This week Matt is joined by Emi Cardarelli, Head of Wholesale Club - Customer Development at Unilever. In the episode, Matt and Emi discuss her 13 year career at Walmart and the many opportunities it provided for her across multiple parts of the business. Then, the pair transition to Cardarelli's current experience at Unilever. Finally, Emi leaves students with the advice to find a company that shares similar values as you, be prepared for change, and build your network.
Episode Transcript
Emi Cardarelli 0:00
The only thing constant is change. It's okay to be upset about certain changes, but
figure out how you're going to tackle them and how you're going to move forward with
it.
Matt Waller 0:12
Excellence, professionalism, innovation and collegiality. These are the values the
Sam M. Walton College of Business explores in education, business and the lives of
people we meet every day. I'm Matt Waller, Dean of the Walton College and welcome
to the Be Epic podcast. I have with me today Emi Cardarelli, who is the Head of Wholesale
Club - Customer Development at Unilever. She has been in Unilever for four years prior
to that she was at Walmart for 13 years. She had an international graduate assistant
experience at Procter and Gamble. And she also has an MBA from the Sam M. Walton College
of Business. Emi, thank you so much for taking time to visit with me today. I really
appreciate it.
Emi Cardarelli 0:59
Matt, it's a pleasure. I'm happy to spend some time with you.
Matt Waller 1:02
You've had a really great career in retail and CPG. You've had experience in sourcing
and supply chain. You have experience in private label, sales, sustainability, customer
development, you've really seen a lot of different aspects of retail and CPG. How
have you liked your career? Are you glad you went into this direction?
Emi Cardarelli 1:29
It's been amazing. It's been a roller coaster. But I don't regret any of it. You know,
a lot of times I get asked, "Would you do something differently?" I'd say No, I said
the decisions I've, I've made have all worked out and they've all served their purpose.
It's been a great ride and the ride is not over yet.
Matt Waller 1:45
Well, Emi, you got involved in CPG pretty quickly, I guess while you were in the MBA
program, you did that work with P&G through the assistantship?
Emi Cardarelli 1:55
That's correct.
Matt Waller 1:56
You know, we still do that. We really encourage students to do internships while they're
in the MBA program. We believe it helps. Do you think it helped you?
Emi Cardarelli 2:07
Absolutely. I'd say I was fortunate enough to have obtained the graduate assistantship,
because that helped, you know, not only financially covering, you know, tuition and
a stipend and just putting a little bit of peace of mind when it came to that because
I came on an international tuition status. So that was a huge relief for me as I was
younger, and for my family that was supporting me. But the opportunity to have done
that graduate assistantship really opened the doors to employment opportunities. And
that's how I ended up at Walmart. In addition to the professors I had bringing in
guest speakers, it was a combination that really opened those doors.
Matt Waller 2:43
Well, and then you, of course, went into Walmart, and you had lots of different experiences
as a Buyer, a Merchandise Manager, in sourcing and in supply chain and private label,
but you spent a total of 13 years there. I know most of that was in Bentonville. But
you also had some experience in other places, is that correct?
Emi Cardarelli 3:08
That's correct. I'll share a little bit of the background with Walmart. When I wrapped
up my MBA, as most MBA graduates do, you start searching for jobs, and you're very
well aware of what, you know, the mean salary is depending on where you are, and I
was looking through all those stats. I had received an offer to come speak to some
executives at Walmart, Laura Phillips, who just retired had been a guest speaker in
one of my classes and she invited me to meet with her. So I said sure. And I came
up and I was actually very unaware of the magnitude that Walmart was having just lived
in the US for a year at the end of my master's degree. And having not had much exposure
to it besides the internship. So I just said, "Yeah, Laura I'll come on up." And I
called her one day and I said, "Hey, I'm in the area." And you remember about 20 years
ago, I don't want to date myself, but going from Fayetteville to Bentonville was a
long way. There was nothing in between. And she invited me in and I met several of
the executives in the grocery department at Walmart. And it was just a really, really
good feel. As I walked through the hallways, you've been to Walmart headquarters,
it's unlike many others. And when I walked in, it was no windows and rows of cubicles.
But what I saw were people helping each other and people welcoming me, they didn't
even know who I was. And I was just there for a quick chat and I was very much attracted
to that. Then after that visit, I actually received an offer to join Walmart, but
the offer was to join as a buyer trainee. And I was looking at the buyer trainee salary,
Matt, and I was looking at the mean salary for an MBA and I had a little bit of a
chip on my shoulder or an MBA head as we call it sometimes and I was like I don't
know about this, you know, I know I should be a little bit higher than what they're
offering me. But on the flip side, you know, I took it as a, an opportunity to get
my foot in the door, and I said, this is it, I'll step in the door and we'll, we'll
see where it goes from there. So I did that. And I spent some months in the store.
