沃尔玛CIO：我们已经在利用AI实现IT产品化和过程自动化

Clay Johnson曾供职于多家知名企业，诸如FedEx、波音公司和通用电气。一年前，他加盟了沃尔玛旗下公司，担任沃尔玛CIO，专攻技术领域。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

据他介绍，仅仅在美国，沃尔玛就有230万员工和5000家门店。因此，在入职初期，Johnson把精力重点放在了尽可能多地接触公司员工、熟悉公司业务和了解公司手头项目上。

此外，基于四条工作原则，他还开始着手改变IT部们的工作氛围，即保证工作透明、支持公开辩论、人人都能表达想法、善于从失败中汲取经验。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

Johnson认为，IT部门当前的工作重点是借助人工智能为IT建立产品模型，完善不同产品领域的端到端服务，并提升一部分产品的过程自动化功能。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

为此，福布斯专栏作者、IT咨询公司Metis Strategy总裁Peter High对Johnson进行了进一步访谈，与他深入探讨了这些话题：CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

Peter High:是否可以介绍一下您作为沃尔玛CIO和全球企业咨询服务部（GBS）副总裁的工作内容？

Clay Johnson:入职之后，我整合了内部技术和共享服务团队。我们的工作涉及内部运行的所有技术，包括服务器安全、企业系统、机器学习（ML）、分析方法，以及人工智能（AI）。电子商务和客户接洽人员转由首席技术官Jeremy King接管。而我主要管理公司内部的其他事务，大多面向供应商，而非客户。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

共享服务部门承担着公司所有的事务性工作。目前，我们在全球共有八处不同的共享服务点，分别位于墨西哥、哥斯达黎加、巴西、英国和美国（不止一处）。目的在于集众人之力共同开发出更高效的机器。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

我们相信，这两个团队结合后的能力是不可估量的，它使我们能够借助技术驱动端到端的服务。我认为会有越来越多的公司开始这么做。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

High:那么，在这个过程中如何更好地利用数字技术？

Johnson:关键是要持续关注客户，而我的客户其实就是公司内部员工。沃尔玛员工多达200多万名。基于这样的人数基础，抓住提升生产力的时机，或通过不同工具和服务改进沟通，都将在很大程度上提升效率。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

十年前，商业技术（businesstechnology）要优于客户技术（customertechnology）。不过现在恰恰相反。生活中员工接触到的许多技术都比工作中来得智能。他们开始期望工作中的用到的技术也能像社交媒体和智能手机用起来一样顺手，希望移动办公和触屏技术能够更加普及。所以，我们的内部技术和共享服务团队也在试图随时随地为员工提供他们所需要的工具和数据。

High:在这种情况下，您的团队需要在哪些方面做出改变从而提升自己的综合技能呢？您又是如何平衡新员工招聘、老员工培训以及与外部的企业合作的？

Johnson:员工是我们最重要的财富。没有人才,公司将止步不前。因此，领导必须要做的一件事就是提拔比你聪明的员工，虽然这对很多人来说不容易，但我一直在尝试这么做。

我们始终把致力于技术革新作为用人原则，并不断引进技术型人才从而为公司带来创新。近几十年来，技术对企业的影响越来越大，技术的发展也在不断推动企业变革。一旦决策错误，企业将难以发展。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

其中，移动应用、大数据分析和人工智能彻底颠覆了企业的管理思路、运营方式以及与客户交互的模式。所以，知人善用非常重要。这方面，我的具体做法包括合理任免、提升员工技能、吸纳外部人才。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

沃尔玛非常幸运，能拥有这么多人才。我们的创新项目覆盖了全国，同时我们也非常重视人才，这将帮助我们不断进步。

High:您谈到，您的客户是全公司的200多万员工，那么，您是如何满足这么多人的需求的呢？

Johnson:其实很难办到。因此我在入职时，重点关注这三个方面：接触公司员工，熟悉公司业务，了解公司项目。

熟悉业务能够帮助我们优化工作。最初六个月，我拜访了很多团队，了解他们的日常工作。这使得我们进一步了解了大家的工作方式和使用的各种工具。此外，我还考察了很多线下门店，了解它们和配送中心的运营情况。每次和这些团队坐在一起，我都能学到新东西。

