The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
To create an ecosystem that connects leaders of all kinds – industry, community, student, educational, civic, investment and entrepreneurial – to help overcome Omnichannel Retail barriers through exclusive, insight-rich content.
The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
Ep. 78 - Sam Walton's Enduring Influence on Leadership and Culture at Walmart with Sam Dunn
When Sam Walton penned his now-legendary 1986 letter to his associates, he likely never imagined how it would echo through the decades, shaping the culture of a retail empire. Joining Andy Wilson to dissect this remarkable piece of corporate history is Sam Dunn, a former Walmart executive turned assistant dean at BYU Marriott School of Business, who brings a wealth of inside knowledge about the leadership titan. Their dialogue traverses the landscape of Walton's 'do it, try it, fix it' philosophy and the competitive spirit that continues to drive Walmart's success.
Andy and Sam share the profound impact Walton's mentorship had on them, unveiling the lessons that transcended the retail industry to inform leadership across the board.
As they honor the legacy of a man whose humility and accessibility transformed the concept of leadership, the conversation naturally flows into the modern-day relevance of servant leadership in retail and omnichannel environments.
Sam and Andy discuss the continuation of Walton's values under the stewardship of his son, Rob Walton, and other influential figures like Don Soderquist, "the keeper of the culture."
The episode culminates with a heartfelt letter from Walton himself, which stands as a testament to his approachable and genuine leadership style. Listen closely as Andy and Sam unravel the threads of Walmart's culture and the enduring principles that have made it an exemplar of servant leadership and family involvement in business.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Servant Leadership Today. My name is Andy Wilson and I am so glad that you joined us today, and my guest, sam Dunn, welcome. Thank you, andy, good to be with you. It is so good to have Sam on. We complete a part one. This is the part two of our Leadership Today segment and, sam, quickly you did a great introduction of yourself earlier Tell people a bit about you and then we're just going to get straight into this great topic today around leadership.
Speaker 2:Andy, yes, well, by way of introduction, I had an opportunity to work with you for many years at Walmart. I was primarily in finance roles and strategy roles with the company. I had the opportunity to lead the finance teams for a couple of our important divisions, like the Sam's Club division, our Walmartcom division, and actually worked overseas a couple of times as well Three years and.
Speaker 1:I've seen you there a couple of times, I think Right in Japan.
Speaker 2:Four years in Japan and retired in 2016 as a senior vice president with the company. And now my encore career, andy, has been as an assistant dean and director of the Business Career Center at the BYU Marriott School of Business. Byu Brigham Young University happens to be my alma mater. Really good to be back there now. These students are keeping me young If that's possible they sure are and I love working with them and helping them as they're developing their career plans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, great. Well, sam, welcome today. I'm so glad to have you and, as I said earlier, sam, in our earlier podcast, you're such a great friend. We've been friends 20 plus years. We have been and we've done a lot together. We have had a lot of great conversations, enjoyed every bit of it. I know Me too. Okay, today we're going to talk about Sam Walton and there'll be other things that we're going to talk about. Sam Walton and there'll be other things that we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1:But Sam and I had the opportunity to grow up at Walmart and, like you said, almost 30 years there, from both of us different roles, different responsibilities, but we were personally, professionally impacted by the many great leaders around us. Right, sam, we were, we leaders around us. Right, sam, we were, we were, yes, man, we were. And you know, one of the things today that we're going to dive into is in July 1986. Now, I know some of you weren't born then, but I will tell you. Something great happened that day at Walmart. Sam Walton wrote a letter and he wrote a letter to the Walmart associates and on June, the 30th 1986, I happened to be a part of being able to listen to this letter, of being able to listen to this letter and I want to tell you it's amazing. It's amazing because that was the year I got promoted as the officer of the company, in 1986. And I was a district manager and had 12 stores back in the day as a regional vice president. There's 100 plus stores and 10,000 plus associates, and so I have the opportunity to be in the auditorium on that Saturday morning, sam, when he read this letter. And so let's take this apart a bit and I'm going to read some of it to you. And this letter was shared with our associates.