I spent six months in the Fayetteville store, the Mall Avenue store, which was a lot
of fun. And then I went back to corporate, did my buyer training in potato chips and
soft drinks. That was a lot of fun. Then I became the adult beverage buyer. I was
one of the few adult beverage buyers aka liquor, which was a lot of fun and unknown.
A lot of people didn't know at the time that Walmart actually sold adult beverages
and it was an adventure of swimming upstream internally because of Walmart's values
and background. But at the end of the day, it's what the consumers were looking for.
So we wanted to make sure that we had it where it was available. After my adult beverage
stint, I was invited to take part on a team that was going to open a prototype for
the Hispanic customer. When I joined Walmart I was one of the only Latina buyers at
Walmart. And I had to remind people of that because my mother's originally from South
Arkansas. So I grew up speaking English and Spanish and I don't have the expected
you know, Hispanic accent when you tell people you're Hispanic so had to clarify that
a bit. When Walmart started this Supermercado, the Walmart venture, I was super excited
to be part of that. Seeing it go from the ground up. The whole box. It was like a
little Neighborhood Market. And that took me out to Arizona. So I spent a year in
Arizona. And after that year, I was approached to move to Costa Rica and open Walmart's
global food sourcing office. I had never been to Costa Rica, I figured you know, this
could be easy. I speak Spanish, you know, I understand a bit of the Latino culture.
How hard can it be, right? Oh, was I mistaken. It was an amazing experience. A lot
of cultural learning. You know, even though it was Spanish, there's still a lot of,
you know, slang, and you insert your foot in your mouth every now and then. And you
learn very quickly. You know, even in North America, the difference in English between
the South and the North can vary a lot or American English, British English, South
African English, there's very different words and phrases that can mean very different
things in different countries. So I learned that quickly. There was also a bit of
a challenge and learning about, you know, women in the workforce. And Hispanic countries
are very much male dominated countries and not as advanced in women in corporate and
business position. So that was a bit of a battle that I fought starting out there
and you know, turned it around and left with a very, very good flavor in my mouth
of success and what I had accomplished while I was there. I then returned to the US.
And that's when I began a bit of sourcing and supply chain and private brands on the
consumable side of the business at Walmart. That was the majority of my career at
Walmart, Matt.
Matt Waller 7:40
So I would like to back up just a moment. You said you started in this Walmart Supercenter
here in Fayetteville. You did that for six months. What were you doing?
Emi Cardarelli 7:53
Everything you could possibly do in a super center. It was a little bit of everything.
We did rotations, I spent time with the assistant manager in the frozen department
that was my least favorite. I felt like it was a punishment when they made me stock
the ice cream coolers because I had to go in with the big coat and pull the ice cream
out and stock the ice cream coolers. I used to go hide out with the wonderful ladies
in the fabrics and crafts section. They'd help me and I'd in turn help them decorate
the store, whatever was needed. I spent time in the back office, I spent time with
HR, you know learning about hiring associates into the store. I spent a couple of
weeks doing night shifts, you know, Walmart isn't open 24 hours anymore, but back
then they still had the 24 hour Walmart's and the night shifts. And what you saw during
the night was completely different than what you saw during the day. That was a lot
of fun. But I've got to say that one of my favorite parts was actually spending time
with the asset protection team and just watching the cameras. And you know, pinpointing
potential shoplifters or things like that just to see how people shot behind the scenes,
whether it's what they're putting in the baskets, as habits and market baskets, or
if they're trying to pilfer things from the store. So it was an amazing experience
did a little bit of everything there.
Matt Waller 9:08
And so many things. Understanding the very basics, especially where you meet the customer
really helps understand the business from a broader perspective. Of course, you rose
through the ranks at Walmart, but you're also in Unilever now. But I would think that
detailed understanding helps you in many different ways.
