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Electronic data systems make it possible for Wal-Mart (Bentonville, AR) to keep track of all the groceries and general merchandise it moves. Wal-Mart is the world's largest discount retailer. It has nearly 5,000 stores and wholesale clubs, including the popular Sam's Club, across ten countries. More than 1.3 million people work for Wal-Mart or its affiliates.
Vic Miles, director of store systems, oversees the technology that keeps track of the goods and money as the customers flow through. "I'm responsible for the systems that actually get the merchandise to the floor," he says.
His responsibilities include inventory, management systems, financial systems, merchandise handling and distribution, but not checkout systems. Those are handled by another director, as are the IT needs of specialty departments like pharmacy, automotive and optical.
Five people, each heading up a team of eighteen to twenty-five, report to Miles, and he reports to the VP of store systems.
Buying and selling
Each Wal-Mart store is connected to Bentonville's IBM mainframe server. Data updates are sent throughout the day, helping to forecast sales and make purchasing decisions for replenishment.
"Our IT job is really about buying and selling merchandise," Miles says. "We are here to build systems to facilitate that."
Starting as a programmer/analyst, Miles has worked in a number of crucial areas during his ten years with Wal-Mart. In that time the company has become the largest private employer in the world.
Adaptability comes first
Miles grew up moving frequently with his Army family, including four years in Hawaii. He spent his teen years in Missouri. A lot of changes, but Miles took them in stride.
"For years, I listed adaptability on my resume as my biggest single trait," he says. "My wife is also from a military family, and we say we can live anywhere. All you need is a grocery store, a video store and a good place to work."
Miles powered through DeVry University (Kansas City, MO) in three years, receiving his BSCIS in 1989. Through the school, he found a good job with SHL Systemhouse (Ontario, Canada), a contractor for large government projects.
With SHL, he worked all around the country on an amazingly broadening series of projects. He was a programmer for Utah's welfare system, worked on a point-of-sale system for Pennsylvania's liquor control board, got involved in the nation's first electronic benefits program doing child support for Maryland. He also worked in Atlanta, GA as team leader for a component of the state's child support system.
The jobs were interesting and the pay was good, but the contractor lifestyle, constantly commuting to client locations, was wearing. When he got married in 1991 he was ready for a change, but it didn't come for three years.
Programmer with expectations
Miles joined Wal-Mart in 1994, with the expectation that he would move into management. "We're a team-based organization," Miles says. "We give supervisors a large responsibility to grow the people under them."
And grow he did. Less than two years later Miles was managing the point of sale apps team. A major challenge for the team was Wal-Mart's self-checkouts, some of the first ever used.
Another challenge was the Wal-Mart gift card, which he shepherded from idea to fulfillment. Response to the cards was so immense that it became one of the few areas where a third party handles the processing of the financial data.
"I tell my developers that the things that tax you and make you want to throw up your hands are the things you'll remember for years," Miles says.
Going international
As Wal-Mart continued to expand internationally, Miles took on the role of managing its Retail Link B2B website and also began to learn about doing business in other countries. He visited Wal-Mart acquisitions in China, Korea, Argentina, Brazil and the United Kingdom, learning the tax and monetary rules and getting acquainted with the consumer culture.
For example, consumers in China like to be members of things, so Wal-Mart offers them memberships. Membership doesn't confer any special privileges, "but the customers like it anyway," Miles says with a smile. "It's really exciting to understand the culture of the consumer worldwide."
Exec in training
Miles' manager and mentor was Kevin Turner. Before Turner became president of Wal-Mart affiliate Sam's Club, the nation's largest members-only warehouse, he offered Miles the opportunity to learn merchandising. So Miles spent six months as a buyer-in-training, buying merchandise and working with the suppliers who meet the needs of 90-million-plus customers who visit U.S. Wal-Mart stores each week. "I felt like I was given a gift," he says.
But it wasn't a gift. It was part of the Wal-Mart philosophy of supporting its executive candidates and giving them the chance to learn many parts of the business. "Whereas in other situations you might have to move to a different company to get a different career, here you just change pods and the view is completely different," Miles says with appreciation.
When he returned to the operational side he was promoted to director, and spent a year involved in stock replenishment. He moved to director of store systems in 2003.
Team-based organization
Miles meets quarterly with all 100 people in his department. About twenty of them, he notes, are minorities.
He mentors his direct reports and others who ask for his advice. "As a team-based organization, we'll always have varied opinions and cultures working together to achieve a goal," he says. "As long as we achieve that goal, we'll celebrate together."
Settling in
After all those years of wandering, Miles and his wife and four-year-old daughter are comfortably settled in Arkansas now. He's active in the local Habitat for Humanity, and the local chapter of a college fraternity.
He's still fascinated with computer technology. To keep his skills sharp he runs four computers at home, including his first Linux machine, which he built himself.
"My work grew out of my hobby," he says.
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