask me, can you tell me about what it's like being a part of Walmart? What does Walmart…

Jeff Berman

Probably doesn't hurt to have Sarah Fryer on your board also, helping steer. John, you mentioned at the press of a button. That's how those of us here for the last 20 years plus, we've been thinking about it. But now, with the rise of Muse and Insight and all these other personal agents, say…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“A lot of times we say loyalty in retail is the absence of something better. So we have to be the organization that is always thinking about how we get to better and best for the customer.” — John Furner, Masters of Scale

Jeff Berman asked what Walmart has done in eight months to reorient for the AI era. Furner describes customers asking in plain English for things like a gluten-free taco dinner for four, matched against a huge catalog and delivered fast. This line is why Walmart treats AI as a way to stay ahead of competitors.

Masters of Scale · 2026-11-12 Permalink → Listen →
Masters of Scale Around 08:41 into the episode
John Furner

…them to do something. In leadership, you can be frustrated when you get pushback, but it's not pushback. They're doing what we've asked them to do. So, you know, providing context, providing understanding, maintaining alignment is just a really critical part of landing change in a big organization.

Jeff Berman

…on in the world. I have a little bit about that. I don't think we necessarily think about Walmart as a tech-forward company, notwithstanding your size and everything that you do from a technological perspective. What have you done eight months in in the job to reorient the company for this AI era?

John Furner

Well, what's great about the company is we have a strong purpose that our founder left us with, to save people money, help people live better. That's been true for a long time. And for years, Jeff, if you would ask me, can you tell me about what it's like being a part of Walmart? What does Walmart do? I think my response had been, well, how much time do you have? Because it's big, it's complex. And we had to really tighten down how we describe the company. And what we landed on, I love the way it came out. It's people-led, tech-powered, and omni-channel retail. Omni-channel retail, just a representation of we want to be really flexible to serve customers however they want to be served, at the counter, at the curb, at their home, in their refrigerator. And tech powered is important. We think of technology as an enabler of making our people be the most successful they can be in the shortest amount of time. And that goes back all the way to the 70s and the 80s. We're early…

Jeff Berman

Probably doesn't hurt to have Sarah Fryer on your board also, helping steer. John, you mentioned at the press of a button. That's how those of us here for the last 20 years plus, we've been thinking about it. But now, with the rise of Muse and Insight and all these other personal agents, say…

John Furner

Yeah, it's a great question. We're thinking about the connection from the screen to the physical world. And I don't want to step past understanding how we listen to the 275 million or so customers we serve every week and understand them at the individual level, think about what it is they're trying…

Jeff Berman

And that's a big announcement and a big step forward for Walmart, for your customers. And, you know, I've got two kids in college as well, and I can see the benefit for me there, and I appreciate it. At the same time, Rabbi Sharon Brouse will be on our stage later in the summit. She wrote a…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“Innovation happens at the speed of trust, and trust forms at the individual level, and then it's extended to the team level. It's hard to trust people and to know people if you've only seen them as a box on the screen.” — John Furner, Masters of Scale

Jeff Berman asked how Walmart balances AI-driven convenience with human connection. Furner talks about store managers and pharmacists, then explains why Walmart is an in-person, in-the-office business. The line is his case against remote-first decision-making.

Masters of Scale · 2026-11-12 Permalink → Listen →
Masters of Scale Around 12:10 into the episode
John Furner

…I think we're all learning. It's hard to say where the world will be in a year or two, but we're trying to position our teams and our business in a way that wherever the world is going, back to what I said before, we can get to where the customer wants to go and we can meet them in their community.

Jeff Berman

…We know what happens when we engage online or we don't engage at all. How do you think about balancing the opportunity and responsibility to create the best possible shopping experience and the range of options for customers with Walmart is such a powerful gathering place for so many Americans?

