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. 81 - From Corporate Giants to Educating Future Leaders with Sam Dunn
Discover the transformative power of servant leadership with Sam Dunn, as he joins Andy Wilson to dive into a profound journey from the halls of Walmart to the classroom at BYU's Marriott School.
Sam and Andy's conversation is a treasure trove of insights for those seeking to inspire and guide with humility and integrity. Sam brings a wealth of experience, and together, they unravel the fabric of what makes a leader truly great, from the importance of setting clear expectations to the art of recognizing potential in others.
As they reminisce about the influential figures in their respective careers, like Fred Smith of FedEx and Al Johnson of Sam's Club, you'll feel the impact of their wisdom on Andy and Sam's own leadership philosophies.
This episode isn't just about success stories; it's about the real-world application of leadership principles that can shape futures. They focus on the necessity of clear communication and the balance between ambition and guidance, illuminating the path for the next generation of leaders.
Ending on a heartfelt note, they duo share a story that captures the essence of values in action, as seen through the lens of Sam Walton's legacy and the compassionate decision of a Walmart vice president.
These narratives reveal how attention to detail, mentorship, and a sincere desire to uplift others can leave an indelible mark on both individuals and organizations. Join Andy and Sam on this inspiring exploration of leadership, where the true measure of success is found in the growth and fulfillment of those they serve.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in Bentonville Today. We're going to do something a bit different. Today we're going to talk about servant leadership. My name is Andy Wilson and I'm the executive director. I got to tell you I am so excited to introduce my guest today, sam welcome. Thank you, andy. So good to be here and be with you. Well, sam Dunn, I have looked forward to this day and I'll only tell you how this happened today. Everyone. Today, sam and I and several others got the opportunity to attend a Walmart alumni meeting here in Northwest Arkansas at the Walmart home office and we got to hang out with the Walmart leaders today and many of our colleagues, former colleagues and friends Right, sam, that's right, andy.
Speaker 2:It was so good to see so many folks that we have worked with over the years, helping to build Walmart from some of its earliest days, and now to hear from the current leadership very inspiring.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk about that today. We're going to have two parts today. We have a part one and we're going to get into around servant leadership and leadership, and we're going to go back and forth. I'll tell you you really want to lean into this because you know, servant leadership is not something of the past. Servant leadership is very current today and we're going to get into that and so prepare that. Then part two well, I should tell you it's going to be a surprise, but it's going to be a much more interesting dive into servant leadership because we're going to talk about great leaders that impacted our lives and so, okay, let's go. Sam Dunn, so let's talk about Sam. Sam, first of all, it's so great to see you. How's Mary and the family? How's everyone? Let's just start off with that, thank you.
Speaker 2:Eddie Mary's doing well. I wish you were here with me on this trip. Mary is my wife. We've been married over 40 years Congratulations and have four wonderful children, all now married too. How many grandkids do you have?
Speaker 1:Six grandchildren and one on the way, oh, my goodness, all right, well, congratulations, he came in from Utah. And Sam, before we get into what you do and all of that, sam and I spent a lot of years together at Walmart. We both grew up there, basically, didn't we, sam? We sure did. We grew up and we grew up together, and I was a runner, Sam was a runner, I was a runner, sam was a runner, and we would go to the Walmart Fitness Center and we would run every day at lunch and we would talk about all kinds of things, a lot of business, and we would travel to the Walmart year beginning meetings together. And so, sam, what a great friend you are and I appreciate all those many years that we've had as friendships. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, andy, thank you, and that friendship, thankfully, has lasted all these years. Even though we've both now retired from Walmart and gone to other endeavors, the friendship continues, it does, and the impact that you've had on my life has been pronounced, oh well you're kind?
Speaker 1:And we were just talking to one of our colleagues here and he says I said well, sam's a cyclist, and he said andy, does any? Is everyone a cyclist you have on your podcast? No, not everyone, but a lot. And okay, let's get started. Sam um, tell everyone. Uh, you mentioned that retired from walmart. We moved on to Now. Tell everyone what you're doing today, because I think this is really exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, andy.
