Episode 182

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Published on:

6th Jul 2022

Integrating Business and Philanthropy at Walmart with Julie Gehrki

This week Matt is joined by Julie Gehrki, Vice President of Philanthropy at Walmart. She explains how Walmart's philanthropic efforts impact billions of people everyday, starting with their own employees and expanding to communities across the globe. To finish out their conversation, Gehrki advises students seeking a career in philanthropy to gain a diverse set of skills and experiences that will lead to a higher impact.

Transcript
Julie Gehrki:

Philanthropy is a tool. It's an important tool.

Julie Gehrki:

It's one I certainly love and have created a career around.

Julie Gehrki:

But it's not the only tool.

Matt Waller:

Excellence, professionalism, innovation and

Matt Waller:

collegiality. These are the values the Sam M. Walton College

Matt Waller:

of Business explores in education, business, and the

Matt Waller:

lives of people we meet every day. I'm Matt Waller, Dean of

Matt Waller:

the Walton College, and welcome to the Be Epic podcast. I have

Matt Waller:

with me today, Julie Gehrki, who is Vice President of

Matt Waller:

Philanthropy at Walmart. Thank you, Julie, for joining me

Matt Waller:

today.

Julie Gehrki:

Thanks for having me. I'm really glad to be here.

Matt Waller:

Julie, I want to talk about your background a

Matt Waller:

little bit. But I'd like to start with talking about

Matt Waller:

Walmart's approach to philanthropy. And I know

Matt Waller:

Walmart's been engaged in philanthropy for a long time.

Matt Waller:

And certainly, the Waltons have I, I know when I got to my

Matt Waller:

office here at the University of Arkansas, in the Dean's office,

Matt Waller:

I found a letter from Sam Walton, in 1990, where they had

Matt Waller:

just given a gift and they'd given gifts before then, they'd

Matt Waller:

given some in the 70s. And of course, this is the Walton

Matt Waller:

College of Business, so, and the whole university has benefited

Matt Waller:

from the Walton family. I know Walmart's different, totally

Matt Waller:

separate. But I think that probably some of that

Matt Waller:

philanthropic thrust and culture started with with the family

Matt Waller:

itself.

Julie Gehrki:

It certainly did. Sam founded the foundation in

Julie Gehrki:

the 80s, late 70s, early 80s. And when I joined 14 years ago,

Julie Gehrki:

that was part of what was appealing, is the culture ran

Julie Gehrki:

deep. And a lot of companies, people in my job spend a huge

Julie Gehrki:

portion of their time defending that a company should do this, I

Julie Gehrki:

think we spend a lot of time thinking about how we can drive

Julie Gehrki:

greater impact how we can be more effective. But the fact

Julie Gehrki:

that we should use our business and philanthropy to make change

Julie Gehrki:

in the world and positively affect the systems, we rely on,

Julie Gehrki:

environmental and social, really is kind of a part of the

Julie Gehrki:

company's fabric. And so that's a huge advantage to my role at a

Julie Gehrki:

company like Walmart with that inherited culture. So our

Julie Gehrki:

approach today is different than it was then. All of philanthropy

Julie Gehrki:

has evolved. But it certainly builds on that culture and those

Julie Gehrki:

values. Today, instead of thinking about philanthropy as

Julie Gehrki:

kind of a side project, it is deeply embedded. And we actually

Julie Gehrki:

start with "What are the social and environmental issues, we can

Julie Gehrki:

make a difference on as a company?" Even doing

Julie Gehrki:

philanthropy, I recognize that the power of the business model

Julie Gehrki:

and the power of Walmart can make greater and more

Julie Gehrki:

substantial change. And so that's what we root ourselves in

Julie Gehrki:

is the places where the company can take a leadership role. But

Julie Gehrki:

inevitably, there's market failures or pieces that it just

Julie Gehrki:

doesn't make sense for the company to solve. And we use our

Julie Gehrki:

philanthropy pretty surgically in those spaces. We think about

Julie Gehrki:

the tools, we have to make a change, our shared value. So

Julie Gehrki:

this idea that the business is stronger by solving

Julie Gehrki:

environmental and social issues, collaborations with suppliers,

Julie Gehrki:

with competitors, you know, really we collaborate with a

Julie Gehrki:

massive range of stakeholders. Philanthropy, all of these are

Julie Gehrki:

tools we use, and we integrate those to solve problems. So when

Julie Gehrki:

we take that approach, it means all the issues we work on,

Julie Gehrki:

you're kind of like, of course Walmart works on that. Economic

Julie Gehrki:

opportunity, so how do we build economic growth for individuals

Julie Gehrki:

so that they advance from frontline jobs to more senior

Julie Gehrki:

jobs? Or businesses? How do they grow, particularly

Julie Gehrki:

minority-owned, women-owned, smallholder farmers around the

Julie Gehrki:

world, using jobs and purchase order. Walmart can lead in both

Julie Gehrki:

areas and we can complement with philanthropy. Sustainability, we

Julie Gehrki:

think about that as climate, nature, waste, and people. So

Julie Gehrki:

all about supply chains and operations. Our philanthropies

Julie Gehrki:

focused in the supply chain, but Walmart clearly thinks about

Julie Gehrki:

both. Community, with 11,000 communities around the world we

Julie Gehrki:

serve. How do we bring our expertise, our logistics, our

Julie Gehrki:

people, our product, into that community to be a part of

Julie Gehrki:

solutions? And then we a couple of years ago started the Center

Julie Gehrki:

for Racial Equity, and really thinking about how in the US, we

Julie Gehrki:

work on issues that affect Black and African American people

Julie Gehrki:

specifically, but also as a whole and then we work on

Julie Gehrki:

finance, healthcare, education, and criminal justice.

Matt Waller:

That's exciting. Yeah. ESG in general, as a topic

Matt Waller:

has really just taken off. You know, it's certainly on all of

Matt Waller:

the agendas of board of directors meetings for publicly

Matt Waller:

traded companies these days. It's interesting how Walmart

Matt Waller:

addresses it both through the regular business, and through

Matt Waller:

the philanthropic arm. And your point is really interesting, I

Matt Waller:

think about, you know, looking for market failures. In other

Matt Waller:

words, where is it that maybe you have a public good, or an

Matt Waller:

externality or something that the markets not addressing

Matt Waller:

clearly, and then you address that with philanthropy, but

Matt Waller:

within the key buckets that you're interested in as a firm.

Julie Gehrki:

Absolutely. And there are all kinds of examples

Julie Gehrki:

where we might need to invest or others might need to invest

Julie Gehrki:

short term to get the market working. So that long term,

Julie Gehrki:

there's a sustainable solution. So for example, in our work on

Julie Gehrki:

nature, we have a commitment to preserve, protect, or

Julie Gehrki:

sustainably source from 50 million acres of land and 100

Julie Gehrki:

square miles of oceans. Well, a lot of that will be done through

Julie Gehrki:

Walmart sourcing practices. But one of the things that our

Julie Gehrki:

environmental NGO partners and others think really as part of

Julie Gehrki:

the solution is place based initiatives. So working with

Julie Gehrki:

governments and saying this whole portion of land, we're

Julie Gehrki:

going to conserve some of it, we're going to restore other

Julie Gehrki:

parts, we're going to sustainably manage production

Julie Gehrki:

and the local people are going to get value out of that we've

Julie Gehrki:

got to make the economy work here. While setting those up is

Julie Gehrki:

hard, and takes often philanthropic or public

Julie Gehrki:

investment, but ideally, long term, the sourcing mechanism,

Julie Gehrki:

and sustainable production is going to sustain it and make

Julie Gehrki:

value work for everyone. So that's a place where

Julie Gehrki:

philanthropy be might be the catalyst and prove it out. But

Julie Gehrki:

ideally, we're always hoping that the market can solve and

Julie Gehrki:

scale it long term.

Matt Waller:

Seems like a great philosophy. Because in the long

Matt Waller:

run, it's got to or it won't be sustainable.

Matt Waller:

Philanthropy is a limited resource, if we can get the

Matt Waller:

market working, it grows and scales. You know, I feel really

Matt Waller:

privileged to work at a place like Walmart, where it's almost

Matt Waller:

one and a half billion dollars of cash and in-kind that we

Matt Waller:

invest every year. But still, that's a limited resource when

Matt Waller:

you look at the world's problems.

Matt Waller:

You know, I've known so many people over the years, including

Matt Waller:

a former MBA student of ours, who really didn't have a college

Matt Waller:

degree, went to work at Walmart in a store, and really worked

Matt Waller:

hard. And before long was a store manager. Eventually went

Matt Waller:

and got his undergraduate degree and then got an MBA. And he

Matt Waller:

eventually was a Senior VP at Walmart. But you know, that kind

Matt Waller:

of opportunity. That's where the market kind of dressed something

Matt Waller:

very clearly, I've seen examples of that same kind of thing in

Matt Waller:

the distribution centers, and in transportation and other areas

Matt Waller:

as well. But you're right, philanthropy, regardless of how

Matt Waller:

much money you have, it's still fixed.