Emi Cardarelli 9:29
As we say very much in our area of Northwest Arkansas, retail is detail, right? And
learning who your shopper and who your consumer is. I also like to say once you work
in retail shopping is never the same. You walk the aisles and you have a very different
point of view. Sometimes I'll walk the aisle with friends and family and start pinpointing
things, they're like "What are you talking about? Like why are you even looking at
this." And I'm like, "Oh, well, you know, the adjacencies," and they think I'm speaking
a different language. But it's very important to understand who your shopper is. I
think on occasion in our area, we sometimes get blindsided because we do live in a
bit of a bubble in Northwest Arkansas and don't realize that the consumer or the Walmart
shopper, the shopper in general in Northwest Arkansas is very different than the one
across the country and across the globe. So it's also very important to get out into
other markets and watch and see what people are doing and how they're shopping, what
the family makeup is, there's so much that you can learn just by watching how people
shop. Kind of like so much you can learn about people in the airport, just watching
them. It's one of my favorite things to do, especially with all the delays we've had
recently with travel. But you can learn a lot from that.
Matt Waller 10:33
So when you went to Costa Rica to open the global sourcing from Costa Rica, obviously,
there were lots of cultural things you had to learn. But I would imagine, too, regulatory,
legal, even business, I mean, you were setting up something new, which was very different
than you had done up to that point.
Emi Cardarelli 11:01
It was quite the challenge. There were two of us that went down. And we were pretty
much told, you know, here's the Walmart Central America offices, the global food sourcing
division is a separate entity. And this is what you're going to set up and they gave
us a little space. And they said this is your space. So go hire a team and make it
look like an office. And we're like, all right, where do we start? The objective was
to really understand and work on expanding the network of farmers in Central America,
that supplied produce to Walmart in the US and around the world. So I'd never done
anything in agriculture. And I spent a lot of time boots on the ground in the fields
working with pineapple suppliers, banana suppliers, melon suppliers, mango suppliers
and just working through contracts and negotiations on shipping container loads after
container loads of all this produce to the US and there were a lot of factors that
I had never taken into account never knew was even a thing you know, from the desk
I was sitting in when I was here in Northwest Arkansas. And you're here in Northwest
Arkansas on the home of Walmart and suppliers are, you know, chomping at the bit to
try to sell their product to you. And the cards were completely flipped on me in Costa
Rica. I had to go sell Walmart to the small farmers who had no idea who Walmart was,
and pretty much say, "Hey, we'd love to buy product from you. These are all of our
stipulations you have to go through all these factory audits, it is going to be an
initial investment for some small farmers. But trust me, it's going to be worth it."
And they didn't know me from Adam. So it was really selling this concept to them,
which has now become a huge business. We have an established office in Central America,
Global Food Sourcing at Walmart opened. We like I'm still there, I've moved. At that
time we had an established office, but they have offices all around the world that
does that and focuses on whatever the agricultural product or the forte economically
of that geography is in order to find the most efficiencies. Remember one of the big
wins when I left there was as a team, I believe, and I may get my stats incorrect.
But when we got there, it used to take 15 to 17 days to get a banana from farm or
from field to the store. I think they've narrowed that time down today to three to
five days from farmer to store, which is amazing.
Matt Waller 13:22
Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot less waste as a result of that.
Emi Cardarelli 13:26
Yes. The one thing you did not want to deal with and you couldn't control was Mother
Nature not being happy around back to school time because not having those containers
of bananas when kids are ready to go back to school was not a good thing.
Matt Waller 13:39
That's great. Well, just thinking within the first few years of working at Walmart,
you had experience in the store, experience globally, experience as a Senior Merchandise
Manager for Hispanic Formats. Would you mind speaking to that a little bit?
Emi Cardarelli 13:58
Yeah, that was a bit of the initiative that we did with the Supermercado store. And
it was a great opportunity to leverage my Mexican background in the fact that I spoke
Spanish because we worked closely with our counterparts in Mexico to understand what
the layout and the right assortment was and what the top items were in Mexico and
figured out how we could replicate that to have that same assortment in the US for
that Hispanic consumer. So it was super valuable to have you know, not only to be
able to communicate that Spanish is the I'm not gonna say my second language I grew
up speaking both. But it was very helpful to have that extra extra language handy
to be able to execute the job.
Matt Waller 14:40
And then you went into Consumables for health and wellness. That was the big change
from farmers in the field.
Emi Cardarelli 14:48
It was a very big change. I kind of say I went behind the scenes with consumables
and health and wellness at Walmart. It was all your health your beauty, your pets,
your paper goods, your chemicals, your optical And I worked with a lot of our private
brand suppliers to understand where Walmart at that time could unlock savings with
upstream sourcing. It was really going to the source and figuring out how much we
could cut out in the supply chain to make it not only more cost efficient, but time
efficient as well, I had the opportunity to do several trips to Asia, straight to
the factories where a lot of the different brands are manufactured and learn that
whole process. In health and wellness, I went to the source of the over the counter
pharmaceuticals, I learned how to pronounce a lot of the products that we all have
in a medicine cabinet that we can't pronounce their active ingredients. And I'm okay
not having to try to learn another language right now such, such as that. And then
it moved into there was a bit of a restructure, and it moved into private brands where
I was responsible for paper goods and chemicals, at Walmart.