Speaker 2:I retired from Walmart in 2016, and I have done a couple of things since then.
Speaker 2:Right after retiring, I actually tied in with an investment firm based here in Rogers called Boston Mountain and worked with them for about three years and I loved that role because it was an opportunity for me to help others plan their retirement and get their financial lives together and their financial plans together for retirement. But along about three years after I started doing that, I had a call from my alma mater, brigham Young University, byu and the Marriott School. The business school was looking for someone to come and help play students, help them with career management, and Mary and I talked about it and thought you know we should do this. This is a way to give back and help young people get a great start to their careers, just as so many people helped me along the way and I know helped you as well. So for the last almost five years, I've been the director of the Business Career Center at the BYU Marriott School and our job is to help every student who leaves there leave with a good job and a good company Wow.
Speaker 1:So that that's I know. I'll see you on LinkedIn. I see you around all these students and I'm as huge, massive students around you and different parts of the country, the world, that you. So I want to get into that. Ok, I want you to talk more about that, but let's, let's jump into leadership. Okay, sam? Then I do want for our audience and our viewers to know what you do there and a bit more about the school. Okay, we'll get into that. All right Now, sam, let's talk this. Now. You and I have been, as I said earlier, we were fortunate to grow up at walmart and to be exposed to lots of leaders, yes, lots good leaders yes yes, good and great leaders.
Speaker 1:We had that and that helped shape us, you know, and we and and you know, I like to say that not every day at Walmart was the easy chair. If there ever was an easy chair at Walmart, I don't remember it. I don't make sense. They seem less difficult now only because we both have been away for a while. But let's talk about this, sam, today, as we think about servant leadership. Okay, let's talk about why is that so important? Why is leadership so important to? To help inspire someone to lead. Talk about that.
Speaker 2:Andy thinks that's a great question, and I think what I have perceived is that in many cases there's a vacuum, a vacuum of leadership at really at the highest levels of our businesses, to some degree of our state and local politics, even our national politics.
Speaker 2:We're always seeking good leaders, leaders who inspire us, leaders who will motivate us, and leaders who we feel have their hearts in the right place. They have a sense of purpose about them that we can relate to and follow. And one thing that I see working with students is there's a tendency many times for young people today not to aspire to lead. Many of them would prefer to be individual contributors and just get a job where they can sometimes work remotely, where they can influence a company but not necessarily influence a team. And while I understand that and certainly there's some benefits to being in that kind of a role, I would hope that every young person would aspire to lead, would aspire to actually use the map that they've been given, the moral compass that they possess, to really make a difference in the lives of others. So that's why I think leadership is so important, right, right.
Speaker 1:You know one of the things that when you talk about, you know inspiration. You know great leaders. They do inspire us. Yes, you know they, they, they, they help us. Now, you know inspiration helps navigate through the bumps and you know we have had in any company, any department company you lead, there's bumps in the road and it's not so much motivation, it's inspiration. That's what has moved me, because great leaders inspire and move people.
Speaker 2:You agree, I completely agree with you, and I remember I had one of the corporate CFOs at Walmart was a gentleman named Tom Shelley. Tom became quite an important figure in my life and a very important inspiration to me. But I remember at the time I was the CFO of Sam's Club, which is a big business. At the time it was about $60 billion. I think it's over $80 now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he called me to his office one day and he said Sam, would you consider yourself to be an inspirational leader? And I said, well, I think so. And he said well, I'm just going to tell you you're not. And that's pretty humbling, Andy, to have someone who you consider to be an inspirational who tell you that you're maybe not as inspirational as you think you are. And he didn't do it in a way that was derogatory. He did it in a way that was helping me realize that the way that I was managing was probably not as inspirational as it could be. And he challenged me to do something and I want to share that with you and our viewers. He said pick a leader who you know is inspirational, someone who has really inspired you personally but that you know has also inspired many others and just observe that person, and you don't have to tell them that you're observing them. You can do it surreptitiously if you want, but just make notes of the things that they do, where they sit in meetings, what they say, how they act and learn from them. And I call that the anonymous mentor or the unknown mentor. You know, we had the unknown soldier, the unknown mentor. They never even know that they're mentoring you, but they are.