Julie Gehrki:

And even in the example you're talking about, so

Julie Gehrki:

one of the things we're most proud of at Walmart is that

Julie Gehrki:

upward mobility of associates. Over 75% of field management

Julie Gehrki:

started as hourly associates, but our philanthropy's thinking

Julie Gehrki:

about, okay, how do you make that less anecdotal and more

Julie Gehrki:

standard? And how do we make that how frontline jobs work? So

Julie Gehrki:

for instance, we're investing in credentialing and other routes

Julie Gehrki:

so that you can go to college. But if you're learning on the

Julie Gehrki:

job, you're getting credit for that. If you've taken a series

Julie Gehrki:

of short term credentials, those stack and are meaningful to

Julie Gehrki:

employers, what's the digital infrastructure that's needed for

Julie Gehrki:

that? How do you make that a lifelong journey that's really

Julie Gehrki:

gives you credit for all the ways you learn, and adds up to a

Julie Gehrki:

way that hiring managers and employers really recognize it,

Julie Gehrki:

and it drives mobility.

Matt Waller:

I noticed back in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit

Matt Waller:

US gulf, it caused all kinds of problems. But there's a lot of

Matt Waller:

information about this in the media. But Walmart played a huge

Matt Waller:

role in solving a lot of those problems. I know Walmart has

Matt Waller:

this disaster preparedness summit to address disasters as

Matt Waller:

they come up, but also to focus on areas that are prone to

Matt Waller:

disasters, but maybe have minority groups in those areas

Matt Waller:

or disadvantaged types of groups in those areas. Would you mind

Matt Waller:

speaking to that?

Julie Gehrki:

Sure, I'd be happy to. The legacy of Walmart's role

Julie Gehrki:

in Hurricane Katrina, I think is one of the inspirations for how

Julie Gehrki:

we work today. It really was this recognition that our

Julie Gehrki:

strengths and assets, as a business could uniquely meet

Julie Gehrki:

needs in communities. We didn't have to be somebody else to

Julie Gehrki:

help, we could really lean into who we are in the community. And

Julie Gehrki:

that can be inspiring not just to associates, but to the

Julie Gehrki:

community itself. We're seeing the increase of disasters with

Julie Gehrki:

climate change, there is no, for instance, the coast of

Julie Gehrki:

Louisiana, gets hit now almost every year, and sometimes

Julie Gehrki:

multiple times a year. Unfortunately, these places

Julie Gehrki:

often do coincide with where a disproportionate number of

Julie Gehrki:

underserved populations live. Whether that is indigenous

Julie Gehrki:

tribes, black communities, they're disproportionately

Julie Gehrki:

feeling the impact of this work, and this evolution that climate

Julie Gehrki:

is creating. And so we're really going into those communities and

Julie Gehrki:

thinking not only about how we respond when a disaster happens,

Julie Gehrki:

which may involve setting up, you know, relief stations in

Julie Gehrki:

parking lots, and grant making and raising money from

Julie Gehrki:

customers. We have a number of tools, mobile pharmacies,

Julie Gehrki:

getting stores up and running as quickly as possible. Those tools

Julie Gehrki:

are all there for when a disaster happens. And we

Julie Gehrki:

certainly want to deploy them. But we see in communities where

Julie Gehrki:

there's capacity, and investment and planning on the front end,

Julie Gehrki:

the return to normalcy is much faster. And so how do we build

Julie Gehrki:

that resiliency into communities and make sure that that is done

Julie Gehrki:

in as equitable way as possible that the local government is

Julie Gehrki:

prepared for it, and that we're investing so those relationships

Julie Gehrki:

exist. And that plan exists ahead of time. Because,

Julie Gehrki:

unfortunately, many of these communities, it's not really

Julie Gehrki:

whether they'll be hit, it's when. And so the more resiliency

Julie Gehrki:

we can build, the better we'll be.

Matt Waller:

Julie, I also saw that Walmart has been as part of

Matt Waller:

ESG really helping with grants for smallholder farmers in

Matt Waller:

India, Mexico and Central America. You've been doing this

Matt Waller:

for almost five years. These grants have reached over 700,000

Matt Waller:

smallholder farmers, and 44% of them are run by women. And so

Matt Waller:

the grants are supposed to help basically the livelihoods of

Matt Waller:

smallholder farmers. But would you mind talking a little bit

Matt Waller:

about that, as well?