我一直认为，IT部门必须比业务部门自身更了解业务。只有对事物运作和客户有了深入了解，才能作出改变、产生影响。这是所有领导都应该重视，却常常被忽略的。

High：您描述的很多内容都体现了文化观念革新，至少在您领导的团队内部是这样的。文化观念革新改变的是人们的为人处事方式，因此最为困难。那么您具体是怎么做的呢？

Johnson：我认为，文化是公司的基本要素，它常常与公司的价值观融合在一起。以沃尔玛为例，价值观由创始人和他们所做的工作决定。另一方面，文化必须不断发展，员工和潜在的文化价值是决定公司成败的两个重要因素。

在我看来，企业文化中有四个关键要素。第一是透明度。你必须对团队成员完全透明，它将使得团队成员能够了解你的构想，并适应公司的发展方向。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

第二，开展公开辩论。为员工营造可以相互辩论和挑战的环境至关重要。同时，还要保证他们回到工作岗位后，还需要继续共事，共同合作。如果能够讨论、辩论，能够互相挑战，总能得到正确答案。这种辩论能力是文化的重要组成部分，但许多公司不具备这种能力。

第三，确保员工能够自由地表达想法。这又与透明度和公开辩论有所关联。人们是否觉得自己可以提出想法和问题呢？他们能否自信地表达想法？这点能促使员工提出更多有意义的想法和建议，并主动通过切实的方式解决问题。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

第四，是我在GE学到的——快速试错。前三点我已经在之前工作过的几个公司实践过，但这一点是最新的。它将使员工坦然面对失败，这是非常重要的。很多人并不习惯这个模式，包括我自己。但是你必须得坦然接受：不是所有事都会一帆风顺。你必须做到失败后不断改变，确保公司满意。我们应该庆祝失败而非因此受到惩罚，如果没有失败，就不会进步。

以上就是我所认为的文化四要素，但我要重申，透明是一切的基础。

High：您的职责包括提高IT效率和改进业务流程。您也提到，作为CIO需要比业务本身更了解业务，包括指导业务的流程。能介绍一下您在提高IT效率、改进业务流程方面做了哪些努力，以及是如何和团队一起实现这些目标的吗？

Johnson：我们正在做两方面的努力。首先，我们正在把工作重心转向产品模型和端到端的服务。通过创建一个单线程所有权模型（single-threadedownershipmodel），每个人都能知道所有与之相关的组成部分的信息。在大部分企业的传统IT架构中，存在很多的信息化孤岛，会产生诸多碎片化问题。当然，也没有必要将所有信息都集中在一个人手中。这将导致很难改进流程、关闭或升级系统，也难以提高效率。

过去的六个月里，我们一直在研究这个产品模型，并且已经开始在公司小范围内实施。今年二月初，我们将会全面地推出这一模式，并将基于此开发其他相关产品。我们计划从财务部门入手，将财务中的每个流程都对应到一个负责人身上，而IT部门在其中的角色是提供所有的支持和服务。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

一旦我们能够全面提供端到端的服务，提高流程效率就成了关键问题。为此，我们开始使用人工智能来提升过程自动化，从而解决这个问题。今年，我们在系统内部署了大约500个不同的自动程序。内部技术和共享服务团队的整合赋予了我们大规模部署人工智能（AI）解决方案的能力。

High: 您的团队在全球共有10000名的员工。您如何管理？比如，之前您谈论过转向新的产品模式会对他们产生影响，你是如何设置优先权的呢？您又如何保证这10000人每天都投入工作且有所产出呢？

Johnson:关键在于优先次序，而优先次序的关键在于了解顾客和业务。首先要了解一些有助于转变业务的重要杠杆。比如，和高级主管交流，可以更好地理解公司大方向，从而提高效率、增加利润以及提高生产。比如，我们的当务之急是应用AI和机器学习完善业务进程。

