Thank you. Who. Well thank you. Stacy and thanks to all of you. It's great to see all of you and I'm amazed that we have this bigger crowd here today was this and announced is this speech or was this intended to be a pep rally to get ready for the next football game Somma I'm amazed when I come to see a full room like this I will tell you it's always great to be back at Tech and I think especially this time of the year. It's really kind of interesting the way things have worked out last week at this exact time. I was a little further north speaking to a class in faculty at a nother school. Another A.C.C. school called White Forrest. And it was so interesting because I had a great discussion a lot of discussion like that will have today some really good questions. At the end of the the Wednesday afternoon session I said I wish you all a lot of luck and all of you should consider Walmart. In your career but I don't wish you much luck on Saturday. Yes what happened on Saturday wasn't. And then it was coming. Interesting one it I on Saturday I was as mentioned I was at a dinner at the National Academy of Engineering and got back to my hotel room my wife and not just in time for the fourth quarter and turned on the T.V. and we were in trouble. Of course and somehow the tech team pulled it out in the fourth quarter turned out to be a great victory. I've been e-mailing back and forth with some of the people at Wake Forest. You know about the victory and love the way it turned out even though I like to sometimes when a little bit easier than the way we had to win it on this past Saturday. You know I will tell you I don't think they're going to ask me to come back the Wake Forest you know maybe one of those that I hope you all invite me back. Because that probably won't be on my on my calendar anytime soon. This is special to be here because it's also special to be this close to home. But none of you should tell my mother because she's down in Fayette County and why things work with my calendar I'm in today. Back out tonight and not a chance to go visit home which people say What's home and I still say Fayette County Peachtree City. You know this area of Georgia and I left here in one thousand nine hundred seventy eight. But it's still home and an amazing how that that works out of how you define You know what you call home and my mother still lives in the house that I grew up in. And not far down the road here. And of course. I grew up knowing a lot about Georgia Tech some a vast me how did I end up at Georgia Tech up told the story before I was very fortunate to have a fantastic high school physics teacher and I did like math and science. My high school physics teacher gave me three bits of advice. Mr McDaniels was his name and he said first of all go to Georgia Tech. He said there is no school like it and. He said there is no reason to go anywhere else because it will prepare you for the rest your life. So I only applied at one school and it was a good thing I got in. I would tell you and I would tell the others here and leadership I probably would be able to get in today but back then I was able to squeak in a Mr McDaniel also had a second bit of advice and he said you should major in industrial engineering and they said it's people engineering and it combines the quantitative and along with the people skills sets and will be needed in the future and industrial engineering will be a fantastic. Profession to pursue after after college. I only have one major. I came in as an I graduated as an I. Mr McDaniels third bit of advice even more prophetic if you look at the world today. He said When you come out of Georgia Tech go to work in a service industry not manufacturing He said all the other engineers they'll be looking to go into manufacturing. But the ink about service in the future because he said that the future of opportunity will be much more about service. Now he didn't say retailing and he didn't say Wal-Mart because Wal-Mart really was just in an idea at the time at that time in the sixty's Sam Walton had just begun a tiny little small company in northwest Arkansas that no one here in Georgia would have ever heard of at that time. So he didn't really necessarily say retailing but he did point me to service and then. When I came out of tech you know naturally I had the interviews and all the things with manufacturing. But I had one very very important interview and interview with Mr John White now who's sitting up front today Mr White now or was really starting up a new retail business called ritually. A company that was just getting off the ground but I thought at the time you know retailing that sounds like a lot of fun and it is a service business. You know I think if my high school of teach or physics teacher world live today. I think you'd still be saying not only for the opportunity in the United States but around the world that the idea of careers and opportunity in service industries like retailing is a tremendous tremendous opportunity. It has it's worked OK for me and and I sure have never looked back with any regrets at all of the decision to go to Georgia Tech the decision to. In a dust from an engine ear or the decision to pursue a career in the retail industry. So I mentioned Sam Walton. I'd like to now transition and talk a little more about the next generation Wal-Mart and about our growth globally and about sustainability and how does all that fit together. So the topics of global growth and sustainability. I think are completely intertwined. I don't think in the future you'll be able to separate the two. I think that. The the ability to do business in the future is in for a company like Wal-Mart understanding the global marketplace is going to be very very critical but also the integration of sustainability will be critical and Sam Walton had such great vision. He died in one thousand nine hundred two. I never had a chance to meet Sam Walton but I'll tell ya it felt like on know him through all of the impact that he's had on so many people that I've had a chance to work with there's one video one quote that I've seen him right before he died in one thousand nine hundred two. