If you think like a customer, retailing is simple to execute. So says Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores.
What is the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?
Walking the talk. There’s nothing that destroys credibility more than not being able to look someone in the eye and have them know that they can trust you. Leadership is about trust. It’s about being able to get people to go to places they never thought they could go. They can’t do that if they don’t trust you.
What have you learned to do more of, or less of, over time?
I read something early on, when I was in my first or second management role, that you can accomplish almost anything in life if you do not care who takes credit for it. So I’ve tried to do more of that.
And I’ve tried to do less of the things that make business more complex. I really like simplicity. At the end of the day, retailing – but you could apply this to many other businesses – is not as complicated as we would like to make it. It is pretty logical and simple, if you think about the way that you yourself would act, or do act, as a customer.
So you find that people make business more complicated than it is?
No doubt about it. I think that all of us read far too many business books. I’ve worked 30 years now in management roles, and a number of times I’ve seen a new CEO come in, and the first act is typically to get the leadership team to an offsite meeting. And you get a consultant – because you can’t do it without a consultant – and the consultant then helps the team design a vision.
And then you’ve got all these words, and several thousand dollars and a couple of days of golf later, you go back to the company to actually try to communicate that vision throughout the organisation. So you hire another consultant to do that. It shouldn’t be like that.
We have a very clear view of what we do for consumers around the world. And we can describe our complete strategy in 10 words. And that makes it very easy to get everybody energised and aligned.
What do you think the process should be?
I think the best source of strategy is your customer and the people who work for you. I’m not saying there’s no room for a vision statement or anything like that. I’m just saying that we tend to spend too much time on that and not enough on the more practical, down-to earth requirements that drive business.
So when you’re visiting stores?
I walk around the store and approach customers and ask them if they have any recommendations for us. Are there things that we’re not doing that we should be doing? And I will typically also go to the back of the store. I go mostly on my own and I get there mostly unannounced and talk to associates and ask them questions about their jobs. I ask them about their leadership in the store.
I always tease them that they can tell me whether their store manager’s good or bad. Almost always, you get enormous insight from those who spend their days taking care of customers.
What was the best advice you were given about your career?
Someone I trusted when I was working for Nabisco convinced me that if I really wanted to have bigger and more impactful opportunities, then I probably needed to become broader in my knowledge. And I’ve changed industries twice since then, completely different industries.
What do you look for in job candidates?
People I interview today are most likely going to be in a senior leadership role. And leadership roles in business require enormous energy – both physical and, very importantly, emotional energy. And so I try to find out whether they have the enormous amount of energy it takes to lead and manage. You’re exposed so often to decisions that are emotionally charged; you have to have the balance and the energy, the emotional strength to actually do it.
What kind of questions do you ask to get at that?
I ask them to share how they have dealt in the past with major issues, like a reduction in workforce and major changes in the business environment. An interview is not a perfect process, right? You can’t learn about people in one hour, but it is helpful.
What is your most effective time management technique?
Oh boy, time management is a work in progress, I think, for everybody in business. And if they tell you differently, then they’re probably lying.
I try to get things done early in the day, things that I know are going to get in the way. Also, I have developed a system with my assistant. I send her emails at night. When I’m at home and I have a little bit more time and I’m more relaxed, I send very quick emails to her, just with things like, “Remind me tomorrow I have to do such and such,” or, “We need to complete this or that.” And I send about five to 10 of those that come up at night.
She doesn’t see them until early in the morning, but that sets the stage for the following day. And it helps me quite a bit with those things that are outside of scheduled appointments.
What would you like business schools to teach more, or less?
I’ve done this quiz several times when we have gone to talk at business schools. I always ask people, “So who’s taking accounting?” And everybody raises their hand. And, “Who’s taking strategy?” And everybody raises their hand – and you go on with your typical curriculum about the business school.
Mostly they are very good at teaching strategy, operations, management, finance and accounting. But then I ask, “OK, how many courses have you taken on how you talk with an employee you’re firing?” Or, “How do you talk with the person who comes to your office late at night to tell you that her daughter is sick and she might not be able to come in the following day?” Or, “What do you say when they come in with issues in their marriage that are impacting their job?”
As managers and leaders of people, those are the kinds of questions that one deals with probably 80% of the time. I think that business schools could do more to prepare kids to deal with the often more difficult side of business management and leadership.
The balance of learning courses is probably weighted to the numeric side of business as opposed to the people side. And you obviously think such things can be taught? I think they can. You can guide people to get them to understand the implications of decisions they make.