五到十年前，技术还被看作是辅助，而现在，技术已经成为工作必不可少的手段。因此，可以看到大家都已经越来越重视技术。这也正是我们将共享服务与内部技术团队结合的原因。这使我们发现了许多业务和客户层面的价值。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

High:您在纽约和硅谷等地也有很多的研发团队。这些团队如何协作？您是如何决定他们的研究领域呢？CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

Johnson:你必须知道在哪里能得到最优秀的人才。在本顿维，我们拥有大量人才，能够了解业务和所有相关流程。我们的目标是：与具有创新力的企业或机构形成互补。比如在达拉斯，我们和一些学术机构合作，向已经涉足该领域的大公司学习经验；在奥斯汀，我们寻求与很多初创企业合作；在本顿维总部，我们齐心协力创造高效机器，力求利用机器学习和人工智能研发最新最尖端的技术。我们开始利用物联网和传感器改善仓库能源使用，尤其是冷藏管理部分。

在通用电气，我就一只非常关注物联网。因此，一到沃尔玛，我就希望将物联网应用于此。单单在美国，沃尔玛就有5000多家门店，物联网、人工智能和其他类似技术，能够让我们做很多有趣的事情。不仅能够提升消费者的体验，也能提升沃尔玛的核心运作效率。

High:在之前一些公司的任职经历带给您哪些收获呢？

Johnson:上大学时不知道我想要做什么。我曾在海岸警卫队干过五年。这段时间我学到了团队协作的重要性。成为团队中的一分子的这一理念，奠定了我事业的根基。

大学毕业后，我去了FedEx。在那里，让我认识到“IT人员必须与业务部门更了解业务”的道理。我曾经参与过一个项目，但却惨败。原因在于我们中没有一个人肯花时间去学习业务。我们只是对商业运作做出假设，但实际情况却大相径庭。此外，我在那里学到的第二点是，从失败中汲取经验。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

波音是一家国际公司，业务遍布世界各地。我学到的不仅是如何在全球化背景下工作，也更好地理解了团队协作、商业和制造业运营等等。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

而如之前所说，在通用电气的经历我学会了如何快速试错。这是我事业的转折点，因为之前我绝对不会把失败当作是机遇。而在通用电气的数字化转型过程中，我学会了从失败中吸取经验。

像波音和通用电气这样的公司可以不断得到发展，原因是他们能彻底改造和颠覆自我，并接受失败。而大多数公司都不会一而再再而三地去尝试和实践。

现在沃尔玛也是如此。我们从失败中汲取经验、彻底颠覆自我以求在电子商务中占据一席之地。我们现在做的事情，在五年或者十年之前是绝对想不到的。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

当然，在沃尔玛数字化转型的过程中，也可以看到很多试错的模型被付诸实践。因为事物总是在改变，所以失败在所难免。如果无法积极面对失败，则需另谋出路。许多公司无法接受失败，也就无法完成数字化转型。CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

翻译：

Clay Johnson has worked for several well-known companies such as FedEx, Boeing and General Electric. He joined the company a year ago as Wal-Mart’s CIO, specializing in technology.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

Clay Johnson, Chief Information Officer of Walmart

According to him, Walmart has 2.3 million employees and 5,000 stores in the United States alone. So in his early days, Johnson focused on meeting as many employees as possible, familiarizing himself with the business and learning about the projects at hand.

In addition, he set out to change the atmosphere of the IT department based on four working principles: ensuring transparency, supporting open debate, allowing everyone to express their ideas, and being good at learning from failure.

Johnson believes that the current focus of the IT department is to use artificial intelligence to build product models for IT, improve end-to-end services in different product areas, and improve the process automation capabilities of some products.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

To that end, Forbes columnist Peter High, president of IT consulting firm Metis Strategy, sat down with Johnson to dig deeper into these topics:

Peter High: Can you tell us about your role as CIO and Vice President of Global Corporate Advisory Services (GBS) at Walmart?

