Twelve accounting/finance majors from Harding University recently traveled to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. headquarters in Bentonville, AR on the weekend of Feb. 22-23.
Their trip contained meetings with the top executives of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. including the following: Chief Financial Officer of Wal-Mart Inc., Charles Holley, Chief Financial Officer of Wal-Mart US, Brett Biggs, Vice President and General Counsel for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Karen Roberts. The Chief Executive Officer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Mike Duke stopped by the conference room to welcome the students.
Students had the opportunity to have a question and answer session with these executives to learn the paths they have taken to get to where they are today, as well as what they wished they had done differently. The executives also discussed what they seek in potential interns and employees.
“I was absolutely blown away with Wal-Mart,” sophomore Selena Warren said. “You could tell by just talking to the employees how genuine and honest they are, that they truly care about you and your success.”
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. offers a program known as AFDP, Accounting Finance Development Program, for graduates with an accounting or finance degree that involves four 6-month rotations in different departments within Wal-Mart. This gives the graduates experience with numerous fields such as internal audits, controls, finance and global relations. The program lasts for two years and only a few people have chosen to leave Wal-Mart Stores Inc. after completing the program.
Students from the university also had the opportunity to tour the home office of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., including a stroll down executive row, the office suites of the CEOs and CFOs. They also toured the Wal-Mart history museum, which is located on the square in Bentonville. This museum has memorabilia from Sam Walton’s office as well as general history of how the store began.
On Saturday morning, the group of students attended Wal-Mart Stores Inc. monthly Saturday meeting. On this particular day, the agenda covered the earnings that were released the previous Thursday. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. made $444 billion dollars in sales in 2012. This was up $25 billion from 2011. The meeting also entailed announcements from P. Diddy and Mark Burnett about products that were going to be on sale in all of the stores. One particular item on the agenda included the Wal-Mart cheer. This is a fun way to get the employees excited about what the company is all about, which is to allow consumers to save money, which in turn allows them to live better.
“The meetings with members of the company were very insightful,” sophomore Will Hicks said. “It allowed us to see what it takes to manage the world’s largest company and what it takes to keep it growing.”