Speaker 2:And I happened to pick a leader in our company who you know very well, Lee Scott. I always viewed him as someone who was inspirational and I would just watch Lee where he sat, what he said, how he acted and learned a lot. I could have picked any number of leaders and I would give that advice to anyone. Now. That's great advice. If you're not sure whether you're an inspirational leader or not, look at someone who is and then try to emulate some of the things that they've done. And I'll close with this thought I think Doug McMillan, who is the current chief executive officer of Walmart, maybe did the same thing. I see a lot of Lee in Doug and I think Doug, early in his career, looked to Lee for that kind of mentorship and inspiration and it's helped him become a very inspirational leader in his own right Absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's great advice, sam. You know. Let's build on that because I think that's a great foundational piece as we talk leadership. So, sam, as you think about that and you look at yourself and look at other leaders from that standpoint, what do you think are the characteristics of a great leader as you look?
Speaker 2:Great question, andy. I think number one, in my opinion, is integrity. Integrity means you do what you say you'll do, and I think it's really difficult to be a leader who's motivating and inspiring if you don't have integrity, and you and I have been around some leaders who were perhaps lacking in integrity and it, you know, it really diminished the good, positive qualities that they had, and so I think integrity is top of the list. Another one for me is humility. I love humble leaders, and those are hard to find in this day and age, andy.
Speaker 2:Many leaders are more about themselves and what that leadership role can do for them. The true leaders, though, are always putting others first, and they're always trying to decide how can I do something that's going to benefit my team, my company, my customers? They're very humble, and they don't take credit, they give credit. I would say integrity and humility then, top of the list. And then you know you can have integrity and humility and just be a really nice guy. You can have integrity and humility and just be a really nice guy. If you want to lead, I think you have to have a bias for action. You have to take good ideas when you find them, and you have to put them to work, and we heard some good examples today in the meeting, as the Walmart leadership chatted with us about what's going on in the company, about how they're doing that, taking good ideas and taking them into the marketplace very quickly.
Speaker 1:You know one of the things I know Sam taught us and other great leaders taught us about your bias to action. It was about execution. And you know, because you know, we learned that we could that our role. You know we learned that we could that our role especially, you know, when I was running stores and districts and operating regions, it was about out-executing your competition. They may have the same ideas, same merchandise, everything the same, but if our role was to out-execute them, that buys for action.
Speaker 2:That is so true, andy, and I'm not sure. At Walmart we ever had an original idea. Quite honestly, don't fake me, I think we stole it. We had a term we said steal shamelessly. Yeah, we did that, you know, yeah, and you know I think even to Sam Walton.
Speaker 2:I'm guessing, andy, he probably spent more time or as much time in competitor stores as he did his own. He was in the field a lot and he did visit a lot of stores, but he visited competitor stores just as often as I think he visited a Walmart store, right, and every time he went into one of those stores he was looking for ideas.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you know, in part two we're going to get into San Walton Sam. Oh good, and we, you know, in part two we're going to get into San Walton Sam. We're just going to tell our viewers we're going to talk quite a bit of our learnings from San Walton. So you can talk as much as you want, but I do want to go a deep dive in part two of this. Ok, yeah, let's do that. Ok, so bias for action Okay, that's great.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the things that I remember, you know we used to have leaders would come to our Saturday morning meetings and they would invite leaders from around the country, great companies, I know you did too back in the day. We all had ways to do that. But back to integrity and humility and Bodies for Action. I remember Fred Smith, founder of FedEx, and Fred, I'm going to share five questions that I wrote down years ago that Fred Smith said to us on a day he visited. And so now here's the thing I want our viewers to get about these questions is that the people that work with you and for you, they need to know the answer to all five of these questions. Okay, know the answer to all five of these questions, okay. So if they don't know the answer as a leader, back to integrity, humility and this bias for action, which is means also leading your people, as the bias you know, so I'm going to share those with you right now, okay? Um one, the first question is people should know what do you expect from them? That's a bias reaction. When you brought that up, you know they should know that already. Okay, that's not something that they do. If they don't know that today, as a leader, then you're not doing your job.