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award the highest honor given to a civilian. But then President Bush on a visit to Bentonville in a serve only there. And after receiving that award in his speech. Regis quote Sam Walton said. If we work together will lower the cost of living for everyone. We'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better life. Now you might sometimes see a Wal-Mart commercial and you'd say save money live better. Someone might think your marketing team came up with a really good slogan we said you know what the marketing team was Sam Walton if you really. Just condense what Sam said Save Money Live Better is what he was really talking about and even then almost twenty years ago. How he could look out in think about the whole world and how the company that he created. Could end up helping people save money and live better all over the world was quite visionary because at that time we weren't really even in all the states in the U.S. and certainly not not a global company. You know I think he understood though the mission of our company even then of what he had found it. What he had created and he understood what it could be what the future might be and. You know certainly at Wal-Mart a lot about an efficiency and productivity leads us to run a company where we can help customers save money but even more today we think even more about our customers and how we can help customers live better live better is becoming even more of a passion. I think as we we think about our relationships with our customers and even some of the things that are out cover today I will tell you proud of the Wal-Mart associates and the progress that we've made in this area. You know the twenty years since Sam Walton passed away in since he made that statement at that time. Wal-Mart was starting to be a pretty good size company at that time we had fifteen hundred stores. And two hundred seventy five thousand associates twenty years ago. But today. We have over eight thousand stores we operate in fifteen countries and we have over two million associates that work for Wal-Mart. I meet Wal-Mart associates where everywhere I go around the world and it's amazing. Over six hundred thousand associates outside the United States and so today. We really are becoming more and more a global company with reach that touches the customers all over the world. It's interesting I came to Wal-Mart in one nine hundred ninety five and today we do more sales more business outside the United States to customers then we did totally When I came in one nine hundred ninety five. We're almost ten times the size. We were twenty years ago when Sam Walton when he when he kind of passed on and passed the business on. So we do see though tremendous opportunity around the world as a global company and the next generation Wal-Mart will see even more opportunity to serve more customers. I will tell you and I know a lot of you particularly as you as you today are so connected with technology and you understand trends even better. That the trends that are taking place are big fast complex and they have a big impact on companies like Wal-Mart so we'll be looking out and thinking about not only our business. But the world that we operate in. So we've started thinking about the next twenty years is we look back twenty. We also think ahead twenty and say what will the next twenty years look like one thing we do expect is that there will be at least a billion more people on this planet and with that it'll put a lot of pressure on the resources of the earth energy will clearly cost a lot more over the next twenty years. We expect that the demand for food will double in the world and one of the implications of doubling the demand for food in the world and particularly the fact that today we are a large food retailer both here and in the other countries that we operate in. We can't imagine the impact of technology. But we know that it will be gigantic. None of us could have thought twenty years in the past how to technology today would connect all of us that there was just no one smart of the Dunder stand today's technology. So we accept the fact that we can't at all. Appreciate what technology will look like twenty years from now but we know that will be big and it will be big challenges and big opportunities. As we look out and our. Our team in leadership and others at Wal-Mart have looked and said this next generation Wal-Mart. To think about that. What are the big strategies inside our company. And then how we relate in the world that would be very very important and therefore strategies that I'd like to really take a few moments and share with you today. The first I want to talk about a little bit but even more so. Wal-Mart must become a truly global company and I'll cover more about what does it mean second. We must really understand the business challenges that retailers and that we will face and we must be able to solve these challenges and they will be complex challenges more complex than we've ever seen in the past. Third we believe that we will play an even bigger role on social issues that our customers are interested in that are important to our customers we think with our size our reach and the impact in the number of people that we touch that the social issues of the world will be critical. And then fourth. Probably I think most important is that Wal-Mart. We must keep our culture strong and we have a unique culture at Wal-Mart and I'm so pleased that it's the combination of our company. Alter and our business model is what. That's what has created the success and it's what is led to becoming the largest company in the world and I give Sam Walton all of the credit for the creation of a wonderful culture and a fantastic business model. And this will be critically important in the future. So I'll now go back maybe cover a little more of these Those are the four strategies but what does it mean. So let's start with number one. We must become a truly global company and so I said. International business is growing rapidly. Our total sales this past year about four hundred five billion and obvious that over one hundred billion of it is outside the United States in other words that we're selling to customers outside the U.S. and. What's interesting about that as a global company a great deal of the systems the infrastructure supply chain. Relationships with suppliers that we look at globally but to customers. We want to be local. And as a result of that the majority of our business in stores outside the United States doesn't say Wal-Mart on the building. Many of them would be local small local names it. Argentina. It might say change the laws in the U.K. It says As to in Japan. It says Say you. And these are brands and names that have local meaning the customer feels that they're