Leadership
From 300 to 3,800 Stores: Wal-Mart’s Patricia Curran
BY JENNIFER MILLMAN / © 2007 DiversityInc
For Patricia Curran, like many
teenagers, retail was a first job—
one she never intended to be her
career. An aspiring veterinarian,
Curran got a job in Wal-Mart’s pet
department selling “anything that
crawled.” She planned to stay with
the company until she could afford
graduate school. Some 24 years
later, she hasn’t left.
“That retail thing just gets in
your blood,” says Curran, who is
responsible for Wal-Mart’s 3,800-
plus U.S. stores and more than 1
million associates as executive vice
president, store operations, Wal-Mart Stores Division—a position
she assumed in 2005. “Retail’s a
people business—that’s my passion;
that’s what I love to do.”
Earmarked by her supervisors for
her passion and The constant movement
potential, Curran may have wearied some, but
embarked on a for Curran, the eldest daughter
professional fast- in a military family, this expo-track, ascending sure to different business lines
from hourly asso- and work environments accel-ciate to depart- erated her career. “Back when I
ment, assistant started, we had less than 300
and co-manager stores. You can’t manage 3,800
before operating stores like you would 300; the
her first “home- Patricia Curran complexity changes dramatical-grown” store ly,” she says. When Wal-Mart
Company: Wal-Mart, one of
with 92 associ- DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy invited Curran to sponsor its
ates. After a stint Companies in 2006 GLBT-employee resource
in managerial Headquarters: Bentonville, Ark. group PRIDE (Promoting
training and four relocations, Respect Inclusion Diversity and
Curran assumed responsibility for Equity), she embraced the opportu-
120 stores as Wal-Mart’s southern nity. “I truly wanted to be part of it.
regional vice president and two years The more you’re willing to get out
later became senior vice president and grow, the more you’re able to
for its 580-store Southeast division. offer,” she says.
Creating New Leaders at Microsoft: Tanya Clemons
BY YOJI COLE / © 2007 DiversityInc
Too often the reasons
people get promoted—
or the fact that there are
positions available—are
kept hush-hush at companies. At Microsoft,
before the computer-programming giant
recruited Tanya
Clemons as its first corporate vice president of
Tanya Clemons
people and organizational capability, promotions Company: Microsoft
Headquarters: Seattle, Wash.
were given on a subjective basis, without any
clearly stated, objective criteria.
That all changed when Clemons,
who previously logged seven years
with IBM, joined Microsoft in 2003.
“While there had been a focus on
leadership training, lacking was a
focus on the broader
framework … because
the company had not
had a need for it,”
explains Clemons. “The
notion that Steve
[Ballmer, CEO of
Microsoft Corp] and
[Microsoft Chairman Bill
Gates] won’t be here for-
ever was a recent phe-
nomenon. Now we’re at a
point where we need a
little more formality and
discipline on how we
grow the pipeline of talent.”
Clemons’ team oversees leadership and management development, change management and
organization development, employee learning and training, talent
enablement, and succession planning, as well as enterprise-wide
culture-change initiatives.
“In two years, we’ve seen 20
women promoted to vice president,
which is significant because if we
promote five people a year, that’s a
busy year,” says Clemons.
At Microsoft, Clemons chose not
to create leadership-development programs for executives of color and
women, believing the programs segregate rather than promote intercultur-al networking with white executives.
“Our future leaders [of color and
women] need to network with white
men as much as with themselves,”
says Clemons. “I focus on making
sure [executives of color and women
executives] are part of the mainstream focus on development.” DI
