Matt Waller, dean emeritus of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, shares lessons learned from his Leadership & Organizational Behavior course he is teaching this fall in a series for Walton MBA students.
As we prepare to guide students through the Walton MBA's Leadership and Organizational Behavior course this semester, Adam Stoverink, Ph.D. and I have designed this exploration around Walmart as our case study. Why does Walmart serve as our primary case study for leadership? The answer reveals leadership insights that transcend retail and apply to any organization.
Imagine a leader who drives his own truck to Tennessee to find better deals for customers, or one who declares, "We will compete with technology, but win with people" while steering a company through digital transformation. These moments define leadership that exists not for its own sake, but to genuinely serve others and create lasting positive impact.
The first example captures Sam Walton's relentless focus on customer value, literally driving hundreds of miles to negotiate better wholesale prices that he could pass on to customers in small Arkansas towns. The second reflects Doug McMillon's approach to modern leadership, recognizing that while technology enables transformation, authentic human connection remains the foundation of sustainable success. Separated by decades, both leaders demonstrate the same fundamental commitment: creating value.
Why Walmart for Leadership
Through our course design built around "Unleashing Your Leadership to Empower Others," we've chosen Walmart because its scale reveals a fundamental truth: leadership isn't about wielding authority, but about setting direction, aligning people around a purpose that serves something bigger than themselves, and motivating them to achieve that purpose.
As the Fortune #1 company serving 270 million customers weekly across 19 countries, Walmart operates as a living leadership laboratory where every decision ultimately connects to a simple question: How can we better help people save money and live better? This creates an ideal learning environment for understanding how leadership principles translate into real-world impact.
Throughout our course, we teach a leadership framework that examines the dynamic interaction between the leader, the followers, and the situation. Consider Sam Walton's 1962 Bentonville launch through this framework: He set out to help customers in small towns access the same low prices available in big cities. The Leader brought relentless focus on customer value after learning hard lessons from losing his Newport lease. The Followers like early hire Inez Threet embraced revolutionary self-service concepts because they understood the customer benefit. The Situation presented an opportunity to serve an underserved market with limited resources and unlimited commitment to the customer mission. This alignment of all three elements created the foundation for sustainable success.
Why Scale Matters for Leadership Learning
Walmart's scope (2.1 million associates across 10,750 locations generating $681 billion in revenue) creates both unprecedented opportunity and profound responsibility. When you're serving nearly 270 million customers weekly, every leadership decision ripples through communities worldwide. This scale doesn't just amplify business challenges but also amplifies the moral weight of leadership choices.
For our students, this provides immediate feedback on leadership concepts. The company has navigated startup struggles, global expansion, technological disruption, and crises including pandemics, always returning to the fundamental question: How does this serve our customers and associates? At this scale, there's no hiding from whether your leadership approach genuinely creates value for others or merely drives short-term results.
As Doug McMillon notes, "There is no growth without change, and there is no meaningful change without risk. So, get comfortable with an intelligent level of risk." But at Walmart, that risk is taken in service of helping people live better lives, which is purpose-driven leadership.
The company's prominence also provides abundant learning opportunities. Because of their scale, Walmart is frequently in the news, offering students access to extensive publicly available information about their leadership decisions and outcomes. Students can observe leadership principles in action by visiting stores, using the app, or following the company's responses to current events and challenges.
Our Course Topics and Reading List
Our 15-week leadership journey covers comprehensive topics that build upon each other to develop well-rounded leaders. For those interested in exploring these concepts more deeply, we encourage you to read "Made in America" by Sam Walton, which provides foundational insights into the leadership principles that built the world's largest company.
Our weekly reading list integrates classic Harvard Business Review articles with contemporary leadership research:
Week 1 - Introduction to Leadership: Sam Walton: Made in America; What Leaders Really Do (Kotter, HBR)
Week 2 - Leader Traits & Attributes: Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? (Goffee & Jones, HBR); What Science Tells Us About Leadership Potential (Chamorro-Premuzic, HBR); What Makes a Leader? (Goleman, HBR)
Week 3 - Leader Behaviors: Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve (Collins, HBR); Connect, Then Lead (Cuddy, HBR)
Week 4 - Decision-Making: Before You Make That Big Decision… (Kahneman, Lovallo & Sibony, HBR); The Four Villains of Decision Making (Heath & Heath, Decisive)
Week 5 - Ethical Leadership: The Discipline of Building Character (Badaracco, HBR); Ethical Breakdowns (Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, HBR); The Parable of the Sadhu (McCoy, HBR)
Week 6 - Power, Influence & Persuasion: A New Prescription for Power (Lingo & McGinn, HBR); How to Increase Your Influence at Work (Knight, HBR); Harnessing the Science of Persuasion (Cialdini, HBR)
Week 7 - Leader-Follower Relationships: The Neuroscience of Trust (Zak, HBR); Empathy is a Non-Negotiable Leadership Skill. Here's How to Practice It. (Neale, HBR); 4 Listening Skills Leaders Need to Master (Schifrin, HBR)
Week 8 - Motivation: Pygmalion in Management (Livingston, HBR); One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? (Herzberg, HBR); Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model (Nohria et al., HBR)