shopping and they have a a store that is there a local store and behind the scenes is where Wal-Mart's global reach and global strength comes into play. But the customer wants to shop locally and we want to help support that and that's the way that we operate. Even with creating this global infrastructure. Now it is interesting. We'll continue to grow jobs here in the United States and around the world. I'm bitching that we have over two million associates. When we look out over the next five years. We would expect over the next five years to create over five hundred thousand additional jobs. What I'd love if more of those were were graduates of Georgia Tech by the way. And I don't mind I'll end up giving some commercials while I'm here today and. A lot of the commercial is really about the opportunities in the careers and the. The opportunity and growth globally will be tremendous. I think one of the critical issues in this area of global growth far company will be developing leaders who also can see the world different and can manage and lead in a global environment. You know it's it's no longer the case where even a country as great as the United States could say we're not going to participate in the global economy. It's not optional. The global economy is sheer and how do we operate businesses in this environment and really understand and manage in this environment is is really critical to the future of our business. Now go to the second strategy said we've got to understand the challenges we face and we've got to be able to solve them. This is where the the idea of technology comes into play. Technology is going to bring a lot of challenges to retailers it already is the retailers that are able to capitalize and view these challenges as opportunities will do well. The retailers that can't change that remain static that doesn't know how to deal with Challenge will not be here. I think of the impact of technology for example price transparency. You know I see in the future some you are already doing this when you go shopping. If you are thinking about being a television. You wouldn't care about television today without comparing prices. And it's so easy you do it right on your i Phone you can be in a Wal-Mart store scan bar codes check prices of other retailers and before you even commit to buying the T.V. you can see if that is the best price for that television or that item price transparency it's almost here now for a lot of products. It will continue to be more and more available to customers so they know that they're paying the very best price technology will enable tremendous information for the customer in the future. And frankly I like our position like that where the customer can say I want to buy from where I can get the best value. A company then in that environment has to be efficient has to have a supply chain that can deliver product efficiently to the customer and deliver that lowest price and still give value to shareholders and I like where we're at on that and I think even in the future as technology enables price transparency. I believe we'll win even more. Technology has a lot of other aspects you know Wal-Mart for many years is the known to invest a great deal in technology we were really investing and even goes back to Sam Walton being out front of creating efficient supply chains and information for suppliers. We're investing even more in technology and we think it will help us to even be more efficient in this mobile marketplace. Another area that is rapidly evolving and changing is e-commerce. And we talk about e-commerce but we also put another word right behind it and that's multichannel. We view customers don't necessarily want to say I want to go to the store or they think I'm going to water online. I think they want to be able to buy the product when how and at the exact price. Whenever they want to and with complete flexibility and that's why we view multichannel as the way customers will shop in the future. They may want to shop in a store they may want to share. From there. There is a I phone or cell phone. They may want to buy at home. Maybe it's their Internet T.V. that they're connected to and that's where we think Walmart again as is really positioned real well I can view stores where we have points of distribution where you may order product online and think it up in the store. My wife and our ready do that as a team. She does it watering and I do the pick up and you know it's interesting we call it site to store the way that works is you buy online you don't have to pay a delivery fee. So the next time you're in Wal-Mart. We used to we have an area of the store. You know a big area staging area and associate you know stepping in the area that it's call site to store and that's where you can do the pick up we can order. We can offer a much broader assortment Then you we could even carry in a super center and have it officially delivered and available for pickup in the store. I actually think now you know my wife is still. Sometimes she'll call the office and she'll know I'm there today. She won't because I'm not there. Of course she'll say Would you stop at the Super Center on the way home and pick up these four items. I'll jot down my list and you know then I'll swing by I pick it up in the Super Center go home. You know soon. We're already piloting but if Invision now she'll go online order it it'll be available for for pick up and chill e-mail me and say this is what's waiting at the Wal-Mart for you to pick up on the way home. And it will be already picked packed ready for immediate pick up. So this idea of multichannel. Whether it's ordering additional product picking it up today in the future use of mobile technology is going to be a tremendous opportunity we think of it as an opportunity. Many companies today think of it is a great Judge Gannett through. Yet and I think it's all of how your position to face challenges and convert the challenges in the opportunities and that's a key strategy that would have a Wal-Mart. Now said earlier the third strategy that for us to grow and to serve more customers we think that we will play an even bigger leadership role in the social issues that are important to our customers. You know it's interesting. Millions of people around the world want to live a better life and the world is going to have to find ways to meet the needs sustainability is very very critical the management of resources is going to become even more critical issues like