Speaker 1:But Sam talks about. In his beginning he said that we were a diverse collection of mostly average people. He called it a melting pot, if you will, and I'm reading of former retailers, housewives, college trainees and people from all walks of life. Most companies are that there are a group of very diverse individuals, even more so today than ever, which is awesome. I love the diversity that's happening in our companies and organizations and all the things that happen because we're learning and we're so much better today because of that. And then he goes on. That says one of our qualities strong qualities is we like to win. Sam, we loved the win at Walmart, didn't we? We loved it.
Speaker 2:I think Sam Walden was perhaps one of the most competitive people I've ever met. Yeah, and I think that it goes back even to his childhood, andy. He was a competitor. His football team, which he quarterbacked in Missouri, won the state championship. He was competitive, he loved it. He expected us to be competitive. Yeah, and the thing that I learned from him in that regard was he respected the competition. Right, it was easy to walk into a competitor's store that didn't look good and find all the things that were wrong with it Right, but he would, in the midst of all the chaos or the mess that might be there or the empty shelves, he would find at least one or two things that he could walk out of there with right, learn from and you, you better do the same.
Speaker 1:I've. I've been on the store walks with him and we we would come out and uh, and he would say, what do you found? And I remember that one guy said you know he talked about everything bad and then he was corrected strongly and we all were sent back in to find something good. I was glad to God that I didn't say it, I'm glad I was in the background. You know I was a buyer then at Walmart and we were. You know we would sometimes get tapped to fuel his plane and go to store trips. But you know he also said, through the years, sam, I think it was so good, I know we still. That's part of our culture today is he said. You know, he said here in the letter we said through the years, do it, try it, fix it. How do you apply that today, sam? I love, do it try it, fix it.
Speaker 2:How do you apply that today, sam? I love do it. Try it, fix it. We used to have it hanging on the walls around Walmart. You're right, and Sam was a firm believer that you didn't need a perfect plan, you just needed a good plan. And there's a saying by the famous World War II General, george Patton a good plan violently executed today is better than a great plan tomorrow.
Speaker 1:And I think we had a great leader around Walmart that had that banner over somewhere in his office, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, we did, and that was the mentality. And if I could share an example with you, andy, please, you mentioned the letter published in 86, the year you were promoted to officer level. I actually was hired into the company the following year, in 87, but this letter was still resonating, it was still something people were talking about. They had copies of it at their desk and the reason I got hired into Walmart was because Walmart, which at the time was running discount stores the biggest box I think we operated was about 80,000 square feet. That's correct, 80,000. Yeah, 80. And we didn't have very many of those. Much of the store count was much smaller than that.
Speaker 2:But Sam had, through his visits to competitors in Europe, seen this concept, a one-stop shop concept, primarily in France, called the hypermarche or the hypermarket concept, and he thought we could do that. Nobody else is doing that in the US, but we could do it. So he came back from his trip with Helen and he tasked a group of people to go put together what was called Hypermart USA, and this means we were going to be selling fresh foods, you know, random wheat items, meat and produce and all those things that we'd never dealt with before at Walmart and they were looking for somebody with an accounting and finance background. He had grocery experience and I happened to be working for a little chain down in Texas called Brookshire's a great company a family owned company.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, definitely Not very big, about a hundred stores, and I got hired to help set up the accounting system for these new product lines that we were going to be carrying. So I was on this project team. Well, you remember, the first Hypermart we opened was in Garland, texas. It was 240,000 square feet. Andy, we didn't have any clue how to manage a store that was three times bigger than any other store.