Clay Johnson: When I came on board, I integrated the internal technology and shared services teams. Our work touches on all the technologies that run internally, including server security, enterprise systems, machine learning (ML), analytical methods, and artificial intelligence (AI). The e-commerce and customer engagement staff was transferred to Chief Technology Officer Jeremy King. I mainly manage other things within the company, mostly for suppliers, not customers.

The Shared Services department is responsible for all of the company’s transactional work. We currently have eight different shared service locations around the world, in Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States (more than one location). The goal is to work together to develop more efficient machines.

We believe the combined capabilities of these two teams are immeasurable, enabling us to drive end-to-end services with technology. I think more and more companies will start to do that.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

High: So, how do you make better use of digital technology in this process?

Johnson: The key is to stay focused on the customer, and my customers are actually internal employees. Walmart employs more than 2 million people. Based on this number of people, seizing opportunities to increase productivity, or improving communication through different tools and services, will greatly increase efficiency.

Ten years ago, businesstechnology was superior to customertechnology. But now it’s the opposite. Many of the technologies that employees are exposed to in their lives are smarter than they are at work. They are beginning to expect that the technology they use at work will be as easy to use as social media and smartphones, and that mobile working and touch screen technology will become more common. So, our internal technology and shared services teams are also trying to give employees the tools and data they need, anytime, anywhere.

High: In this situation, what does your team need to change to improve their overall skills? How do you balance hiring new employees, training old employees, and working with external companies?CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

Johnson: Our employees are our most important asset. Without talent, the company will stop moving forward. So one of the things leaders have to do is promote people who are smarter than you, and while that’s not easy for a lot of people, I’ve been trying to do that.

We have always been committed to technological innovation as the principle of employment, and continue to introduce technical talents to bring innovation to the company. In recent decades, the influence of technology on enterprises has been increasing, and the development of technology has also continuously pushed enterprises to change. Once the decision is wrong, the business will be difficult to grow.

Among them, mobile applications, big data analytics and artificial intelligence have completely disrupted the way companies manage, operate and interact with customers. Therefore, it is very important to know how to use people. In this regard, my specific measures include reasonable appointment and removal, upgrading staff skills and attracting external talents.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

Walmart is very lucky to have so much talent. Our innovation programs cover the whole country, and we also place great emphasis on talent, which will help us to keep improving.

High: You mentioned that your customers are more than 2 million employees across the company, so how do you meet the needs of so many people?

Johnson: It’s really hard to do. Therefore, when I joined the company, I focused on the following three aspects: getting in touch with the company’s employees, getting familiar with the company’s business and understanding the company’s projects.

Being familiar with the business helps us optimize our work. For the first six months, I visited many of the teams to learn about their daily work. This gives us a better understanding of how people work and the various tools they use. In addition, I also visited a lot of offline stores to understand their operations and distribution centers. Every time I sit down with these teams, I learn something new.

I have always believed that IT must know more about the business than the business itself. Only with a deep understanding of how things work and customers can you make a difference and make an impact. This is something that all leaders should pay attention to, but are often overlooked.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

High: A lot of what you describe reflects a cultural change, at least within the team you lead. Cultural change is the most difficult because it changes the way people behave. So what exactly do you do?

Johnson: I think culture is a fundamental element of a company, and it’s often intertwined with the company’s values. In the case of Walmart, values are determined by the founders and the work they do. On the other hand, culture must evolve, and employees and underlying cultural values are two important factors that determine the success or failure of a company.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

In my opinion, there are four key elements of corporate culture.

The first is transparency.

You must be completely transparent with your team members, which will enable them to understand your vision and adapt to the direction of the company.

Second, open debate. CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

Creating an environment where employees can debate and challenge each other is crucial. At the same time, make sure that when they return to work, they need to continue to work together. If you can discuss, debate and challenge each other, you will always get the right answer. This ability to debate is an important part of the culture, but many companies don’t have it.

Third, ensure that employees are free to express their ideas.