energy the environment. We have we're now looking at other things like responsible sourcing How is product produced. What's the footprint of a product. What's the whole supply chain look like the one that I'm really especially excited about is sustainable agriculture. I spent a day recently with a sustainable farmer in Iowa and looking at how a farmer today and he actually could have been a Georgia Tech engineer he plotted all of his productivity over years. And as he became more sustainable and generated ways to in his own self cycle. How he used his animals and his farm to grow corn and other crops increase productivity beyond what all of the other neighbor farmers were doing in the same county. Using all of the traditional farming methods so sustainable agriculture is one of those big big areas that we're working with we're working direct the farm with farmers in Central America China India and here in the United States and we think again it's part of hell. Playing with this big issue of that of the world will be facing over the long term in the in the area of food. I would hope that some of you have heard about Wal-Mart's efforts and sustainability. We've had a great focus in this area and what I'm really pleased about. I think we have two million associates that are proud to be involved in it. So my share with you just a few years ago we really began this journey and it we're still on the front end of a sustainability journey with much more work to do but we stablish three goals on the very front end three arbitrary goals one we said we wanted to be supplied one hundred percent the renewable energy. Second we wanted to create create zero waste and third we wanted to sell products that sustain people and the environment. Now those are broad goals and in some ways very challenging. Sometimes we believe in setting big stretch challenging goals and then finding out how we're going to go through the journey to get there. And we've made tremendous progress I'll tell you a sense since we really started with this and not just give you a few examples you know this is where being an engineer I have like numbers and I like statistics and how things add up an economic impact. So since two thousand and six when we really first began this journey. We've sold more than three hundred fifty million compact fluorescent light bulbs. So think of the old incandescent bulb think of the new boat. Some call it the squiggly bulb. But it's much more energy efficient. We sell three hundred fifty million to our customers the savings in energy cost. This one item. To our customers was fourteen point five billion dollars over the life of the light bulbs that we sold. During this period of. Time customers of course can save that and live a better life the way Sam Walton's dreamed of spent time in our supply chain logistics area and we have in the U.S. around eight thousand truck drivers on the highway. You wouldn't go out on an interstate anywhere in America and drive very far down the road and start to count the number of Wal-Mart trucks you're going to meet on the other side of the interstate. These drivers are absolutely doing a terrific job and they are they are out there on the front line helping us to be more efficient in delivery. Since two thousand and five our truck fully has had a sixty percent increase in fleet efficiency the way we look at efficiency is the volume of product we move. Over the miles. And it's a combination of loading more efficiently. More efficient technology in the in the vehicle some selves of how our drivers drive drive the use of onboard computers so there are multiple things that goes into it but that's what leads to a sixty percent increase. So only concentrated liquid laundry detergent. Now when you go in the stores you notice it's all concentrated and we had great support from our suppliers that one initiative is saved one hundred twenty five million pounds of cardboard eighty million pounds of plastic resin and saide four hundred thirty million gallons of water. That's the impact of that one change with one product in the store of going to concentrated liquid detergent. Recycle cardboard for our private label deli pizza boxes. I just saw in visiting stores today we sell a lot of pizza in our stores. We've redirected eighty six hundred tons of cardboard from landfills and same. One hundred twenty five thousand trees by the way that we design the the packaging for pizzas. So it's interesting you start with something little and become very very big in this area of sustainability. What's right about this is it's good for the environment. It's good for our customers. But guess what. It's also good for our shareholders. Saving money is good for shareholders and good for customers. One announcement they were on the front end of is developing a sustainable product index and so again in the future when your Smartphone you're shopping in a Wal-Mart store. You should be able to look at a product and maybe scan information and it could tell you all about the sustainability including a product index that would tell you the footprint the sustainability of every product that you buy in a retail store. You know we do snow. That being a good company is good for our business. It saves money. It drives innovation and it even. Helps attract top talent so even again as I give you that commercial about Wal-Mart. You know that you can understand that our associates are really proud to be a part of what we say is helping to change the world and help people live better. And we've proven that sustainability is sustainable. And that it is the right thing to do for all parties involved. Sam Walton did say another quote he said leadership leads to higher expectations and you know what I like the position we're in some people say that Wal-Mart the more is expected being when you're the largest company in the world. I love being in that position. I'd hate to work for a company that the world had low expectations of and I like the position we're in. Now the fourth strategy S. it to build the next generation Wal-Mart. We must keep our culture. Strong this great culture that Sam Walton created. So I have to tell you a little bit about this culture because I joined Wal-Mart did a lot of due diligence fifteen years ago and I love the culture of this company and I said I give Sam Walton so much credit for. We talk about at Wal-Mart. We have three basic beliefs. The basic beliefs of our company number one respect for every individual and what that means is