Speaker 2:We operated Right and a lot of people said this is a mistake, we shouldn't be in this business, we're not good at it. We didn't have our own supply chains lined up, we had to rely on wholesalers. Yeah, but Sam was committed Do it, try it and fix it. David Glass was committed, right, and Rob Walton was committed. David Glass was committed, right, and Rob Walton was committed. And we stayed the course and we quickly realized the Hypermarts were just too big. Right, we needed something smaller and we came up with another concept called the Supercenter just a year after the Hypermarts opened Right and opened the first one in, I think, washington, missouri, and then shortly after in Wagner, oklahoma, and it wasn't long before we were converting all of our discount stores into super centers. And today, when people think about Walmart. That's what they think about. They don't remember the discount stores.
Speaker 1:You know I remember the many Friday meetings and again, I was a young officer at the time and the area that they put me in was one of the worst performing areas in the company. But the only thing I was glad about is that my news wasn't quite as bad as your news in the hypermark that I had to report on. So not that I was glad, but I knew that, no matter how bad mine was, yours was going to be better or worse. I mean you were right.
Speaker 2:We had the dubious distinction, Andy. That store in Garland was the first store to ever register a $1 million shrinkage inventory. Yeah, I think all of us thought we were doomed for the door, you know, after that happened. But again, Sam was patient enough to say it's OK. We're going to learn from this. We're going to figure out how to improve our controls, how to improve our shrinkage, and and those stores ended up changing the nature of the whole company and the future of the company.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that's what you have to focus here on is that part of great leadership is not only is having that vision. Yes, the second part of that is being able to navigate all those obstacles and learn from those mistakes, learn how to improve systems, learn that it's too large and it was, and that's one of the things we did but think of today. And it was, and that's one of the things we did but think of today. If that happen, mark failure had to happen. Moment it changed Walmart, it was the growth factor in the grocery machine out of something that at that time looked like a failure company's future in a good way.
Speaker 2:You know, there were other retailers Target and Kmart, for example who were primary competitors, who dabbled in it. They all opened their version of a super center or a hypermart, but the only company that really committed to it turned out to be Walmart, and that changed everything. If I could give you one more quick example, andy, we around the year 2000,. Sam had passed by then, rob was the chairman and Amazon had come along and Amazon turned out to be a very formidable competitor, one that we kind of ignored for a number of years because they never made money and we thought, you know, there's no way they would have staying power. But they were obsessively committed to the customer. They were definitely focused on building a platform that could serve the world not just the US but the world and ultimately they've succeeded very well at it.
Speaker 2:But around the year 2000, lee Scott, our CEO, decided we better start paying attention to them and we launched our own internet business, walmartcom, and moved it out to the San Francisco Bay Area, and Lee asked if I would go out as the CFO of that business and I was working alongside Greg Penner and other great leaders trying to create a website, trying to market the way Amazon was marketing to their customers. Amazon was marketing to their customers. And another example of we lost a ton of money in the first couple of years that I was there, but the company again committed to it and said do it, try it, fix it. And now we've learned. Walmart has learned and Doug McMillan talked about it today when we met with him at the alumni officer luncheon that they've embraced the technology and integrated it into Walmart's way of doing businesses. People are still first.
Speaker 2:And that's important. But they've embraced the technology and now, with this omni-channel approach that Walmart has taken, wow, great things are happening.
Speaker 1:You bet, you bet. So there are going to be struggles, there are going to be setbacks in any business, especially when you're swimming upstream, which we're going to talk a bit more about that in a minute. But when you do that, you have to be committed and that's the number one principle at Walmart. At Walmart, we grew up around. There's 10 principles that Sam talked about a lot. All our great leaders talked about those, but the number one principle is commit to your business. Now, the two stories Sam just shared with you is that it shows you that we were committed to the business. Story one we already talked about the success of super centers. Come out of being committed. Story number two look at what Walmart is now doing around Omnichannel and it's changing the company again, yes, into a the future of retail. The future of retail is omnichannel. It's, you know, this is our store, you know, and that's exactly what, what we can do today, and not only do we don't have to go, we can pick up, we can have a delivery, we can have a drum, you know, a drone to fly it down, whatever. That's the future of retail. It's so exciting. So principle number one commit to your business. And then, principle number two share your profits with your associates and treat them as partners.
