The Outstanding Contribution to Retail Award
Judith McKenna
From Billingham to Bentonville: Judith McKenna on why retail’s people make the difference
As Judith McKenna becomes the first woman to win the Outstanding Contribution to Retail Award, just months after standing down as Walmart’s international boss, she reflects on a career spanning three decades and impacting three continents
When Judith McKenna walked through the doors of Asda’s Leeds head office on the first day of her new job almost three decades ago, she admits she did not expect to stay long. Recently made redundant and with a young child to think of, McKenna anticipated her time at Asda would be a stopgap until she found something else.
But stay she did and, over the course of a stellar career, she has changed the face of retail – not just in the UK but in the US and India, too.
It has been quite the journey for someone from an ordinary background in workaday Billingham, on Teesside in the northeast of England, to Bentonville, Arkansas, home of Walmart and arguably retail’s world capital.
By the time McKenna formally stood down from Walmart at the end of January 2024, she was probably the most powerful woman in retail.
Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon paid warm tribute to her “integral role” in powering Walmart forward.
Her impact ranges from big changes to the US business, where she was chief operating officer, such as leading digital transformation through initiatives such as grocery pick-up – “a foundational moment that helped us achieve the omnichannel position we have today” – to her role as chief executive of the international arm, where she spearheaded a transformation including the $16bn acquisition of Indian online giant Flipkart.
Humble beginnings
McKenna jokes that when she originally joined Asda she was “the only person in retail who didn’t know who Walmart was” but she quickly fell in love with the industry.
“The idea that I was in an industry where I could walk around a store and I could have a view – I love that,” she says. “I just became a student of the business and the folks there helped teach me.
“I went from being somebody who was in finance and worked in retail to a retailer who had a finance background.”
“I don’t think I could have done any of the roles I’ve done at Walmart if I had not been at Asda. It taught me this bedrock foundation of retailing”
Working alongside retail legends such as Allan Leighton and Archie Norman, now chair of Marks & Spencer, who rescued Asda from the brink, as well as industry stars Andy Bond, now executive chair of Poundland owner Pepco, and Tony DeNunzio, now deputy chair of Currys, McKenna quickly learned the ropes of retail – and what made a successful retail business.
She says: “I don’t think I could have done any of the roles I’ve done at Walmart if I had not been at Asda. It taught me this bedrock foundation of retailing.”
She also learned details from shopfloor colleagues. “How do you walk a produce department? They taught me: ‘This is what you have to do with the lettuces.’ You might not think you need that when you’re the COO of Walmart US, with that scale, but you do.”
People person
People have been a constant theme throughout McKenna’s retail career. Notably, in his farewell comments, McMillon pointed out that it was her idea to restore the words: ‘Our people make the difference’ to colleague badges.
When she moved to Walmart following its £6.7bn acquisition of Asda, McKenna says it was acknowledged that the US business “wasn’t in the greatest shape” from a people perspective.
She recalls: “A level of distrust had built up between the home office [HQ] and the stores. It’s a frequent story. My job was to rebuild trust and put what matters back at the centre of what we did, which was our associates and our customers, and get the mojo back in 4,500 stores and 2 million people.
“You can’t do that by standing on stage and talking. You can’t do that by sending out memos. You must meet as many people as you humanly can, and you must create these moments that make people go: ‘Oh, they mean it.’”
“It’s great business sense to truly take care of your associates because the virtuous circle is them taking care of customers. If customers are happy, you get growth and you can therefore invest back into your associates”
The badges were one way of communicating this shift in emphasis, but there were many accompanying tangible changes, including investment in pay and the opening of store academies – an idea taken from Asda – designed to assist with career progression and address barriers that had emerged, such as the distances people had previously needed to travel for training.
As well as being the right thing to do for colleagues, McKenna points out that such changes resulted in improved performance.
“This is not just a nice thing to do. It’s great business sense to truly take care of your associates because the virtuous circle is them taking care of customers. If customers are happy, you get growth and you can therefore invest back into your associates.”
McKenna says she has brought to her various roles “natural curiosity” and a determination to have a “great team” around her – two lessons of success that have been vital.
“I ask a lot of questions – it can drive some people bonkers. That’s how I operate. I go anywhere and ask: ‘What about this? And how does this work? And what happens here?’ That’s part of who I am.