every single associate is important. Every single customer's important. It's really interesting. Earlier today of course a flew in early this morning we left Bentonville before seven. So we could be on the ground here early and drop in a store manager didn't know we were coming and that's always a. You know quite a shock you know and you know I don't I don't really necessarily do it for the shock value. I don't want. I don't want store managers and people spending a lot of money in creating something artificial for me I want to see the stores. The way customers see our stores. And it's interesting today as others are traveling with me. We spend a great deal of our time today talking to the hourly associates that are on the front line that are serving customers and so much about our as we talked about it is by asking questions. You know one of the best ways to show respect is just to say what do you think What's your opinion. Do you have any ideas and respect is a big word and we talk about it a lot at Wal-Mart. We do a great deal of discussion with our leaders about the fact that that's our first basic belief. It's a critical part of the culture that Sam Walton created second basic belief is serving customers we do a Wal-Mart Cheer Yamato heard we won't make you do this today but we go through Give me a W. Give me an A and so forth and it closes with who's number one the Custer. Always That's a way that your goes back to Sam Walton and he'd love the kind of spirit and positive atmosphere especially around serving customers. Today in one of the stores here in the Atlanta area. Art A couple of great examples where a store manager. Puts customers number one the first example this customer came up to me this gentleman an elderly gentleman telling me what are some great examples from our pharmacy department. But then he pointed to the store manager and he said let me tell you about him he's a special person. Well to this customer obviously very tight. Financially and and had said he had had a purchase he needed to make one time and he was did not have the money and he got up front. He realized he saw the store manager and he asked this manager if if he could create some type of a temporary loan for him that he needed a loan for a couple weeks. The store manager said sorry you know it won't work. We don't really have a loan program that way the store manager reached in his pocket and gave him the cash to make the purchase and said When you get a chance. You know just stop in and we can work it out this several years ago and this customer still remembers that believe me that's a customer for life. Now I probably can't give the store managers name publicly because he would be able to manage a store because he'd have a line of customers you know that would be there and said. I want to talk about that loan program you've got you know. But there was another case actually store manager and again here in this area had a soul a lot more customer lady had problem with a lot more he heard about it. He actually went out to the lady's house and she couldn't bring in an elderly lady. So not only did he help get the lawn more current. He went ahead and motor lawn care and again I won't give his. You know because a I think you would be able to manage a story they'd be out mode but you know I love the stories were our leaders in the store on the front line. They don't just talk company culture they live it and they role model and they demonstrated. Our third basic belief in our culture is striving for excellence and that just means doing what Sam Walton did which means every day getting up early raising the bar striving to be better than we were the day before whatever objective we have is set at higher stretch more than you think we could do and this is where a lot of engineering practices come into play. We have a strong innovations team that's looking for. How can we raise the bar improve use technology be even a better company and it's part of our culture. I think the important part of our culture that we talk the most about is the foundation of our culture we say the foundation is integrity always doing what's right and that means honesty in every relationship. Every interaction and we call integrity is the word that is the foundation of our company culture. You know as I said I give Sam Walton all the credit for this but it's our strategy that we say it's the most important if we're going to be a great company in the future. So there is in the next generation for Wal-Mart we think great opportunity. A lot of growth ahead today on a typical week in our stores. We only have two hundred million customers that business. I like to think about how many customers do not have access to a Wal-Mart. We have two hundred million that do have we have many many more around the world that really don't have access to data a Wal-Mart and we want to help to give more customers the opportunity to save money and live better the way Sam Walton's dream was conceived years ago. I would say to the students here. You know when you think of the future. It could be sometimes kind of daunting to even try to comprehend what will the world look like twenty years from now. I would tell you don't get depressed. I think it will be exciting the challenges the opportunities the fun to have a time to be born when you are to have the opportunity when you have is tremendous The world will be smaller. It will be much more connected. We can't even dream of the technology. But it will have tremendous tremendous opportunity especially for those of you that graduate from Georgia Tech and. What that happy to be here and I'd be happy to take any questions. If you ask hard questions I've got others from Wal-Mart that will help me with but I'll try to handle the easy questions. Yes sir and I think all the microphones we have a microphone and we ask that before you add skill question would you please introduce yourself by stating your name and your major or your name and your affiliation. David Cohen class of maybe three Georgia Tech in the very proud to be part of what used to be industrial management that is now College of Management. Corporate company culture and integrity is being challenged by social media and of course we're seeing that expand on a global basis. Just listen to represent and Coca-Cola talk about the challenges of dealing with social media which is what is Wal-Mart's plan to maintain their integrity and culture. Miss all of Facebook and Linked In and all these other