Julie Gehrki:

Be happy to. This work is really inspiring. And

Julie Gehrki:

again, based on this idea that Walmart in these countries can

Julie Gehrki:

often source from smallholders and that the likely greatest

Julie Gehrki:

increase in livelihoods is becoming part of a formal market

Julie Gehrki:

and selling to the formal market, where they can get

Julie Gehrki:

higher prices, more predictability, all of those

Julie Gehrki:

pieces. But at the smallest size, a farmer, they often

Julie Gehrki:

aren't ready for that, don't have access to it. And so we've

Julie Gehrki:

been investing in farmer producing organizations. So

Julie Gehrki:

groups of small holders that come together to get better

Julie Gehrki:

inputs, better access to things like quality seed, good

Julie Gehrki:

technical advice, and can sell together and aggregate their

Julie Gehrki:

product. What we find is when these farmer producing

Julie Gehrki:

organizations are strong, they build the capacity and

Julie Gehrki:

capability of everyone. And then over time, they grow to a place

Julie Gehrki:

where they do sell more to formal markets, and those

Julie Gehrki:

livelihoods grow production, they may need to add in other

Julie Gehrki:

crops to rotate. You know, I was in a farm in India, where a

Julie Gehrki:

woman was growing mushrooms for the local market. And that was

Julie Gehrki:

an addition to her kind of row crops that she'd been growing,

Julie Gehrki:

but she was getting much higher prices from these specialty

Julie Gehrki:

mushrooms she was selling to restaurants in nearby big

Julie Gehrki:

cities. And that was taught through the FPO. And so you see

Julie Gehrki:

layering in to get value and the FPO really thriving, and women

Julie Gehrki:

often taking leadership in that. So we're really excited about

Julie Gehrki:

that. Our Central America business has a long history of

Julie Gehrki:

sourcing from smallholders. So we see that the growth and that

Julie Gehrki:

access to formal markets can happen. But it often comes with

Julie Gehrki:

maturity of these FPOs that we're able to invest in

Julie Gehrki:

philanthropically, and then they can sell to us or to other

Julie Gehrki:

formal businesses. It isn't really about us getting special

Julie Gehrki:

access, it's really about growing the capacity. So that

Julie Gehrki:

system is stronger, and then we'll all benefit.

Matt Waller:

That's a great approach. You started your

Matt Waller:

career with Walmart, the Walmart Foundation, as Senior Director

Matt Waller:

of Business Integration, when I see the title business

Matt Waller:

integration, I'm not surprised in a business, a regular

Matt Waller:

business, but in a foundation. I don't think I've ever seen that

Matt Waller:

before. And you did it for almost nine years. So what did

Matt Waller:

that mean?

Julie Gehrki:

Yeah, so in fairness, I started as a manager

Julie Gehrki:

and kind of worked my way up over the years to that role. But

Julie Gehrki:

I would say that really was about growing this model of

Julie Gehrki:

integrating business and philanthropy together, of

Julie Gehrki:

working with business leaders. You know, I speak to our interns

Julie Gehrki:

often in early days of their time at Walmart. And inevitably,

Julie Gehrki:

many of them come up to me and say, like, how do I get on your

Julie Gehrki:

team, and I play this game with them, that's tell me where

Julie Gehrki:

you're interning. And inevitably, I can find through

Julie Gehrki:

their job that they're interning that isn't in kind of the global

Julie Gehrki:

responsibility team, how they're going to make a difference on

Julie Gehrki:

its social or environmental issues. And so I spend a lot of

Julie Gehrki:

time doing that with business leaders, helping them see just

Julie Gehrki:

through their day to day business, how they could not

Julie Gehrki:

only drive higher productivity or better returns through just

Julie Gehrki:

their day-to-day work, but then how we could partner together to

Julie Gehrki:

change the whole system, and make it work for everybody and

Julie Gehrki:

just have better outcomes. And so that's really what that meant

Julie Gehrki:

over that time was at a point of inflection where we were going

Julie Gehrki:

from doing that we probably started that work in hunger

Julie Gehrki:

relief. Walmart's a large grocer, you can see where we

Julie Gehrki:

have assets, not only in our everyday low price proposition,

Julie Gehrki:

to help on issues of food security, but also food

Julie Gehrki:

donations and those types of expertise. And then it grew to

Julie Gehrki:

think, okay, this is so much higher impact, to build our

Julie Gehrki:

philanthropy with our business, that we should really only work

Julie Gehrki:

in areas where we're bringing this together. And that title

Julie Gehrki:

really reflected a time where we were spending, we were kind of

Julie Gehrki:

systematically going through the portfolios and building those

Julie Gehrki:

partnerships across the business.