Speaker 1:Now back to the letter of 1986. Let's go back to that, sam partners. Now back to the letter of 1986. Let's go back to that, sam, because what sam sam, what sam walton said in the letter was that he said he goes on and talks about the, that he said the principles of good leadership needs to happen at all levels. He said so often these articles to be a good leader, we first must be a good servant and put the interest of our associates first.
Speaker 1:You know when I was, when I really began to think about the name of this, this, this program. You know, of course, doing business in Bentonville. That's our, that's our program. This focuses on retail and omnichannel and my passion was to launch something around leadership and, uh, and collaborating with the team here. We, we talked a lot about it and the, the team here, said they, they gave me this and we, through our just collaboration. They said servant leadership today. They added today, I just had servant leadership, but the group here of younger leaders said servant leadership should be today. It's not something of the past, it's something of present. And I love that they added that because it changed some of my thinking around. Of course, the letter is 1986, but the principles that Sam is sharing with us can be applied today.
Speaker 2:Andy. They're lasting principles, they're eternal principles, and I'd like to just share another quick anecdote with you on this concept of servant leadership. There's an element to leadership in a leader never asking an associate or a subordinate to do something that they're not willing to do themselves, and I think Sam was a great example of that. When Sam passed away away in 1992, you and I were both at the company and you remember the mood and you remember the reaction, frankly, by the markets they were. There was a lot of concern about what's going to happen to this company when this very charismatic, strong-willed and competitive founder has just passed away and the mantle of leadership of the chairmanship fell on his son, rob, and Rob was the chairman for I don't know, I think at least 30 years after Sam passed, and much of the growth that we've talked about happened on Rob's watch. He seldom has asked for or received all the credit that I think he's due for the way that he stepped into his father's footsteps and led the company, selecting great leaders to guide it and being willing to invest and keeping the family engaged in the business. A quick story about Rob's servant leadership. A quick story about Rob's servant leadership.
Speaker 2:I was asked to go to Mexico to manage our office there back in 1992. This was our first venture outside the US and it frankly came on the heels of Sam's death. Sam had, just before he passed, kind of made a handshake deal which he was always really good at doing deals on napkins and with handshakes with the biggest retailer in Mexico, and the venture was a joint venture to open Sam's Clubs in Mexico. There was no wholesale clubs being operated there at the time. Well, sam passed, that deal could have gone by the wayside, but Rob picked up the baton and he said we're gonna, we're gonna make this happen. So, uh, I was on a plane down to mexico, a plane that rob was flying. You know he was a pilot, as you know it is a pilot right and we were down there back and forth having meetings with the the company seafront was the name of that company. You remember them and getting these Sam's Clubs designed and deciding where to put them and so forth.
Speaker 2:And I remember the first time we went down, we get to the hotel that we're staying at and, in typical Walmart fashion, this was not a luxury hotel, it was a good hotel, kind of a mid-priced hotel called the Sevilla Palace, and we walk up to the desk and I'm with Rob and a it was a good hotel, a mid-priced hotel called the Sevilla Palace and we walk up to the desk and I'm with Rob and a small group and you might remember, at that time, andy, we had a policy that you stayed two to a room.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, on any trip, you know, you and I have room together, right, and we've roomed with a lot of different people around the company and that was the policy at the time. Yeah, and it was to cut costs and it has some residual benefits too. I mean, you got to talk business while you were rooming together and I got to the desk and I'm thinking well, rob's going to have his own room. He's the chairman of the board and we're at the desk and he turns to me and he says Sam, would you mind rooming with me? I almost said no. I was frankly, petrified at the thought of sharing a room with Rob, thinking what if I snore, what if I keep the chairman awake?