platforms that are thrown out there communicating different information to us it's interesting it's like almost anything. There can be two sides to get there and I love the technology. I've visited recently you know in in California with the Facebook leadership team and others had a me. Waiting and not that long ago with the others at Google and my mind cannot comprehend the way that all the technology works. And as I said it's going to bring tremendous and it does today tremendous opportunity but it also brings challenges and even at times the speed of communication can at times be a problem especially if it's not accurate. And that's where at times you know there can be particularly you know where something starts to get out rumors can go and before you know in a million people are thinking something to be accurate. That's really not and I think that just goes with the territory. I have to be honest I don't you know I don't lose a lot of sleep over it when Wal-Mart in there is something in accurate about our company. What we really do is just try to ensure that two million associates have worked for the company do the right thing. Tell the truth understand who we really are that our customers understand who we are I do spend time I was in Washington D.C. earlier this week. I think our elected officials need to know the truth and understand our business principles and I think what you do is you just keep doing what's right. You keep ensuring that your people do what's right. When there's an exception. Then you have to deal with it. Sometimes it means consequences we were talking about in the in the car today. We had a case where an associate did a violation of an integrity principle and the manager in this case it's been a few years ago had to leave and asked me a question about don't you ever. Don't you believe in forgiveness. And I said I do believe in forgiveness but I also believe in consequences at same time. And so I think in this area of social media. It's just a case more of keep doing what's right. Communicate the story we are doing more today to tell our story and you know even being here. Or with you is a tiny example but our corporate affairs team does a better job. We use of social media to try to tell the truth and we think that'll work fine in the long run. OK. My name is there you can see through. I'm a math is in mechanical engineering the graduate in this ember of this. My question was In which country do you see the biggest growth potential for Wal-Mart in the future. You know it's a great question. I'm often asked that by analyst and others. And I would tell you that to start with there is tremendous growth potential here in the United States. So when you think of the U.S. and the size and the opportunity in this market. We have a lot of customers. Many of you here that you'd say it's difficult. You know may not have a Wal-Mart store. We've been thinking about and you may have heard about Chicago and the opportunity to go into Chicago with multiple sized stores. We are still building super centers in the U.S. we're still billing Sam's Clubs but we also view the opportunity to build smaller stores and we have been cross a number of markets in the U.S. a format we call the neighborhood market and so in just pure growth there is a lot of opportunity in the U.S. So I'd start right here in the U.S. because even as we talk about a global company our foundation and roots began right here and we still have a lot more upside here. Naturally outside the U.S. then markets like China India Brazil would be the big markets we're already in all three of those big markets lease see lots of opportunity in those three big markets. I would. Say we made an announcement last week. Of an interest in a discussion about the potential of an acquisition in sub-Saharan Africa and so in some ways when you look out long term over a number of years and decades. You know I can see wherever there's a large population. That Wal-Mart's not serving that provides an opportunity so I'm never want to you know zero in on one market. I think we have the opportunity for a number of very large markets to serve customers around the world. To. Height many times. Carly Pickens I'm a December two thousand and ten graduate a graduate in the College of Management. My question comes from the idea of look Lobel think local and everything that you are doing in other countries are you also doing anything to implement that here in the U.S. where there's the issues of implementing a Wal-Mart into a small town that I could also be causing issues. You know with a local company that's been around for generations to try. Exactly. Here in the U.S. there's a number of things that we're really doing to work and it's really interesting the economic studies that shown the that when Wal-Mart goes into a small town. The impact that it has on jobs and the economy on taxes and the benefits. It was a it's been a few years but the research work that was done not by Wal-Mart but by other economist that showed the benefits of Wal-Mart coming to a community. I think it's interesting. Retailing is always going to have transition. You know where some are in business today and they're not in business in the future and usually that's related to not serving customers and you know that'll be the case I think ten years twenty years from now what I like that we're doing here in the U.S. is a lot of our initiatives with suppliers first of all with that we buy product from women and minority owned suppliers small suppliers. I love when we have local purchases. Even here. It was really interesting today as we visited the local stores the store managers showing us local product from small suppliers that are are regional in nature that I would never see the product in Arkansas but they'll be you know here purchased locally we do a lot of what work even with the farmers also as I mentioned in the U.S. So I think it's one that part of our responsibility as we view it is looking broadly about not only serving customers but all of the impact that we have on communities and we're really proud of the progress made. I my name is Linda Lish I am with one of the Executive M.B.A. programs here in terms of tact I'm also in retail. So I was curious to hear somebody have a great and soon our relationship with your sense it's in store. So what is your perspective on the Employee Free Choice Act And what is Wal-Mart doing on him an arts to that. You know first of all I don't think there's really even much