“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.”
Masters of Scale · Startups & Venture · November 2026
Context
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.
Transcript
…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.
What's been the hardest part about going fast?
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…
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