Walmart reshuffles executives, international CEO to leave

It is learned that on August 16, the day before the second quarter financial report was to be announced, Walmart announced a major personnel adjustment of its executives. Judith McKenna, who is considered the most likely successor to McMillon as Walmart's CEO, announced that she will leave at the end of this year. She is currently the CEO of Walmart's international business.

It is reported that Judith McKenna plans to leave at the end of the year and will be replaced by Sam's Club CEO Kath McLay. Walmart's US market COO Christopher Nicholas will take over as CEO of Sam's Club. The personnel adjustment will take effect on September 11.

These executives all have extensive work experience. McLay, 49, joined Walmart in 2015 and has worked for Woolworths supermarkets and Qantas Airlines in Australia for many years. Nicholas, 46, joined Walmart in 2018 and has worked for Tesco in the UK and Coles Supermarkets in Australia for many years.

With McKenna's departure, Walmart's current CEO McMillon plans to stay in office for at least another three years. John Furner, 49, CEO of Walmart's U.S. business, has long been seen as a potential successor.

McKenna's departure could have a devastating impact on Walmart's international business, which has shrunk in recent years, selling off large parts of its operations in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan and Argentina and focusing on growth in Mexico, Canada, India and China.

It is worth noting that a key figure played an important role in the development of Walmart's international business, and she is Michelle Mi, vice president of emerging markets and business development for Walmart's international business. Michelle Mi played an important role in helping Walmart enter the world's fastest growing economies.

India is an important market for Walmart's international business. It has been operating in India for nearly 15 years. It first entered the Indian market in cooperation with local telecom giant Bharti Group and opened its first wholesale store in India in 2009. However, this cooperation ended in 2013 due to suspected mismanagement and violation of India's foreign investment laws.

However, Walmart's fortunes in India changed five years later. In May 2018, Walmart acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce company, for $16 billion. The acquisition put Walmart among the top retail companies in India, surpassing Amazon. Walmart's chief financial officer recently said that India will become Walmart's largest international market this year.

Walmart has set itself a goal of exporting $10 billion worth of goods from India each year by 2027. It has two main goals in India: one is to provide affordable goods to local customers, and the other is to introduce Indian brands to global customers. MichelleMi believes that in high-search categories such as fashion, home, kitchen, and beauty, it sees great potential for Indian-made products.

To grow Indian exports, Walmart launched a program called "Walmart Vriddhi" (meaning "growth") in 2019 to provide guidance to 50,000 small and medium-sized enterprises across India. Mi said that 30,000 companies have graduated from the program, of which more than 5,000 are currently trading on the Flipkart marketplace.

Walmart has also begun integrating Indian merchants into its U.S. marketplace starting in January 2022. Walmart is now selling products in the U.S. from Indian brands like Rage Coffee, a plant-based coffee brand founded in 2018 that is backed by beloved Indian baseball player Virat Kohli.

Last September, at the Walmart Global Seller Summit held in New Delhi, India, Walmart pointed out that the focus now is to help more Indian merchants sell Indian products to Western markets through Walmart's marketplace model.

Low prices have always been the purpose of Walmart. When Sam Walton founded Walmart 60 years ago, his vision was to make rural towns have cheaper and better goods and services. This is why Walmart has been expanding its Indian and Chinese sellers and introducing more low-priced goods.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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