Zitat des Tages von Mike Duke:
Someone asked me about what's it like managing 2.2 million associates, and I said, 'When they're Wal-Mart associates, it's not all that hard because of the quality and the depth of our talent.' I'm really proud of the fact that 70% of the managers in the U.S. started as hourly associates with our company.
If I spend all of my day in the details as a CEO of a company like Wal-Mart, I think it would be trouble, because I wouldn't really be prepared to speak to the big issues that the country or the world should face.
Wal-Mart, we've been known for many years - back to the days of when Sam Walton started the company - we've been known for basics. The basic need of families and people across America. Wal-Mart was known as the place for basics.
It's interesting: the letters I get from mayors that want Wal-Mart to look and invest in their community.
I usually get up between 5:30 and 6. The good news in Bentonville, Arkansas, is I can be in the office seven minutes later. I like to get in, work on e-mails and catch up.
I was always intrigued when I was growing up, and then in engineering school, with the idea of a perpetual machine. I think of the Wal-Mart culture as that.
We've done both. We can do both. We can raise the quality and still have Walmart prices.
I think every responsible public board at every board meeting should be discussing succession. And, of course, Walmart has a very mature board: our chairman Rob Walton and other members. So succession is an ongoing. I think when I first joined the board of directors, it was discussed then. And it's discussed at every board meeting continually.
I do spend really focused time with my wife, my kids, grandkids, and so when I'm doing something or on a golf course, work has stopped. I'm not always thinking and working... I think a leader has to really be a balanced, whole and healthy person personally in order to be the best leader on the job.
I actually think it's better I started by being close to customers. That foundation early on helped me later when I went into logistics and other kinds of management.