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Bloomberg
Walmart has demoted the chief operating officer of its core US business and installed a finance expert in the role, shuffling its senior leadership team just before the key holiday period.
Dacona Smith, one of the retailer’s highest-ranking Black executives, will shift to become executive vice president and chief operations officer of Walmart’s US stores, unit Chief Executive Officer John Furner told employees. Chris Nicholas, previously finance chief of the US unit, will take over the COO role, according to a memo that was seen by Bloomberg News.
A company veteran of about 30 years, Smith was elevated to the US COO spot just last year after serving in a range of store management roles. Along with the subtle change in Smith’s title, the shuffling adds an additional layer of management. Smith, who previously reported to Furner, will now report to Nicholas along with several other senior leaders.
“Our goal is to do a better job of connecting the dots and flow our inventory in new and more productive ways,†Furner said in the memo, which called Nicholas’s position new despite Smith previously holding the same role as executive vice president and US operating chief.
The timing of the shuffle is unusual, as Walmart typically makes senior-management moves at the start of its fiscal year in February. Walmart is gearing up for the holiday sales season amid global supply-chain bottlenecks that have forced it to charter its own cargo vessels, and it’s trying to add 150,000 new employees to its massive 1.5 million-person US workforce despite a tight labor market. Over the past year, Walmart’s more than 4,700 US stores have been criticised by R5 Capital analyst Scott Mushkin for failing to keep key items in stock.
Walmart’s US business generated $370 billion in sales last year, two-thirds of the company’s total revenue, and the unit also accounts for the lion’s share of the retailer’s profits.
The US operating-chief role had previously been held by
Judith McKenna, who’s now CEO of the international unit and considered a possible candidate to run all of Walmart when CEO Doug McMillon eventually steps down.