SUMMARY
Walmart is looking at expanding its headcount and driving more product ownership in India
The company doesn’t want to be the largest technology spender but wants to make sure that it spends on the right tech
Walmart's IT spend is about $10 Bn a year, making it among the world’s largest spenders on technology
Walmart will be hiring more than 1,000 people for technology roles in India as it continues to focus on technology to ward off competition from other ecommerce rivals such as Amazon.
The global retail giant has technology operations in Bengaluru and Gurugram with over 1,800 employees. Further, it is looking to expand its headcount and drive more product ownership out of India.
This development comes at a time when Walmart is also looking to fill the positions of CFO, legal counsel, and compliance officer at Flipkart.
Walmart CIO Clay Johnson said, “We are trying to be more product-oriented. We have taken whole projects and moved them over to drive the Indian ownership of the product. We think that is helping but this will help even more (in retaining talent).”
“A lot of our Internet-of-things work sits in our stores. A lot of those end-to-end products are done here with the sensors and the data are being done here,” he added.
Walmart claimed that its technology attrition is at the industry level and it sees normal attrition spikes around the two-year and seven-year areas. Products such as Walmart’s return process for its 5K US stores were completely developed in India.
According to analysts, Walmart’s IT spending will be about $10 Bn a year, making it among the world’s largest spenders on technology. Also, the company counts almost every IT service provider as a client.
IT companies have been claiming that their largest clients are rejigging their spending towards more digital offerings. The retailer too has changed how it looks at its spending.
Clay Johnson also said that the way the spend has changed shows that Walmart is focused on using technology to drive its competitive advantage. It doesn’t just want to be the largest technology spender but wants to make sure that it spends on the right technology.
Walmart has been working with a slew of Indian IT service providers to co-innovate solutions and the employees have the ability to make changes to the way they work.
More About Walmart’s Entry Into India
Recently, it was reported that Walmart is looking to shift its key executives from Gurugram to Bengaluru, where Flipkart is headquartered. Also, it will be acquiring talent from Asda unit in the UK.
Walmart may also seek US intervention as the company feels that the draft ecommerce policy is heavily tilted against foreign firms and wants the US government to reach out to Indian policymakers to moderate it.
Walmart has set the target of June 7, 2019, for arranging the funds to complete the Flipkart deal through the bond sale. It was in June that Walmart started the process of selling $16 Bn worth bonds (offering fixed and floating rate notes in nine parts) to complete its 77% acquisition of Flipkart.
With the latest announcement of 1,000 tech hires in India, Walmart is living up to its promise of creating jobs in India after the Flipkart deal.
“It is pretty clear that this (deal) is good for customers and would create jobs and help society,” he said at a select media roundtable here,” Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon had said in May.
[The development was reported by ET]