Speaker 1:Number two how am I doing? Everyone wants to know how they're doing. Everyone wants to know how they're doing. I want to know how I'm doing Now, how I'm doing on this podcast. My viewership goes up, my analytics are good and that's how I know, and I'll look at that, by the way, every week. Number three how do I get ahead? People want to know. Maybe they not necessarily want to move ahead, but they need to know how they can move ahead and you need to share that with them.
Speaker 1:This one gets a lot of conversation. Question four is this one where do I get justice? Let me tell you what that means. Justice means. I have an issue. I may have an issue with you, my leader. I have an issue, I have a problem. Where do I go get help? What's my resources? And the fourth one is is what I'm doing important? And everyone wants that. No one wants to do things that's not important. And back to your. When we begin this conversation, sam, you talked about today. You know you talked about a lot of leaders today. Young people don't want to be leaders. Well, you know they've got. Maybe they don't know that what they're doing is going to be important or important. So anyway, sam, I think that's great. So let's continue because, sam, this is really really good what you're sharing. So, when you look at that and we talk young leaders, that's what you deal with. That's what you work with there at BYU. Talk about, sam how does a young person or a leader determine their path forward?
Speaker 2:How does a young person or a leader determine their path forward? Yeah, you know, I think, if you think about the role of a leader, andy, we talked about the characteristics of a good leader. I've always thought that one of the primary roles of a leader was to be a pathfinder. So this is a really good question how do you determine the path? Right, yeah, and you know, when you're determining the path, it's not just about you. You're trying to set up a pace that others can follow and you're trying to go down a path that others can buy into and get behind and agree with, and that is not always easy to do. But I do think that that role of being a pathfinder is critical, and part of it is developing a point of view. And so, then, the second role of a leader is to be a decision maker, and you and I have worked with a lot of leaders, and they didn't always make great decisions, but they made informed decisions, and what I learned and I think you and I both learned was if you make a good decision and then get behind that decision, and if you can get enough people buying into that decision and following that path can get enough people buying into that decision and, following that path, you're going to have success. It may not be immediate, but you will get there, and so I think developing a point of view is so important.
Speaker 2:And I want to go back. You mentioned Fred Smith. I was in that same meeting, I took those same notes and I remember those five questions and wrote them down as well. The first one that he talked about is the one that I want to hit on quickly, which is setting expectations. We had a leader at Walmart named Al Johnson. You, I'm sure, remember Al well.
Speaker 1:I do.
Speaker 2:One of Al's roles toward the end of his career at Walmart was to lead Sam's Club.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And he was a really fantastic leader of the Sam's Club business. He had an acronym, hetke. You might remember, hetke, I do. High expectations are the key to everything. Mm-hmm. Hetke.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And the folks at Sam's. He stretched them and they found out they could do more than maybe they thought they could do, Because Al really set high expectations in terms of sales, profitability, personal growth. And it wasn't just Al, a lot of leaders did that. I had another leader that I worked with, kevin Turner. You may remember Kevin. He later ran Sam's as well and at that time I was the CFO of Sam's Club and Kevin used to tell me Sam, there are only three reasons people don't do what you ask of them.
Speaker 2:One they don't understand what you want. It's not clear to them. They have the capacity to do it, but it's not clear what it is that you want of them, so the expectations are unclear. Two is they know exactly what you want, they get it, they know the expectations, but they just aren't capable of delivering. They don't have the training, they don't have the intellect or whatever it might be.