Speaker 2:But we were there for like a week, and he and I shared a room. At the time he was training for the Ironman triathlon. He was a really good athlete, great biker and runner, and he would get up every morning and run and you and I, of course, have a long history of running together and I would go run with him and, andy, just that one little incident of a leader doing what he was asking us to do changed my perception of him, probably changed his perception of me, I hope in a positive way. I think so, because it led to future promotions and gave me an opportunity to know him in a way I wouldn't have otherwise. And you know, just, I just think about that example all the time in my own life and how important it was and I important it was, and I think it's a lesson for every leader.
Speaker 1:You know, sam, I've not ever heard you tell that story. As you know, Rob was also charged in my real estate division yes, he was, you remember, and I was tasked to open all the stores in California, all the way up to Oregon and Montana, arizona, you name it all up to there. And so I would go on real estate trips. And the first real estate trip I went on. We were out west, where I flew the plane, of course there was a co-pilot sitting next to him and with the real estate group, and they asked me to go, since I was going to open all the west. And, uh, the same thing happened. Yeah, we walked up to the desk and you know, and and rob looked at me and said, yeah, andy, you know you might share a room with me. And I almost said no, you know, I mean, I didn't know that that happened to you. I'm surprised.
Speaker 1:All these years, and you know, as you mentioned, I was a runner and you and we got up every morning in California and as we made that trip, five-day trip, all the way up to west coast and back, we ran every day together and you know, until this day, I I I'm just like you what an impact that made on my life right and I think it built a relationship because after that we would have great conversations about the markets in California, the real estate.
Speaker 1:I learned a lot being with that real estate team what they look for and how they did it, how they negotiated, et cetera, of your talent in organizations, what we're talking about and as leaders, and here's what Sam said about that. He said a great leader will treat people good and add the human factor of all aspect of business and, like you said, we were getting that, that aspect of business with given to us. You know, not only during the day, but those conversations you would have and those those times we would spend running, those times we would spend talking business. So much happened outside of the work day, right, you know because of what you talked about outside of the workday. Right, you know because of what you talked about and you know what we talk about. Rob he carried on these principles that Sam talked about because he's because you said, treat your associate as partners. I really felt that I was treated as a partner, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2:You know, as a partner. I think all of us felt that I was treated as a partner, no doubt about it. You know, as a partner, I think all of us felt that way. Andy Mm-hmm, you know it was one of the great blessings of being with a company with that kind of a culture. Right, you were considered to be an associate, right? You know that's a big word, associate, right, or partner. At Sam's Clubs we use the term partner. You know I was thinking of another incident you were talking about committing to the business.
Speaker 2:Andy, you might remember, I came back from Mexico. I'd been there three years and I was given the opportunity to lead the finance team for the Walmart US business. And that's when you and I really got to know each other and started to work together a lot. Us business. And that's when you and I really got to know each other and started to work together a lot. But my timing could not have been worse.
Speaker 2:Going into that job, we had had, as a company, 99 consecutive quarters of profit growth. 99 consecutive quarters, almost 20 years profit growth, never missing a quarter. And that quarter that came back from mexico and stepped into this role was the first time we had a down quarter. We made money, but we made less than we had the prior year. That had never happened before. You remember that? Oh, like yesterday, and, and the mood was not good and, uh, there was a lot of concern and, um, andly, bill Fields who was, I think, a good mentor for both of us and really a great leader in many respects made a decision that he was going to leave the company and go run another company, and so he left. And here we are now. We just finished this quarter. We didn't make the quarter and our leader just left and David Glass, who was the CEO, and Rob Walton, the chairman, made a decision not to replace Bill.
Speaker 2:We went for over a year with no president of our division and instead we had two guys who really were kind of rivals. You know a team of rivals. Right, it was Tom Coughlin and Lee Scott Mm-hmm. To their credit, they found a way to work together and they marshaled all of us around five commitments. Do you remember the five commitments? I can still recite them, wow. Yes, you bring back great memories and, andy, everybody in the company knew what those five commitments were and I brought along with me today a quarter.
Speaker 2:I hope your audience can see this quarter Because you might remember, we taped a quarter to our name badges.
