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Forbes
03-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Reinventing The Leader: A Blueprint For Leading Through Transformation
"Reinventing the Leader" offers something increasingly rare in business literature: an honest, ... More practical guide that acknowledges leadership is as much about personal growth as it is about strategy execution. After 25 years of coaching executive teams, I've seen countless company transformations first hand and it's often not pretty. For many reasons, rarely do we get a real look under the hood in the books we read. When I picked up "Reinventing the Leader" by Guilherme Loureiro and Carlos Marin, I found something refreshing: a brutally honest account of what it actually takes to lead through transformation. In "Reinventing the Leader," Loureiro and Marin deliver a compelling dual narrative that chronicles both a massive corporate transformation and the deeply personal journey of leadership growth. Drawing from Loureiro's experience transforming Walmex—Walmart's largest international operation—into a digital, agile company while maintaining record performance, this book offers rare insight into how personal reinvention and organizational change are inextricably linked. The book's strength lies in its honest, vulnerable portrayal of leadership challenges. Rather than presenting a sanitized success story, Loureiro candidly shares his struggles with feedback, his initial resistance to change, and the painful process of confronting his own behavioral blind spots. This authenticity, combined with executive coach Carlos Marin's professional insights, creates a uniquely practical guide for leaders facing similar challenges. The most transformative practice in the book centers on what the authors call "empathic silence"—the discipline of truly listening without interrupting, defending, or immediately problem-solving. Loureiro's journey from an impatient, interrupting CEO to one who genuinely hears his team illustrates the profound impact of this shift. Immediate Implementation: Start each meeting by asking questions and then practicing what they call the "Listening Checklist": The authors provide another practical framework: seeking "feedforward" rather than feedback—this is a focus on future improvements rather than past mistakes. Coined by his friend and renowned executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, this subtle shift transforms defensive conversations into collaborative problem-solving sessions. Perhaps the most actionable tool in the book is the elegantly simple three-question assessment that helped Walmex evaluate readiness for transformation: Immediate Implementation: Use these questions in two ways: The genius of this framework is its simplicity—it cuts through complexity to reveal the fundamental elements needed for successful change: understanding, motivation, and capability. Drawing from the tech world's concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP), the authors introduce the powerful idea of becoming a "Minimum Viable Person"—focusing on incremental improvement rather than perfection. This approach proved crucial during Loureiro's own behavioral transformation and the company's digital evolution. Immediate Implementation: This approach reduces the paralysis that comes from pursuing perfection and creates momentum through continuous improvement. What sets this book apart from typical leadership literature is its integration of personal and organizational transformation. The authors demonstrate that you cannot effectively change a company without changing yourself first—a lesson many leaders learn too late, if at all. The book's structure, alternating between Loureiro's CEO perspective and Marin's coaching insights, provides both the strategic view and the tactical tools needed for implementation. The inclusion of direct quotes from team members adds credibility and shows the real impact of the changes described. This book is essential reading for: "Reinventing the Leader" offers something increasingly rare in business literature: an honest, practical guide that acknowledges leadership is as much about personal growth as it is about strategy execution. The authors' willingness to share failures alongside successes makes this not just an informative read, but an inspiring one. The ultimate message is both simple and profound: the key to transforming your organization lies first in transforming yourself. For leaders ready to embark on that dual journey, this book provides an invaluable roadmap.
Fashion Network
19-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Walmart's global ad business gets boost from Flipkart
US-based global retail business Walmart saw its Indian e-commerce marketplace Flipkart's performance drive its international advertising business growth in its financial quarter ending on April 30. Global advertising business was up by 20% during the quarter as net sales also increased. During the 2024 fiscal year, Flipkart's marketplace segment Flipkart Internet reported advertising revenue close to Rs 5,000 crore, ET Tech reported. This figure was greater than the Rs 3,734 crore the business reported that it had generated in marketplace fees. For its February to April 2025 quarter, Walmart saw its net sales reach $32.1 billion, signifying a year on year jump of 7.8% on a constant currency basis, ET Bureau reported. Along with the growth fuelled by Flipkart, Walmart's China business and Walmex, which operates in Central America and Mexico, also boosted performance during the quarter. Despite the uptick in net sales during the February to April 2025 quarter, Walmart's operating income decreased by 6.4% year on year. The business noted that its investments in Flipkart, Walmex, and its Canada operations were a significant reason for this decline. Eyeing an initial public offering in 2026, Flipkart's board has approved the domicile relocation from Singapore to India in preparation. The business is also increasing its focus on India's fast growing quick commerce market and is bolstering its logistics to facilitate greater coverage for the service.