Matt Waller:

Julie, I'd like to hear a little bit about how you,

Matt Waller:

personally became interested in philanthropy.

Julie Gehrki:

I grew up with parents who were incredibly

Julie Gehrki:

focused on giving back and frankly, thought my career would

Julie Gehrki:

be in the nonprofit sector. Spent a decent portion of time

Julie Gehrki:

taking different jobs around the world, learning about impact,

Julie Gehrki:

trying to prepare myself with the skill base to run a

Julie Gehrki:

nonprofit. And as I was finishing graduate school, I had

Julie Gehrki:

a conversation with the dean about where I might go, and

Julie Gehrki:

candidly wanted him to send my resumes all to a bunch of

Julie Gehrki:

nonprofits. And he said, I'd like to send it to Walmart. I

Julie Gehrki:

fought him on it but he insisted, and they were the

Julie Gehrki:

first people to call. I came up and interviewed during the week

Julie Gehrki:

I was graduating, kind of thought it was a practice

Julie Gehrki:

interview. And that this was going to get me prepared for the

Julie Gehrki:

real conversations I would have about jobs I actually wanted.

Julie Gehrki:

Ended up having a four hour conversation while I was there,

Julie Gehrki:

where I became really interested about the role business could

Julie Gehrki:

have in solving big problems. And very convinced that Walmart

Julie Gehrki:

was interested in being a leading player in that. And that

Julie Gehrki:

was exciting. The idea that I could be a part of thinking not

Julie Gehrki:

only about the philanthropy, but partnering with the business was

Julie Gehrki:

inspiring to me. And I'm somebody who doesn't really like

Julie Gehrki:

to just run things, I'm kind of always wanting to think about

Julie Gehrki:

what's next and learn and grow. And a place like Walmart has

Julie Gehrki:

been endless opportunities for me to learn something new every

Julie Gehrki:

day. And so that's what keeps me there.

Matt Waller:

So there may be some students listening to this

Matt Waller:

that would be interested in going into philanthropy. What

Matt Waller:

advice do you have for them?

Julie Gehrki:

Sure, I often tell them to think a little bit more

Julie Gehrki:

broadly, think about driving impact. What change do you want

Julie Gehrki:

to be a part of making in the world? Philanthropy is a tool.

Julie Gehrki:

It's an important tool, it's one I certainly love and have

Julie Gehrki:

created a career around. But it's not the only tool. It may

Julie Gehrki:

be that as a buyer of beef, you are the most influential person

Julie Gehrki:

on deforestation, or as a person in our operations you are having

Julie Gehrki:

in real estate, the biggest impact on sustainable

Julie Gehrki:

refrigeration. And so really thinking about what you hope to

Julie Gehrki:

achieve, and then being really open that that may be in

Julie Gehrki:

philanthropy, but it also could be in broader spaces, collect

Julie Gehrki:

all the skills you can, some of them are really boring, or you

Julie Gehrki:

think they are, but I am grateful that I know, program

Julie Gehrki:

evaluation, and I spent time learning analytics, and those

Julie Gehrki:

places come together to make you a more impactful leader over

Julie Gehrki:

time. And so that's kind of the two pieces is think broadly

Julie Gehrki:

about it. And then look for lots of experiences that build a

Julie Gehrki:

diversity of skills. Because when you bring those together,

Julie Gehrki:

you're much higher impact.

Matt Waller:

Well, Julie, thank you so much for sharing with us,

Matt Waller:

I really didn't know much about Walmart's approach to

Matt Waller:

philanthropy. It was very interesting learning about it.

Matt Waller:

And thank you for your advice to students as well. And thank you

Matt Waller:

for been on the show. Appreciate that.

Julie Gehrki:

Thanks for having me. It's great to spend some

Julie Gehrki:

time with you.

Matt Waller:

On behalf of the Sam M Walton College of

Matt Waller:

Business. I want to thank everyone for spending time with

Matt Waller:

us for another engaging conversation. You can subscribe

Matt Waller:

by going to your favorite podcast service and searching BE

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About the Podcast

Be EPIC Podcast
Welcome to the Be Epic Podcast featuring Brent Williams, interim dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. In each episode, you will hear from guests that will inspire you to be epic. As experts in their field, they will emphasize strategy, leadership, and entrepreneurship. This programming will highlight innovation and cutting-edge information that will leave you wanting more. Be sure to connect with Brent Williams on LinkedIn to join the conversation, access show notes and discover fantastic bonus content.