discussion about that anymore. You know it's one of those that are not familiar. That was something that was discussed last year in Washington quite a bit the Senate debate it quite a bit and frankly you know we were really clear that we didn't think it that our associates needed that and nor was it important. And so obviously we were opposed to that it's a case where in the general environment today that a confidential election is held if associates enough want to can potentially form a union then a private election is held and this particular act would remove that opportunity to have a confidential election we think that the privacy and confidentially of a private vote is really important. It's part of the freedom of America and so I think generally our elected officials in Washington saw that also that it. It's not really the American way. Not good for the country not good for economy not good for jobs and it's really not much of a discussion anymore. Generally are so see it so the real issue is how to speak out of companies have good relations with associates and how to how to teams work together and that's what I'm really proud of as I said the one point four million associates in the United States and the way they work together to serve customers the morale. Now will tell you since you're in management and engineering. We also have a saying in Wal-Mart that if you can't measure it. You can't manage it. We measure lots of things. Maybe this comes from my engineering background but we measure associating gauge when every store we visited today we talk with the store managers about what your measure Aba sociate engagement it's kind of a morale measure and. And when we see it going down. We think it's a leadership challenge we said what are we doing. Maybe we're not showing respect. We're not communicating with associates. Fortunately the stores we're visiting it's going up and with very good measures and it's a way our associates in a confidential way can evaluate management and tell us how good a job. We're doing of showing respect and these kind of measurements in business you can take some people call soft things like morale. We think morale is something that can be measured and managed and we've had you know very good use and success in those kind of tools. Afternoon I meet Watkins economics class of two thousand and eight. I wanted to ask you a little bit more about the African expansion. You see a lot of gains in Africa not just in terms of customer base but also in terms of increasing. The efficiency of your supply chain perhaps from being able to fill some holes or perhaps in product development and product placement try not do you know I always start with customers and so I do think that there is a large. They say of customers that have the. You might think about when even Sam Walton first started Wal-Mart. I think he viewed serving the underserved customer was an important part of Wal-Mart's mission and when as I've traveled to South Africa and look and visited the townships. I really see a large base of customers that are under-served and think that there is great opportunity to serve customers so it starts with customers. So I said the customer is number one. So that's really that's our primary reason for going. I will tell you though that in markets like that. I think we work very collaboratively with the government with other organizations they help with the supply chain. We're a little further along in India for example. So I might use that as an example because South Africa and the sub-Saharan area is still on the front end of the potential opportunity to to enter the market in India we can operate cash and carry stores where we serve small business and we've got a great partnership there but we're working on a food supply chain there to help create a more efficient food supply chain because such a large portion of the product in India produce that's grown by local farmers never is able to get to the consumer because there's there's no cold chain no efficient supply chain. We work with the government with farmers with others to try to help design and develop a supply chain to that will help the country and then help small business that buys from our cash and carry operation. We also have a fresh. Chuy's. Or relationship with a partner that can sell direct customers and so we are further along in India and with how product is produced how our product is delivered to the market. I think in markets like the emerging markets of the world and even here in the United States a big part of what we're trying to help with also is job training and so as we've developed training centers in India that would teach. The skills about how to work in a book to be a Wal-Mart store. We see that as part of that help that we're doing with developing in these emerging markets but I will tell you you know what we're proud of in the U.S. is the job training and the announcements we made within the last few months about helping our associates to develop college credits and potentially then get associate degree and college degree. So we think training education all of that is important to our associates and that becomes even as we enter new markets part of what we bring to the plate. But most of all helping customers save money and live better. That's really that's what Sam Walton said our first and most important mission is and so it always has to start with the customer but it does lead to other benefits of it. To I am clearly proudly I am a management major here graduating in December eleventh and I have kind of a two part question for you as a successful leader. What would you describe your leadership style to be and how is that made an impact on your employees and followers and part he would be how has it changed over the years. You know this is probably one I should ask others from Wal-Mart to. To describe my leadership skills because you know I'm not sure I'm good at looking. In the mirror. You know how we all sometimes have a misperception of who we really are. But I'll try as best I can. You know I think even as I visit stores and talk to other people. I am very very interested in other people's feedback and so I ask a lot of questions. Now. So I want to I want to learn and I want other people to share their input before I give my input. So my leadership style is not to try to do a lot of talking talk more standing on this stage today I've used up more words than I would in a typical week I think. Because I do a lot more listening