In Chicago Business Online, Alison Nickum writes of her summer working at Wal-Mart HQ in Bentonville.
My first week on the job consisted of going through orientation with the 50-some other new Wal-Mart home office employees for that day. (They set up that many people there *every day*. And that's just for the home office!) Orientation lasted most of the week. At the tail-end of the week, I got to meet my team, learn about my project, and get going!It's worth reading just for her description of Retail Boot Camp:
I only had a couple of days to get started on my project, because all the MBA interns were scheduled to spend the beginning part of the following week working in stores! Wal-Mart called it "Retail Boot Camp," and we had one day of working in a Sam's Club, and one day of working in a Wal-Mart Supercenter (the ones with grocery). I was totally excited!She's an MBA, so I think she really means it.
By the way, Wal-Mart; I'd love to spend a couple of months being educated about your logistics and planning systems. The US Department of Defense (who funds my employer) could learn quite a lot from the experience.
Posted by Kevin on October, 13 2005 at 04:48 PM