Matt Waller 15:52
All of those categories are very different from one another. And you spent 13 years
really learning lots of different and new types of things. Was it enjoyable? Or did
it feel like a whirlwind?
Emi Cardarelli 16:06
I'd say it was always a challenge. And I'm up for any challenge. It's kind of what
drives me as to say, alright, what's the next challenge? And how can I exceed at that
challenge and unlock and open more opportunities? The challenge is what I thrive on
the most.
Matt Waller 16:22
So then you went from working for the company that buys more than anyone else in the
world to one of the largest and most well recognized consumer products companies in
the world, Unilever. And during your time at Unilever, you've been, correct me if
I'm wrong, but I believe you've been focused on Walmart. Is that right?
Emi Cardarelli 16:44
In the first year I was on Walmart. So I've had responsibility the past few years
for Costco, Sam's Club, and BJs, all wholesale retailers.
Matt Waller 16:52
So that's a big change too. Going from the traditional retail format to club and wholesale.
Talk a little about that change.
Emi Cardarelli 17:01
I'll speak to the transition and the why of the transition a little bit more if that's
all right, Matt, because I know a lot of times in the area we're in, folks leave Walmart
to go to the supplier side and vice versa. Folks on the supplier side go into Walmart.
I left Walmart, I'd say with a very good taste in my mouth. But the reason I left
Walmart was because I went through a life change. I got married, and I had a child
and my son was one year old. And I needed to slow down a bit. And I acknowledged that
I needed to slow down a bit. It was a tough decision. It was actually a decision I
sat on for almost two years until I decided alright, I'm going to do this because
Walmart was what I knew. The people that I had met at the University of Arkansas,
the Walton College then my master's degree and at Walmart, through the 13 years I
were there, they were my family in Northwest Arkansas. I moved here by myself. So
it was kind of hard to say, all right, am I going to leave the only thing that I know
here? But I knew that it was time to do something a little bit different. And I needed
a little bit more flexibility, that at that time was not as popular at Walmart, as
it was within the supplier community. Just a bit more of the I cringe a bit at saying
work-life balance, because it really is work-life integration. And if any of us learned
anything through the pandemic, was how to integrate both of those things, because
we pretty much brought our families into our everyday work over Teams and over Zoom.
But I started searching for different roles I had, you know, my top five companies
that I'd want to work for, because they all held and hold values that I share as a
family and as a person that's, you know, the first thing I was looking for, and I
came across a role at Unilever that was Walmart International and Sustainability Director.
And I figured, well, you know, the Walmart international part, I think I have that
down having spent three years abroad and been at the company for 13 years, I felt
I checked that box. And the sustainability part, I was, you know, familiar internally
at Walmart with what their sustainability goals were. And at that time, you know,
another name will, will will pop up that popped up at the beginning of my career was
Laura Phillips, and she was leading up sustainability at Walmart at the time, I had
a great conversation with her. And I knew that it was an area that I could leverage
and really identify where both companies, Walmart and Unilever, could partner on at
the sustainability front. So I took a leap of faith and I reached out to someone I
knew at Unilever and I said, "Hey, I need your team leads name and number." It's not
what you know, but who you know sometimes, and they're like, "Well, why do you want
it?" And I was like, "Well, because I'm interested in a role and I want to talk to
them." They were like, "Oh, yeah, well, you and eight other people." I was like, "Well,
I don't care about the eight other people. I want to know who it is. Let we talk to
'em." So I got in touch with Jim Breach who used to lead the Walmart team here. And
I had a fantastic conversation with Jim Breach. And that led to I think it was close
to an eight week interview process with several different interviews in between at
Unilever and knowing the small community, we're in here trying to keep that on the
down low. It was an everyday challenge. But needless to say, I ended up receiving
the job offer and, and came to Unilever. And one of the big things not that I was
really attracted to about Unilever, and through my interview process, a lot of people
don't talk about this. But you have the cliche subjects to not bring up or to not
talk about during interviews. And I was very forthcoming with Jim and I told him,
I said, "Jim," I said, "The only thing is, I want to make sure you're aware." I said,
"I have a one year old." I said, "I understand this is an international role. And
traveling isn't a problem." I said, "But if I'm away three or more nights, my husband
and my son come with me." I said, "I'll take care of their travel expenses, but they
come with me, because that's how I bring my best self to work. They are my why. That's
how I bring my best thing to work." And he didn't blink. And when that was the reaction
that I saw, I knew it was the place I wanted to work. It was a place that really cared
about their people. And it was a place I wanted to work. And that's what launched
my career here at Unilever.