than I do talking. I will tell you that I think leadership is about robot aling and setting an example and it would be very very serious mistake of a leader to say that respect for every individual is important in then not show it or to say that customers are important and then not show it. So I try to think about what I say as a leader and then try to make sure that our role model as best as OP possibly can because I know that as a leader. I'm being watched every word. Whether I'm smiling or not what I'm wearing and and I think the leader has to always recognize that that the importance of being an example being a role model and at least I try to be conscious of that I will tell you that our. You know at Wal-Mart we talk a lot about diversity and inclusion. I've put a great deal of Ephesus on developing women in leadership around the world here in the United States and in other countries and you know by looking at the fact that seventy to eighty percent of our women are of our customers are women even a majority of our souce it's more than fifty percent in every market we operate in and I believe that creating opportunities for women in leadership. But what I see. What I really mean by that is I like an inclusive environment. I like where there are people with different points of view I love it when five people can come together with five different backgrounds and experience and have different five different ideas and then come together and as a team come up with the best way out the five. So to me inclusion is different ideas from different backgrounds different points of view but in a very very open environment. You know when I think of leaders and respect and have a lot of admiration for many leaders one of them of thought about a lot and got to know before he died was coach John Wooden that at U.C.L.A. I think when you think a basketball I would dare say no one will ever touch the record in basketball that he had but he said when he won all those strains of national championships in basketball. He never he said he never started the year out with the objective of winning the National Championship his objective was that every single player would play to their fullest potential on every single play. And frankly that's a. I think a characteristic of leadership that I'd like to up have is it every associate with a company would be able to contribute to their fullest potential every store manager every merchant every engineer every management leader have the opportunity and the environment in a company to contribute to their fullest potential. When you do that as a leader and you create that kind of environment. It's amazing what the team can accomplish. And that's what the coach wouldn't it. To. Really key. Hey masses and lead to engineer and confirm the system is to do. You have a very prosperous career. Some of the Wal-Mart in changes and going through a police presence. So. How did you feel how did you personally thinks any stresses you felt coming at the job because or in the university come you know through the you your career path and my second question is how often are you. Very thankful that you don't have to this day for tennis anymore. It's a really good question. As I was you know as you were asking about coming up in my career and different adversities or different stresses you know I have never I don't think I've ever felt it even when there were difficult times or challenges. I didn't view it as adversity. I view it more as a learning experience or an opportunity and I'd always try to look at things and and try to see the positive even in difficult situations so you know sometimes you know you may hear the saying. When you're given lemons then just make lemonade and I think that there are times in life and in business where your whole attitude ends up creating which direction you're going to go. It can be you can view it as adversity and stress and it will become adverse and stressful. Or you can view it as a positive opportunity a learning experience. Remember my son when he was starting in his career he didn't go to Georgia Tech he went to Baylor University. He was working and you know he had a boss that just wasn't the very best boss and he called me up on the weekends and he had mentioned something about what was going on in his job and I remember telling him I said Devon you what a fantastic opportunity you've got the kid said Ted what do you mean he said I've got this terrible boss and he said it's stressful I've got a lot of opera in adversity you know and I said no. Look at the learning opportunity you are learning what not to do you know and that's in a lot of cases you learn from. Loss is what to do but I said in many cases you look you will learn even more when you're in an opportunity of what not to do and. You know I look like even the situation at Wal-Mart as I said earlier. I like the fact that we are held to higher expectations. Sometimes people will say they'll pick a competitor and they'll say nobody picks on that competitor. Nobody ever. You know has hot and high expectations of them and I said I like working for the company that the world has high expectations of I don't mind the fact when somebody criticism sizes us in it's valid. You know and frankly we've learned in recent years that when there's criticism don't become defensive. You know first listen and the critic may be right and in many cases we found that we can learn a lot from our critics and there can be demonstrations and there can be something negative said about our company and it's a whole lot better to understand them. Listen to their feedback and then to say is there something we could do better. So even at Wal-Mart in even the challenges or times of adversity or controversy. You know I like to look at it in a positive way and say is are something we can learn from this can it make us a better company and it is it's a shame in life. But we all tend to grow more and develop better from the days of adversity than we do the days of success. The days of getting trophies and awards and all that when you look at your life and you know as you look back over those periods. I would bet you would end up saying that you probably didn't grow as much as an individual on the days of celebration of success as you did the days of adversity the challenges the problems. Those become the great opportunities to be a better person a better leader and to live a better life. So thanks for asking a good question. And thank you all for two thousand.