Speaker 2:I do remember that as a reminder of how bad that quarter had been and that we didn't want to go through that again and we said we're going to keep the quarter taped to the name badge until we can get back on track. Well, the very next quarter we were back on track, we were committed and then we had probably, I'd say five or six of the best years, historically speaking, the company ever had in terms of profit and sales growth, because of the commitment that everyone made and that those leaders made.
Speaker 1:You know, you're right, sam, and we were committed. And the other thing, that one of the principles is that communicate everything possible to your team, to your associates. And I remember the communication after that picked up oh, wow, yes, I mean, we were communicating at such a higher level. I mean we were talking about our business in detail. We were back to doing very basic things of operating, executing. We were we, it, it.
Speaker 1:The reason those next several years were good is because we learned so much. For that. That one back quarter, yeah, and I think if it'd been number 86 it wouldn't have been bad as 99, but anyway it was still bad. But anyway, the point is we learned from that and I think that's leaders, you know, when there there are things like that happen, you've got to learn from those things. But here's the thing that didn't change. Okay, the principles didn't change. No, we changed.
Speaker 1:We made lots of, we did to get back on track, but we didn't change the principles of the company or the values of the company. We didn't change those because those were our foundational pieces and the foundational pieces of how we operated, yes, and we just needed to get back on track. That's right, you know, and we did and and so you were bringing up some great points. Um sam, you know, um sam used to tell us to behave like, or he said, behave as a servant leader. And you know, I think through the tough quarter we all had to step up and be a servant leader even more. Because, you know, at that point I was running, you know, a region of operating stores 100 plus stores and the message you know that. I know, I know I stay closer to the business, I know I travel more. I know I travel more, I know I listen more. We all were so in tune that we got to change this and we did.
Speaker 2:And we did, and we did. And, andy, I think that serving leadership today, there's really only one true kind of leadership in my opinion, and that is servant leadership. Right, a person can call themselves a leader, they might get elected to be a leader, they might be appointed to be a leader, but unless they're truly a servant leader, they are not going to lead in the way that's going to motivate and inspire others to follow them, and that's something that we were blessed with during our time together working for that company was a whole string of really good servant leaders. We were, yeah.
Speaker 1:I want to read a couple more points on Sam's letter, sam, because it ties so much into what you're talking about. But you know Sam talks about. He says you know, we got to get to know our people, their families, their problems, their hopes, ambitions, their dreams. He says we have to appreciate and praise them as individuals. There's two other points here that's so good. He said another important principle for us to live and stay with our people through good times and bad times. Yeah, um, and that's so true. And then he said life. He says this sam wasn't around on the 99th quarter.
Speaker 2:No, he wasn't, but he'd already passed.
Speaker 1:But his wisdom was and here's what he says, and he'd already shared this with us in 86. He said Life is a business of momentum. Sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. In down times your associates need your love, support more than anything else. Unfortunately, many managers ignore people. When there's trouble, they run from people rather than deal with their problems. He said run to it. We ran to the issues that caused 99.
Speaker 2:We did.
Speaker 1:Because we already had this wisdom. We already had this knowledge.
Speaker 2:We knew what to do. We knew it had been modeled for us. It had had this knowledge. We knew what to do, we knew it had been modeled for us.
Speaker 2:It had been taught us, right, we knew what to do. Okay, sam had an uncanny ability to surround himself with the right people, yeah, yeah, and as I think about people like Jack Shoemaker, david Glass, don Soderquist or Paul Carter, I can go on. Right, david Glass, don Soderquist or Paul Carter, I can go on he could identify people who embraced those same values and principles that he embraced One of the things. You worked very closely, andy, both during our time with the company and later on with Don Soderquist. Right, don has passed now, but his legacy certainly lives on and we all called him the keeper of the culture.