Matt Waller 21:11
What a great story.
Emi Cardarelli 21:13
It really is a people first company. Well, I mean, we have to deliver the results,
of course, but part of one of the questions you asked me Matt, and that we're probably
going to chat about a little bit is, what kind of a leader I am. And I'd say I'm a,
I'm a people leader. And if your people are in the best place that they can be, then
the results will come with that.
Matt Waller 21:31
That is so true isn't it? Business is all about people, we do so much analytics, we
do so much strategizing, and communicating, but really, everything boils down to people.
Emi Cardarelli 21:46
It really does. It really does. How you treat your people how your people feel. If
they're in a good spot, and they feel supported, and they feel like you've got their
back, they'll bend over backwards for you.
Matt Waller 21:57
Wow, that's great to hear. In addition to your philosophy on that, you now have a
decent amount of experience in key account sales. If a student is interested in someday
being in key account sales, what kind of capabilities and strengths should they be
building now?
Emi Cardarelli 22:19
That's a fantastic question, Matt. I'd say if you're not good at numbers, it's probably
not the area for you. So you need to make sure that you're good with numbers and that
you're comfortable with them. And then once you decide that's what you want to get
into, I mean, first of course know which company you want to work for. And identify,
and some people are like, "Well, where do I start?" Well understand what the products
are, understand what the brands are, understand what the company's values are. Because
every company is different. Just like as humans, we're all different. And you want
to find that best match. Understand who the leaders are, and what their purpose and
what their values are. Because that's going to say a lot about the environment you
work in. But you know, as far as success and key account sales, I think it boils down
to three things, know your product, your numbers, know your customer, who you're calling
on who the retailer is, but most importantly know your consumer, we spoke a little
bit about the shopper earlier and watching shopper habits. I think that's extremely
important so that you can know how to tackle the day to day business. It's also very
important just as qualities is to be flexible, be adaptable, and really be willing
to take risk. And know, and my team hears me say this endlessly, is that the only
thing constant is change. At Unilever right now, we just finalized a very lengthy
global restructure which took into effect two weeks ago, July 1st, we've, you know,
been talking about a change and adapting to change and rolling with the punches. And
it's okay to be upset about certain changes, but figure out how you're going to tackle
them and how you're going to move forward with it. And that's all part of the flexibility
and the adaptability. Lastly, a really important thing I'd say is build your network.
Build your network and work at it professionally, personally and in your community.
Matt, you know, I've been a member of your advisory council for over 15 years. It's
something I'm very passionate about. Find your passions. Oh, I wouldn't think twice
about that one. Find your passions for it. I serve on the board of the Northwest Arkansas
Food Bank, it's something I'm very passionate about. And when you find those passions
in that purpose, it just makes everything else kind of flow a little bit easier. And
also another very important point is mentoring, whether it's through your professors,
whether through people you meet when your professors bring guest speakers in or people
you listen to on these type of podcasts. In the world that we live in today, you can
find anyone on LinkedIn. Right? It's not that hard to I'd say to stock folks online,
you can find what they are, find the things that you have in common, make sure that
there can be an exchange that it's not just something unilateral that you're looking
to benefit from, but something that the other person you're reaching out to could
benefit from as well. But I'd say those are the, maybe the top five things, I'd say
it would make you successful not only in key account sales, but in several roles within
the CPG or retail world.
Matt Waller 22:31
In business in general. First of all, congratulations on your amazing accomplishments
in your career. And I do thank you for serving the college by serving on my board
for 15 years. That's very generous of you. And thank you for taking time to visit
with me today. Really appreciate it.
Emi Cardarelli 25:43
It's been a pleasure. I enjoy giving back to to the university and to the community
and you know, any opportunity I get to spend time with you or with your faculty and
the staff and the students at the university. I'm more than happy to.
Matt Waller 25:56
On behalf of the Sam M. Walton College of Business. I want to thank everyone for spending
time with us for another engaging conversation. You can subscribe by going to your
favorite podcast service and searching Be Epic. B-E-E-P-I-C.
