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Volume 9, Issue 1, March 2008

Some Lessons Learned—From a Global Perspective

H. Lee Scott*

Thank you, Dr. White, thank you Mr. Reed, Dr. Sugg.

It is an honor and certainly to those people who have been involved in my education—a shock—for me to be here speaking to you today and having this honor.  And make no mistake; I accept this from the University of Arkansas with a great deal of pride.  And it is a pride I feel about the state in which I live, the community in which I live in northwest Arkansas, this University and what it means not only to you as students, but to us as citizens of this state and of northwest Arkansas.  And I am particularly proud that when I think about the fact that it is conferred upon me by Dr. John White and his administration who have done so much for this university to cause the university that you are graduating from today to be held in such high esteem even outside of our state.

So to you students, and to you members of the faculty and the administration, my congratulations go to you.

I also would like to take a moment to thank my family, particularly my wife Linda of thirty-eight years who has provided the adult supervision needed to get me here. 

So they told me I may talk for three to five minutes.  Dr. Cole (see All Things Academic, 8 (4) 2007.), who has a great deal more experience with these types of presentations, says she traveled a long way and three to five minutes was not long enough so we have decided to go slightly more.   And, based on her resume I certainly am proud to be going prior to her and not after.

I want to share with you three things that I think that I have learned in my job.  There’s no better job in this world than leading Wal-Mart stores and its 1.9 million associates who are spread throughout this world.  It is a job that really deals in the human experience whether it be the 167 million customers a week or the issues that we face as a company as we try to grow and evolve.  But as you travel the world, regardless of the country that you might visit, I find common themes.  There are about thirteen of them, but I have limited it to three. 

Number one is that in my view after spending many years in management and leadership is that ego is the greatest enemy of success.  All of us understand the ego that we see on television from the movie star or the out-of-control chief executive officer.  I am not talking about that because for the most part none of you are going to suffer from that.  But it is the ego that manifests itself everyday that puts a barrier between you and the people that you will work with or the people that you will serve.  It is the little things that you do—who do you speak to, who do you have time for, how do you treat the people that you interact with.  Do you understand that when the sun came up this morning in the east it came up for all of us, not just for you?  I think when I look back and see those people who’ve been the most successful they are those people, be it Sam Walton or David Glass or whoever else I’ve worked with that had an ego but could manage that ego in a way that was healthy and beneficial to the organization. 

Second point is probably a little more counter-intuitive.  And that is that in your life your harshest critics may be the most helpful voice that you hear.  It is so much easier to listen to those people who agree with you.  Had we done that at Wal-Mart stores over the last seven years, we would not be a company that has taken a leadership role in diversity.   We would not be a company that called for an increase in the minimum wage.  We would not be a company who stood up for the reauthorization of the Voter’s Rights Act.  We would not be a company who has formed a coalition to resolve the health care crisis that causes forty-five million Americans to be uninsured.  And, we would not be a company who is involved and making a difference in sustainability and in the environment of this planet.  We also wouldn’t be a company that has excited our people.  Little did we know when we reached out to the environmental community to see what was our opportunity, that we would find that the young people in Wal-Mart stores were ready to embrace a purpose that was bigger than just being a retailer.  It could give them something that they could feel good about and embrace and say, in the process of doing my job I can make this world a better place.  Now quite honestly, they are not glorious projects.  I was stopped this week at the local pizzeria by one of our associates who told me that he had been working with National Cash Regiter and they are repacking the new cash registers for the Wal-Mart stores and Sam’s Clubs and in the process they are going to eliminate thousands of tons of trash.  Not something you are going to read about in the paper, but one individual in the largest company in the world who because we listened to our critics and took a step, actually has made a difference in this world.   

The third thing that I would mention to you is this, that at the end of the day the most important characteristic of leadership, the most defining thing about any individual that I have run into in this journey is integrity.  I have a saying, “That except for health, in life you often get what you deserve.”   I believe that the level of integrity that you have as an individual will ultimately play the greatest role in the success you have as a human being.  I have seen people with 180 and 190 IQ’s that have no chance of being successful.  Because they just don’t understand what integrity means.  I run into people who believe that they would never do what happened at Enron because they would never, they would never do something that caused billions of dollars in losses by creating an accounting fraud.  Let me tell you my friends, the problems at Enron did not start with a billion dollar accounting issue.  It started with one person with an integrity issue who fudged on one number that probably wasn’t very meaningful.  And that number led to another number and to another number.  And in that group of people there was not a person with the level of integrity that said—stop! 

Sam Walton developed an incredible company that has created the opportunity for people of ordinary skills such as myself to achieve extraordinary things.   The fundamental principal that Sam Walton started this company on is integrity. 

If you will leave here and build the rest of your life on integrity at the end of the day the hand that you will be dealt will have a lot of aces in it. 

To all of you, congratulations!  I wish you my best.  And please know that we are hiring at Wal-Mart. 

Thank you!   

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* H. Lee Scott is President of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Bentonville, Arkansas. He is a 2007 recipient of the University of Arkansas Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa.  This paper is based on his May 12, 2007 Commencement Address to the 2007 University of Arkansas graduates in Fayetteville, AR.