John Furner

It's a great question. Earlier, I heard you say something about big institutions or do you trust big or not? What I hear so many times in the markets all over the world, when you talk to customers, regardless what they think of big institutions or even us, what they typically come back to, regardless of their opinion, is I really like my local store manager. I like my pharmacists. In many cases, the healthcare professional that customers see most in their lifetime will be their pharmacist and they feel a sense of personal connection. A lot of people decide to go into physical shopping locations of all ages, by the way. It's interesting. I'm finding my daughters in college and their friends, they enjoy physical shopping, but there are times when they just want you to do that, take care of things for them. So the flexibility matters. But the connection does matter. And with our associate group, we bring managers in three weeks a month and we want them to know the company. But more importantly, we want…

Jeff Berman

terms of the customer experience, I mean, do you actively think about Walmart as a third place after home and decreasingly, but still work as one in two and creating an even warmer in-person experience for your customers? Is that part of how you balance this out?

John Furner

We do. And it is a balance. Obviously, we're trying to provide people more tools so that they can be more productive. I remember when I started, some of the things that we would consider very basic took weeks to learn. And obviously, we want to try to put them in a position where they can get to…

Jeff Berman

When you've built substantial wealth through your business, it's often tied up in a single equity position. The upside is real, but so is the risk. And knowing when to act isn't always obvious. Creative Planning works with business owners to build a strategy around concentrated equity, when to…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“In the coming weeks we'll be launching agent profiles. As a customer, whether it's through your agent or our agent, you can delegate authority: what the agent can buy, or the spending limit. It's like having a family member that you've given your credit card to. There may be limits. My kids in college have a card with a limit that's different than mine, and around the 20th of the month I get a phone call.” — John Furner, Masters of Scale

Jeff Berman asked how Walmart is preparing for a world where personal AI agents, not people pressing a button, start the purchase. Furner, Walmart's CEO, announces agent profiles that let customers set what an agent may buy and how much it may spend. A concrete example of a big retailer building for agent shoppers.

Masters of Scale · 2026-11-12 Permalink → Listen →
Masters of Scale Around 10:25 into the episode
John Furner

…the organization that is always thinking about how we get to better and best for them. And this is a time that, you know, I've heard it this morning. It's a great time to be alive. It's a great time to be in business because we can do things that we've dreamt of for a long time and it's real now.

Jeff Berman

…plus, we've been thinking about it. But now, with the rise of Muse and Insight and all these other personal agents, say nothing, what people build for themselves, it's not just going to be at the press of a button. It's going to be at the initiation of an agent. How is Walmart thinking about that?

John Furner

Yeah, it's a great question. We're thinking about the connection from the screen to the physical world. And I don't want to step past understanding how we listen to the 275 million or so customers we serve every week and understand them at the individual level, think about what it is they're trying to accomplish, and then bringing it to life. The second half of that is something that we feel is a unique opportunity for us. We have 2.2 million people around the world who wake up every day, they come in, they try to serve. And if we can remove friction for them, if we can give them the information that they need in their palm, if we can somehow get to them the best next action that they can take to make their operating unit, their team more successful, and how that all comes together is pretty unique, all the way to aggregating deliveries and trying to do this in a way that respects the fact that we're proud of being an everyday low-cost operator, that we're trying to enable everyday low prices, and we need to move faster. That's where we started. And so, you know, one of the things that we're doing over the next few weeks, the coming weeks, is we'll be launching agent profiles. So as a…

Jeff Berman

And that's a big announcement and a big step forward for Walmart, for your customers. And, you know, I've got two kids in college as well, and I can see the benefit for me there, and I appreciate it. At the same time, Rabbi Sharon Brouse will be on our stage later in the summit. She wrote a…

John Furner

It's a great question. Earlier, I heard you say something about big institutions or do you trust big or not? What I hear so many times in the markets all over the world, when you talk to customers, regardless what they think of big institutions or even us, what they typically come back to…

Jeff Berman

terms of the customer experience, I mean, do you actively think about Walmart as a third place after home and decreasingly, but still work as one in two and creating an even warmer in-person experience for your customers? Is that part of how you balance this out?

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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