Speaker 2:And the third one he said they know what you want and they have the ability to do it, but they just don't do it. And that's an attitude problem. And he said those are the people you do not want on your team. Because you can correct the first two, you can clarify the expectations and you can teach and train your people or, you know, just help them get the training they need in order to be successful, and so I always thought that that was a really good way to look at things, and one of the things is I counsel students is develop a point of view, and I have them make what's called a lamp list. Andy, the lamp list is just a simple list of anywhere between 20 and 40 companies that they think they might like to work for, and that's part of developing this point of view. Uh, and you rule some companies out and you put others on the list, and then, once you do that, you begin developing a network that'll help you land a job in one of those companies.
Speaker 1:That's excellent advice. I mean, I think it's excellent advice for any leader, no matter student or not, to have a point of view, and I think that's critical. And I remember Al Johnson very well. In fact, I was coming through the company at that point at an early age and I did a time in merchandising for a couple of years as part of your growth period, developing your growth, and I was pretty low on the chain but I still had some access to Al, but he was that. He would stretch us, yes, and that made us better. That's why we could accomplish more than we ever thought possible.
Speaker 1:But the point of view is a powerful thing for each of us as leaders to have and you share that point of view. Yes, right, with your team. Then they know, you know one of the things that that a leader has to create. Number one they got to communicate very well, but they have to create clarity, great clarity, so great point. So, sam, let's talk about the student or the individual that that. How do you, how do you inspire them to to forward path, to that point of view? How do you inspire them? Because, again, you have a lot of students around you. They're young, they're being highly educated. You're working with them for their career. How do you inspire them?
Speaker 2:Andy, I'll share a personal story with you. I mentioned Lee Scott earlier, earlier in my career about the time you and I were working together. I was managing the finance team for the Walmart US business. You were managing the human resource function for the US business and we were in a lot of meetings together and worked with basically the same set of leaders. At the time I was a director. Now a director at Walmart is an important role. I was happy to be a director. I thought this is great, I'm happy to be in this role, and I had a team of finance professionals working with me, supporting operations, merchandising and the other support functions of the company.
Speaker 2:Going back to Lee Scott, one day he called me to his office and we were talking through a problem that we were dealing with in the business and just out of the blue he said what is your goal here, your personal goal here at Walmart? I mean, what are some of your career ambitions? And I said well, I don't. I'm pretty happy where I am. And he said he said, sam, I think you have the potential to be a senior vice president with this company. Andy, I had never, up to that point, thought of myself as being able to rise to that level, but to hear him tell me that, in his opinion, I had the capacity to get there I wasn't there at the time, but I had the capacity to get there was very inspiring and motivating, and I left his office thinking that needs to be my goal office thinking that needs to be my goal and I need to position myself in a way that I am contributing to this company and that others see the value of my contributions in a way that ultimately will get me there. And as, when I retired, I was a senior vice president, yeah, excellent.
Speaker 2:I think sometimes you have to instill in a young person a sense of their own potential and give them something to think about and then not only light the spark or light the candle, but follow up with them periodically, yeah, and ask them how they feel they're doing. What could they do better? How could they improve Complimenting they do better, how could they improve Complimenting them? Leaders are quick to give compliments, and they do it publicly, but also being willing to challenge them or reprimand them privately when it's needed. Right, and in those ways, what people learn is this leader cares about me, right, right, they really do. They want me to succeed Right. And in those ways, what people learn is this leader cares about me, right, right, they really do. They want me to succeed Right. If they believe in me, I can believe in myself.
Speaker 1:I think that's great advice and you know, sam. So let's pick up on a point that you just made and go a bit deeper. And as leaders, I used to tell people when I was especially leading, you know, the HR area we call the people division at Walmart. But you know, one of my jobs was sort of keep us, not to create a headline, at least marketing public relations. I would say to Andy I'm dealing with this, don't create a headline, you know Right.
Speaker 2:Okay, with this. Don't create a headline, right.