“The way I think my career has panned out is an array of experiences. While it’s not a traditional career route, each one has layered and built on top of the other.
“I have been given an amazing opportunity. I’ve worked hard and my natural curiosity has always driven me to be a student of the business in whichever area I’m in.”
That approach has been complemented by her teams. She maintains: “Pretty much without exception, I’ve tried to build a great team. I like having different people around me. I like challenge. I like debate. And I like to have a team that will work together to create outcomes that I, on my own, could never have thought of and maybe any one of them individually could never have thought of.”
She gives the example of the Flipkart deal. “That was $16bn of investment. I had been in my job [as CEO of Walmart International] for months when we did it. That was knowing you had a team around you.
“The biggest question was: how does a big corporation like Walmart [work with] an entrepreneurial business in India? You do it through people – you get to know the people, the business.
“Can I help somebody be a phenomenal ecommerce retailer in India where I have no experience? No. But I have different skillsets that I can bring to the party, so it’s understanding that you don't have to control and run everything.”
“I like having different people around me. I like challenge. I like debate. And I like to have a team that will work together to create outcomes that I, on my own, could never have thought of”
McKenna has faced some challenges in her career. Asked what was the biggest, she replies: “The pandemic – that is probably the greatest challenge in most of our careers.”
Although she jokes “we, like every retailer in the world, ran out of toilet paper – explain that to me”, she also says: “There was nothing I’d done in my career that prepared me for that. We figured it out day by day.”
McKenna also faced the difficulty of offloading Asda, which was acquired by the Issa brothers and TDR Capital for £6.8bn in 2020, as Walmart focused on other areas of its business. “Selling Asda was hard. I love the business,” she says.
The Issas snapped up Asda after a hoped-for merger with Sainsbury’s was blocked by the UK competition watchdog. Their ownership has since proved controversial with questions arising about issues such as the level of debt carried.
McKenna says: “We made the decision to sell it to the Issa brothers and TDR because we saw people with fresh ideas and fresh ways to run a supermarket in the UK. We thought that was good for the business.
“Then the world changed economically. I think that’s put pressure on but it’s fundamentally a good business. I’m looking forward to seeing it shine again. It was a tough time to take the business when that team did, but I’m confident for them for the future. They’ve got all of the right ingredients.”
Championing change
McKenna is the first woman to win the Retail Week Outstanding Contribution to Retail Award. Although she has scaled retail’s highest peaks, she believes the industry can do more to promote diversity at senior levels.
McKenna is a firm believer in appointing the best person for any role but thinks changes could be made that would increase opportunities for all – including women.
“I am still baffled by the industry, frankly, as to why there aren’t more [women] – especially in supermarkets, which is where it’s particularly low. It is getting better but it’s nowhere near there yet.”
“Don’t be afraid to take chances on people who aren’t from retail. There’s a world of people with skillsets out there that are adaptable and transferable”
McKenna urges retailers to do two things. “One is to have a long, hard look at your succession pipelines and start two or three layers down the organisation because that pipeline has to grow through.
“And, in that pipeline, don’t be afraid to take chances on people who aren’t from retail. There’s a world of people with skillsets out there that are adaptable and transferable.”
The second thing, she says, is that “all too often, when we have people that we promote – it can be either gender – is that we celebrate when we make the promotion and then the support stops.
“If you put somebody in a role for whom it is a developmental stretch, you can’t make it sink-or-swim. You’ve got to stay with them as they start to learn to swim in that role, and hopefully exceed you and others in the future.”
McKenna is now setting off on what she terms “chapter two” of her journey. She has already taken up a non-executive directorship at FMCG giant Unilever and is co-chairing a study on what makes great retail teams with behavioural science and technology organisation Kultralab.
The daughter of teachers, she retains a keen interest in education and that is likely to form part of her next phase. She is in talks with colleges about how she might get involved.
As McKenna helps young people shape their futures, perhaps some of them may go on in turn to shape the future of retail, just as she has done.
McKenna’s retail career journey
- 2018 to January 2024: President and chief executive, Walmart International
- 2015 to 2018: Chief operating officer, Walmart US
- 2013 to 2015: International strategy and business development, Walmart US
- 2011 to 2013: Chief operating officer, Asda
- 2002 to 2011: Chief financial officer, Asda
- 1996 to 2002: Various finance roles, Asda
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