Week 9 - Situational & Contingency Leadership: What Every Leader Should Know About Followers (Kellerman, HBR); What Differentiates The Situational Leader (The Center for Leadership Studies); 6 Common Leadership Styles -- and How to Decide Which to Use When (Knight, HBR)
Week 10 - Team Leadership: What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety (Edmondson & Kerrissey, HBR); The Best Leaders Aren't Afraid to Be Vulnerable (Omadeke, HBR); The Secrets of Great Teamwork (Haas & Mortensen, HBR)
Week 11 - Crisis and Change Leadership: Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail (Kotter, HBR); The Psychology Behind Effective Crisis Leadership (Petriglieri, HBR); The 4 Things Resilient Teams Do (Kirkman et al., HBR)
Week 12 - Transformational, Charismatic, & Global Leadership: Transformational Leadership (Bass & Riggio, Chapter 1); Learning Charisma (Antonakis et al., HBR); Leading Global Teams Effectively (Livermore, HBR)
Week 13 - Navigating Difficult Conversations: How to Navigate Conflict with a Coworker (Gallo, HBR); How to Handle a Disagreement on Your Team (Brett & Goldberg, HBR); What Good Feedback Really Looks Like (Chappelow & McCauley, HBR)
Week 14 - Leadership Development: Are You a Good Boss--Or a Great One? (Hill & Lineback, HBR); Find the Coaching in Criticism (Heen & Stone, HBR); The Making of an Expert (Ericsson et al., HBR); Don't Underestimate the Power of Self-Reflection (Bailey & Rehman, HBR)
Week 15 - Synthesis: No readings - focus on integration and application
Learning from Current Leaders: Our Guest Speaker Program
One of the most powerful aspects of our course is the opportunity for students to learn directly from Walmart's current leadership team. We communicate with guest speakers months in advance about the specific leadership topics we're teaching that week, and they adapt those theories into their classroom discussions with students. This integration ensures that theoretical concepts immediately connect to practical application.
This semester, students will have the unique opportunity to learn directly from Doug McMillon, President and CEO of Walmart, who will share insights about leading at scale while maintaining Walmart's people-first culture. They'll also hear from executive vice presidents including Andrea Albright (EVP and Chief Growth Officer, Walmart International), Lance de la Rosa (EVP, New Initiatives, Omni Fulfillment), Tom Ward (EVP & Chief eCommerce Officer), and John Laney (EVP, Food Merchandising).
Our guest speakers span Walmart's diverse business units, from senior vice presidents like Maren Dollwet Waggoner, Ph.D. (SVP, People), Tim Cooper (SVP Supply Chain, Perishable Network), Tim Simmons (SVP & Chief Product Officer, Walmart International), and Karisa Sprague (SVP Fulfillment and Reverse), to vice presidents including Nick Infante (VP, State & Local Government Relations), Jennifer Buchanan (VP, Walmart Academy), and Billy Link Jr. (VP, Store Fulfillment). This represents a sampling of the executives who contribute to our students' learning experience throughout the semester.
These conversations reveal how leadership theory becomes leadership practice. Students hear how executives navigate complex decisions, build high-performing teams, and maintain focus on serving customers and associates even during challenging periods. The authenticity and vulnerability of these leaders provide powerful models for our students' own leadership development.
Walton's Leadership Practices: Connecting Theory to Application
Sam Walton's 10 Rules for Building a Business are fundamentally about leadership. These rules align remarkably well with our course topics, demonstrating how timeless leadership principles remain relevant across decades:
Rule #7: "Listen to everyone in your company" drove Walton's famous Management by Walking Around, demonstrating servant leadership by learning from others to better fulfill the company's mission. When he walked store floors, he was practicing the kind of authentic engagement we teach in our Leader-Follower Relationships module.
Rule #3: "Motivate your partners. Money and ownership alone aren't enough" sparked Walmart's profit-sharing program, reflecting our course emphasis on intrinsic motivation and treating people as genuine partners rather than just employees.
Walton's vulnerability created authentic leadership. His candid admission that losing the Newport lease was "the dumbest mistake I ever made" demonstrated that great leaders learn from failure to better serve those counting on them. This provides our students with a powerful model of authentic leadership behavior that we explore in our Leadership Development sessions.
Modern Leadership: Technology Serving Humanity
Today's leadership at Walmart demonstrates how authentic leaders adapt their methods while deepening their commitment to serving others. As McMillon emphasizes, "We will compete with technology, but win with people." The focus on artificial intelligence and digital transformation is about using every available tool to help customers save money and live better while creating opportunities for associates to grow and thrive.
The emphasis on servant leadership reflects a profound understanding that we want our students to develop: the best leaders create more leaders, multiplying their positive impact through the development of others. As McMillon stated in recent sessions with our students, "If I could teach one class... it would be about servant leadership." This approach recognizes that leadership success is measured not by personal achievement, but by how many others you help reach their potential.
Crisis response demonstrates this servant leadership in action through empathetic handling of tragedies, supporting communities during disasters, and ensuring associates have the resources they need during challenging times. These responses show how authentic leaders integrate emotional intelligence with strategic vision, always keeping service to others at the center.
Walmart's journey from a single store in Rogers, Arkansas, to the world's largest company offers our students a comprehensive laboratory for understanding leadership in all its complexity. Through theoretical study, direct engagement with current leaders, and practical application, students develop the skills and perspectives needed to lead effectively in any context. The company's continued evolution demonstrates that great leadership isn't about perfection, but about the commitment to keep learning, growing, and serving others in an ever-changing world.