Mint
12-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
America First may be a boon for Walmart's Mexican business
THERE ARE few more potent symbols of American capitalism than a Walmart supercentre, its endless aisles heaving under the weight of as many as 150,000 different products, from fresh avocados to fancy Zojirushi rice cookers. Similarly, there are few more visible emblems of the ties that bind America's and Mexico's economies than those supercentres catering to shoppers south of the Rio Grande. The same can be said of the company that runs these capitalist wonders, alongside neighbourhood Bodegas Aurrerá and Sam's Club membership-only big-box stores, across all 32 Mexican states (and in Central America). Walmart de México, or Walmex, is majority-owned by Walmart but listed on the Mexican stock exchange. It is the country's most valuable public company, worth some $45bn, and its largest private-sector employer, with a workforce 200,000 strong. Like its parent in Bentonville, Arkansas, it is bracing for a Trumpian makeover of North American commerce. For once, it may be better placed to withstand the disruption. Last year was rough for Walmex. Together with other Mexican businesses, it had to contend with stubborn inflation, interest rates near record highs and a rising minimum wage. In June a left-wing populist, Claudia Sheinbaum, won the presidency and her Morena party consolidated control of Congress, allowing it to push ahead with plans to emasculate the courts. Five months later Donald 'Tariff Man" Trump romped back to power in America, threatening to lob grenades at the global rules-based trading system and maybe actual missiles at drug cartels on Mexican soil. Investors dumped the peso and fled the Mexican bourse, whose main index slumped by 14% in 2024. In addition to these pan-Mexican problems, Walmex had to steer a swivelling trolleyful of company-specific ones. In contrast to American Walmarts, its outlets count as relatively high-end. This makes them more vulnerable to penny-pinching by Mexicans, who still buy perhaps a third of their groceries from informal tienditas and mercados. On the formal high street it has had to fend off competition from fast-growing rivals such as Tiendas 3B, an Aldi-like discounter which went public a year ago. Online it was being outmatched by e-commerce marketplaces such as Mercado Libre. Sales and operating profit grew more slowly than in previous years. Margins tightened. To top it off, Mexico's competition regulator was breathing down its neck over its alleged abuse of market power in its dealings with suppliers. By late November, Walmex's market value languished at 900bn pesos, down from 1.3trn pesos in January that year. In dollar terms it had collapsed by 40%, from $73bn to $44bn. Even in Mexico's struggling stockmarket the company looked disappointing. Next to its go-getting parent up north, whose market capitalisation leapt from $450bn to $740bn on the back of perky American GDP growth and Mr Trump's promise of more of the same, it appeared the underachieving offspring. As the weaker of the two firms in the feebler of the two economies, Walmex might be expected to suffer more than Walmart now that Tariff Man is putting his duties where his mouth is. On March 4th Mr Trump imposed 25% levies on imports from Mexico and Canada, ostensibly because they were letting fentanyl flood into the United States. He paused most of them two days later, but may change his mind again next month. Even before the latest whiplash, Mexico's central bank halved its forecast for Mexican GDP growth this year, to 0.6%, given all the uncertainty. That is bad for consumer spending—and so for Walmex's bottom line. Yet in several ways Walmex looks less exposed to Mr Trump's policies than Walmart. Measured by value, just 17% of what Walmex sells in Mexico comes from abroad. Walmart's equivalent share in America is twice that. In 2022 Walmart imported nearly 1m standard 20-foot containers, more than any other American company, according to the Journal of Commerce, a trade publication. It does not say where these boxes originate. But it is a good guess that many arrive from Mexico (all those avocados and other fresh produce) and similarly tariff-hit China (some of those Zojirushi rice cookers), as well as Canada (for which Mr Trump reserves especial scorn). Helpfully for Walmex, any retaliatory tariffs Ms Sheinbaum may impose would probably be targeted so as to minimise the harm to Mexico's wobbly economy. This points to another source of comfort for the company, and Mexican business as a whole—the president herself. Who's the piñata? Yes, she clings to some costly populist pledges, such as raising the minimum wage by 10% or so a year. Still, Mexican CEOs report that she has proved more receptive to their concerns than expected from a protégée of her business-loathing predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Were it not for Mr Trump's economic vandalism, she might have been less inclined to soften her attitude to the private sector, they say. In a sign that forbearance may be spreading, in December Mexico's competition cops concluded the investigation into Walmex with a $5m slap on the wrist. At the same time, Mr Trump's fentanyl finger-wagging is forcing Ms Sheinbaum at last to crack down on organised crime, a perennial corporate bugbear. In late February Mexico extradited 29 alleged kingpins to America. As a Mexican executive sums it up, with a Morena-dominated government, 'the only check and balance comes from Trump." That is not to say todo está bien. Walmex's share price has stagnated since Mr Trump first announced the tariffs on Mexico at the end of January. But things could be much worse. Just ask investors in Walmart, whose stock has lost 11% of its value. Subscribers to The Economist can sign up to our Opinion newsletter, which brings together the best of our leaders, columns, guest essays and reader correspondence.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Walmart Mexico to invest $6 billion in 2025
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Walmart's Mexico unit said on Thursday it would invest more than $6 billion in the country this year, around triple its planned spending from the year before. The funds will go toward opening new stores and to continue construction on two distribution centers, according to the firm. Mexico City-listed shares climbed more than 2% on the announcement. Speaking virtually from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's daily press conference, Walmex Chief Executive Officer Ignacio Caride said the investment would create 5,500 direct jobs. Walmex, which operates Walmart and Sam's Club stores in Mexico as well as low-cost supermarket chain Bodega Aurrera, is one of the nation's largest private employers. The group had earmarked just around $2 billion in spending for 2024. Walmex executives will host an investor's day later on Thursday in which they will give more detail on planned spending. Sign in to access your portfolio
Reuters
27-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Walmex to invest $6 bln in Mexico in 2025
MEXICO CITY, March 27 (Reuters) - Walmart's Mexico unit said on Thursday it would invest more than $6 billion in the country in 2025 to open new stores and two new distribution centers. Speaking virtually at the Mexican president's daily press conference, Walmex Chief Executive Office Ignacio Caride said the investment would create 5,500 direct jobs.