Speaker 1:Okay, that was our worst nightmare, right, because if you create a headline then you have to deal with it. But anyway, you know they. But to that point, what my point is? We all have to deal with adversity, we have to deal with issues, or that's what leaders do. They deal with a lot of those issues. So talk about that coaching that you coach your students on and where maybe that at some point was an issue somewhere in your career, and we both, I know, talk about a lot of those. But talk about adversity. How do you deal with that as a leader?
Speaker 2:Let me talk about that in two ways, if I could. Life is all about adversity. I believe we're here in life to experience and pass through adversity and learn from it and grow from it. It's part of a divine design. So you can't avoid it, right. But you can avoid creating more of your own adversity and this is one of the the biggest adversity I've seen, frankly are people's egos. Sometimes we create our own adversity because we can't manage our own egos. And the leader again, who is willing to put others first and really cares about their team, that leader somehow finds a way to get through the adversity, whereas a leader who's self-focused and thinking mostly about themselves struggles. You mentioned Fred Smith coming. Do you remember when Norm Schwarzkopf came?
Speaker 1:Oh, I do, norman, I do. He came to the Saturday morning meeting. I remember him.
Speaker 2:And he spoke to our leadership team and the Gulf War had just ended and of course you know, like many wars that we'd been involved in, it wasn't a popular war, but it was a war that he was placed in command and he talked to. You know a lot of adversity that he dealt with in that role and he said the thing that he learned. He said when placed in command, take charge. I remember he said that when placed in command, take charge, and when in doubt, just do what's right. That's right, do what you believe is right. And you know those two little simple rules. They will help you get through adversity and they will absolutely allow you to find success through adversity.
Speaker 1:Great you to find success through adversity. Great. I remember that I almost wanted to stand and salute when he walked in the room. He had such a presence to him because of what he had just completed and, of course, the stories and what we read. But I think that's great advice, sam. Sam, we're going to wrap this in a moment, but I want to tell you part two is coming. So I want our viewers and listeners to just to hang with us, because we're going to move to a part two and we're going to get even deeper around our learning from different leaders. So, sam, two things. I want you to sort of wrap things. Then I want you to talk about what you do at the school. Sure, because it's really important. Okay, to do your work there, because you really are having huge impacts into future leaders, and so. But as we wrap things up, sam, what are the keys to making great leadership decisions? Because you share some great stuff at this point. Thank you, andy.
Speaker 2:So wrap this for us. Yeah, you know where does decision-making power come from right? Not very often does it come from within, and what I mean by that is you need other voices, you need to listen to others. I want to share a story quickly that you shared with me. This story has stayed with me ever since you shared it with me and I've used it often. And it's never make an important decision seated behind your desk. And you told the story. You had been promoted to a vice president level, you had a region to manage over 100 stores, I think and you had, shortly after you were promoted into that role, sam Walton dropped by to congratulate you and chat with you a little bit and as he left, said Andy, never make an important decision seated behind that desk.
Speaker 2:And shortly thereafter, if I have my story straight and if I still remember the details, you got a call from one of your district managers we call them market managers now saying, hey, I've got a store manager here who has had pretty good performance but has really struggled and the store is going downhill. I think we need to let them go and find a new store manager. And, as I recall, your initial instinct was well, this is a district manager, he knows what's going on, he's on the ground there and I probably should take his advice and do that. But then you asked him to give you a little time to think about it. We're able to get a company plane to go down and visit that store, unbeknownst to him and to the store manager, and got there, as it turned out, on the store manager's day off, and you talked to the associates in the store and said tell me about your manager. Well, they loved him. But they said you know he's going through a hard time, his wife's battling cancer. And after finding out those details, you chatted with that district manager and said you know we're not going to terminate this store manager, we're going to give him a leave of absence so he can focus on helping his wife in her recovery, helping his wife in her recovery. And we kept him and it was a good thing we did. He turned out to be a very good store manager for us.