Speaker 2:We did, yeah, and I would say his son-in-law, roland Ford, who I had the privilege of working for toward the end of my career, was kind of stepped into those shoes when Don left the company and was a keeper of the culture as well, and they were always bringing us back to these principles that we're talking about. No matter what was going on and what new thing we were working on and what new business we were acquiring or developing, they would always bring us back to the cultural underpinnings in the foundation. And every time I would go to a Walmart year beginning meeting and Don would speak. I knew exactly what he was going to tell you. Yeah, but it never got old. No, the culture, the culture Right, the culture of the company, yes, and once you establish that foundation, that cultural foundation, yeah, oh, you can really build a tall building, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2:And that's what happened.
Speaker 1:You know, I had the privilege to work with Don for almost seven years and when Don left Walmart, he established the Center for Leadership and Ethics at John Brown University and we had two divisions.
Speaker 1:We had an academic where we worked on the academic side, then we had a for-profit or a business side on the academic side. Than we had a for-profit or a business side and, and um, and you know, one of the greatest things I look back on my career was working with him because we, once we launched surgical center, we worked with companies around the world, at several global companies, and at some point I think I was in eight or ten countries somewhere. Anyway, the point is that I got, I got intimate conversations with don about leadership and I would sometimes we'd be on a train for a couple hours or a plane for 12 hours, it's you know wherever. But the point was I got to lean in and listen to his thoughts, his wisdom, his knowledge, his stories. And here's the point to our viewers, sir, you said earlier, surround yourself with great people and when lean into your leader, lean in, ask questions, build that relationship.
Speaker 1:Lean in, ask questions, build that relationship, be asked, ask for examples and then, as you said earlier then, watch that leader, when, when you're, when you're working and traveling and and listen to how they navigate these conversations and take every just don't waste a moment. That is, and I'm sure I wasted moments, but I also was older and I knew that this was a moment that I needed to pay attention and I would tell all of our viewers today you know, pay attention to your leaders, listen and learn from them. And you know, and I hope great and the other thing, great leaders leave your legacy. That's what we have here. We have a legacy principles and conversations and letters. So write letters to your employees, your associates, and talk to them.
Speaker 1:As Sam wrote this letter to us and I'm going to close with this letter, this is so classic I still get emotional about it actually, but he says thanks for letting me share my opinions with you on this early Saturday morning on June 30th, 30th 1986. He said helen and I are taking off for a vacation this week. Hope to get out to idaho montana, montana and into canada. We'll take our tent. I think it's like the richest man in the world at that time yeah, you're america. Okay, sorry about that. Anyways, we'll take our tent, our sleeping bags and do some camping and cooking out, cooking out along the way should be fun. And he says, my good friends, you did it again in june. Our customers appreciating you, so do I. Thanks sam um. Pretty powerful in it. Yeah, when you think about what it it.
Speaker 2:what that did was made sam accessible and we had the the open door policy at walmart and walmart still has that policy open door, yeah, where you can raise your concerns when you have them and it made him accessible also. He said hey, I'm really not that different than you are, fellow associates. I'm about to go on a camping trip with my wife and we're going to go tromp around in the backcountry and we're taking our sleeping bags and our tents and I appreciate you and I hope you get the chance to go out and take some vacation time with all the great work you've done.
Speaker 2:That was Sam, and my guess is he probably stopped at a few stores along the way.
Speaker 1:I promise you he stopped at a lot of stores. Sam Dunn, it's been so great to chat with you today. My friend, I have learned so much from you. I've watched you, uh, I have listened to you. I have. I have asked your thoughts and opinions so many times on issues and you have always given me great wisdom and, uh, and the thing about it we we've our friendship is uh has stayed through all of that. You know all of it and, sam, I can't thank you enough for being here. It just it blesses me deeply that you took time today to sit with me. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me, Andy. It's been just as marvelous for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, to our viewers. Thank you for joining us on Servant Leadership today. It means so much that you listen in and view us. You can always check us out on all of our social media platforms. Actually, your favorite streaming platform, we're there. Apple, spotify, youtube we are there. And you can check us out on our website at Doing Business in Bentonville. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.