Walmart, and the Problem with Two Million of Anything.

Walmart, 2.2 million employees, $447 billion in revenues. To put it into context, the Catholic Church does $170 billion. Walmart is the size of two other countries, Argentina and Apple.

Not having firsthand experience with anything 2 billion, my generation willingly confuses abstract with real life. Occupy Main Street, though mostly unemployed are certain they know how to run the economy. Brands are purchased to make us stand out from the crowd, when in reality we become the crowd. Our presidents and priests have no practical experience in what they teach, but many seek them out equally for guidance and joke fodder.

Problem is, in some strange way it all sort of works and I'm grateful to live here. Grateful we're bolted to the world's cop. If there was a 90 mile sea channel between us and the USA, Canadians too would be driving 1959 Plymouths and Gretzky may, or not have made it over in an inner tube.

"OUR Walmart" as I understand it, is a union guided movement without official union organizing going on. Sort of a Sun Tzu, - to win a war without fighting one - idea.

Walmart's sheer bulk has pushed to the edges of its business model. You can't have 2.2 of anything without somebody getting interested in what you're doing. The history of Walmart's employee relations is not good. The low and then still lower pricing model requires low labour costs and huge flexibility which you can only squeeze from a part time, entry level workforce and that's not where thirty year veterans want to stay.

Sixty years, right on time. Disneyland had the same union problem on its sixtieth birthday. The saucer ride operator found he couldn't raise a family in Anaheim forgetting he started at age 16, a summer job helping tourists onto the pink spinning saucers. His manager, fearful of turnover, preferring peace over stretch, let the young ride operator ride for 20 years never dreaming at some point, the employee would sincerely believe he owned the job.

The management lesson about not growing people is this. Grow people's capabilities and responsibilities. If you keep them in the same position for too many years, the will at some point tell you what the job and the salary has to be. They will believe they own their job.

Productivity and quality never increase in the twentieth year of either marriage or work.

Low turnover is possible when you leave people in their comfort zone. We all like warm, cozy, and comfortable. When you raise the bar, you also begin to think about retention.

Be like VW, not Lincoln. Don't talk about your past, talk about your future. Think what's next, be different, dissatisfied, anxious, push the limits. Domestic cars will never win as long as they sport their old badges. Those badges remind us of their failed history.

A strong economy can mislead us into thinking we're great managers. Maybe. Maybe not. Rising tide, boats in the harbour, you know the story.



I don't mean to take this Walmart analogy any further than to point out that if employees don't grow in their roles, over time they truly believe the only problem at work is you. Develop, grow, train up, and expand people in their roles. They'll be happier and you'll have labour peace.

Let's build great companies!
Wolfgang