Sitting at Sam’s desk isn’t just any old job. The three previous chief executives who came after Walton-David Glass, Lee Scott, and Duke-were executive all-stars in their own right, growing Walmart from merely one of America’s biggest retail chains to the colossus it is today. Rob Walton, Sam’s eldest son, remains chairman. The Walton family, one of the wealthiest in the world, owns roughly 50% of Walmart’s stock. Other homespun bits of Walton’s wisdom are preserved on signs on the walls of Walmart facilities. Live better.”-is today both Walmart’s slogan and the core of its corporate mission.

A distilled version of one of Walton’s famous quotes-“Save money. Walmart’s founder is still revered as something close to a deity in Bentonville, Ark., where the company was founded and where its headquarters remain today. He is, after all, just the fourth CEO to lead the company in the years since Walton left the post in 1988. One could forgive McMillon, 48, for being momentarily daunted by the magnitude of the job. Photograph by Mackenzie Stroh for Fortune “You’ve got to get on with it.” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, photographed in Bentonville, Ark., in April Photograph by Mackenzie Stroh for Fortune “You’ve been appointed by the board of directors to be CEO,” he said. I’m expecting you to be there.” He added reverentially, “This is Sam Walton’s office.”ĭuke laughed sympathetically and then nodded to the empty chair. Gesturing across the desk, McMillon said, “I can’t really go over there. After a while Mike Duke, his predecessor as CEO and until days earlier his boss, stopped in to check on him. He plopped down on the visitors’ side and began working from there. “I couldn’t sit behind the desk,” he says. McMillon arrived early on that Tuesday and reported to his new workspace-the same modest, 15-by-17-foot room with cheap wood paneling that has belonged to each chief executive of the company going back to Mr.

The problem: He wasn’t sure where to sit. Until, that is, his first day in the office after officially taking charge as CEO of the world’s largest retailer on Feb.

Wheel of fortune board game walmart