Speaker 2:Again, you know you have to have some attention to detail. We say in Walmart, retail is detail. You got into the details in that situation. You listen to others and I am a firm believer, as I know you are in asking for divine guidance. When you're dealing with people's lives, making decisions that affect the lives of others, you want to do that with some inspiration coming from above, and so when I have a really important decision, I'm on my knees and I'm praying and asking for some guidance and letting the Spirit prompt me one way or another about what I should do. So I think those are all important factors in how a leader arrives at a decision. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1:Sam, the story that you brought back so many memories just now is a bit emotional, actually, for me, because when I asked that person to give me some time to think about it, what I thought about is the guidance Sam Walton said. It's the guidance Sam Walton said and I was sitting in the chair when that district manager called me and Sam Walton said never make a critical decision while sitting in that chair and I got out of the chair and flew 300 miles to make that decision and the store manager never knew about that conversation. The store manager went on. His wife was able to recover and the store manager went on. His wife was able to recover and the store manager went on and did great things at this company, at Walmart, and I have tracked his career for years and I will continue.
Speaker 1:He's a fine individual. He's been great for this company, for Walmart. Uh, he's been. He's been great for this company and for walmart and uh, I I thank sam walton for taking five minutes to share with me his wisdom. Yeah, so that, I think, is how we wrap this conversation today is about, as if you're you know, there's Sam so well talked about the important characteristics of great leaders, but one of the great things great leaders do is listen, and then the other thing they do is they share their wisdom and knowledge, and I will tell you you'll never know what you impact, because you will have an impact, and I think leaders have to have impact. And so great job, sam. So, sam, before we close, tell our viewers and listeners about your school at BYU.
Speaker 2:Thank you, andy. Yes, I love to talk about what we're doing at Brigham Young University. At BYU, our school is a private university. It's sponsored by our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we have in the business school close to 4,000 students who are admitted to seek a degree in a business-related field. It could be finance, it could be marketing, it could be information systems, and our little team in the career service office, the career center, is tasked with helping those students develop a career plan and all the tools that they need in order to go out and find jobs. We don't we teach them to fish is the best way I can describe.
Speaker 2:We don't hand them a fish yeah and say here's the job, good luck yeah we work with them and teach them how to interview, how to create a powerful resume, how to network, and I found networking is absolutely the key right to any job search right. And one of the things if I may compliment you, andy, your network is one of the most impressive of any of my friends and you've worked hard over the years to build that network, and I encourage students to do the same thing. You know, reach out, make connections and then develop and foster those connections and so they're not just a one time interaction and through that you end up finally in the job that you want to be in, and I'm really grateful to be a part of this institution. We have a vision, we have a mission and we have values. Our values are faith, integrity, respect and excellence.
Speaker 2:Faith, integrity, respect and excellence and many people have asked me over the years why did you stay at walmart so long? I was there almost 30 years before I retired. I know you were there for nearly that long as well, and it's because the values of the company matched my values right, and I can say the same thing for for byu. Those values mirror mine. Our, our vision is to that. We aspire to transform the world through christ-like leadership, and if you talk about servant leadership, you have to begin with christ. He was the consummate servant leader, cared more about others than himself, and our mission is to develop leaders of faith, intellect and character and character. And so, with that vision, mission and values, it's a pretty wonderful thing to be a part of helping these young people establish themselves in their careers, and some of them are going to go on to really great things.
Speaker 1:Sam Dunn, my friend, my mentor. So many years together, so many conversations, so much advice going both ways. Thank you, sam. It's been such a joy to have you here and on our service leadership today. So, sam, all right. So now, viewers, there will be a part two. I can't wait to do it and I can't wait for you to see it and hear it. So, to all of our viewers, thank you so much for joining us and don't forget to check out our website, dbbnwacom that's doing business in Bentonville. We'll be posting. I'm so excited to announce we're going to be having a new website around our servant leadership today. That's going to be coming by the first of the year. So so much is happening and thank you so much for your views. Thank you so much for following us on all of our social media platforms. Sam Dunn, welcome back to Arkansas, and I can't wait to spend more time with you. Great Andy, thanks for having me today. Thank you everyone. Have a great day.