This, in turn, has to do with transparency and open debate. Do people feel they can come up with ideas and questions? Can they express their ideas with confidence? This encourages employees to come up with more meaningful ideas and suggestions, and to take the initiative to solve problems in practical ways.

Fourth, I learned at GE – fast trial and error.

I’ve practiced the first three at several companies I’ve worked for before, but this one is the latest. It will make employees comfortable with failure, which is very important. Many people are not used to this model, myself included. But you have to accept that not everything will go smoothly. You have to be able to fail and keep changing to make sure the company is happy. We should celebrate failure rather than be punished for it. Without failure, there would be no progress.

Those are what I consider the four elements of culture, but again, transparency is the foundation of everything.

High: Your responsibilities include increasing IT efficiency and improving business processes. You also mentioned that being a CIO requires knowing more about the business than the business itself, including the processes that guide the business.

Can you describe your efforts to improve IT efficiency and business processes, and how you worked with your team to achieve these goals?CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

Johnson: We’re working on two fronts. First, we are shifting our focus to product models and end-to-end services. By creating a single-threadedownershipmodel, everyone can know all the information about the components involved. In the traditional IT architecture of most enterprises, there are many information islands, which will cause many fragmentation problems. Of course, there is no need to centralize all the information in the hands of one person. This makes it difficult to improve processes, shut down or upgrade systems, and to improve efficiency.

We’ve been working on this product model for the past six months and have started implementing it on a small scale within the company. In early February this year, we will fully launch this model, and will develop other related products based on it. We plan to start with the finance department, where each process in finance corresponds to a person in charge, and the role of the IT department is to provide all support and services.

Once we were able to provide a full end-to-end service, improving process efficiency became a key issue. To that end, we started using artificial intelligence to improve process automation to solve this problem. This year, we deployed about 500 different automated programs within the system. The integration of our in-house technology and shared services teams gives us the ability to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) solutions at scale.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

High: Your team has 10,000 employees worldwide. How do you manage? For example, earlier you talked about how moving to a new product model would affect them, how do you set priorities? How do you keep those 10,000 people engaged and productive every day?

Johnson: The key is prioritization, and the key to prioritization is understanding the customer and the business. Start by understanding some important levers that can help transform your business. For example, talking to senior executives can lead to a better understanding of the company’s overall direction, which can lead to increased efficiency, increased profits, and increased production. For example, our priority is to apply AI and machine learning to improve business processes.

Five to ten years ago, technology was seen as an aid, and now it is an essential means of work. Therefore, we can see that everyone has paid more and more attention to technology. That’s why we combine shared services with our in-house technical team. This allowed us to discover a lot of value at the business and customer level.

High: You also have a lot of R&D teams in places like New York and Silicon Valley. How do these teams work together? How did you decide on their field of study?

Johnson: You have to know where to get the best talent. At Bentonville, we have a lot of talent that understands the business and all the processes involved. Our goal is to complement innovative companies or institutions. In Dallas, for example, we work with academic institutions to learn from big companies that are already in the field. In Austin, we seek to work with a lot of startups; At Bentonville Headquarters, we work together to create efficient machines and develop the latest and most cutting-edge technologies using machine learning and artificial intelligence. We started using iot and sensors to improve warehouse energy use, especially in the cold storage management part.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

At GE, I’m very focused on the Internet of Things. So once I got to Walmart, I wanted to apply iot to that. Walmart has more than 5,000 stores in the US alone, and the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other similar technologies allow us to do a lot of interesting things. Not only will it improve the customer experience, but it will also improve Walmart’s core operational efficiency.

High: What have you learned from your experience in previous companies?

Johnson: I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I went to college. I was in the Coast Guard for five years. During this time, I learned the importance of teamwork. The idea of being part of a team has been the foundation of my career.

After college, I went to FedEx. There, I realized the truth that “IT people must understand the business better with the business department.” I once worked on a project that failed miserably. The reason is that none of us take the time to learn the business. We make assumptions about how business works, but the reality is quite different. Also, the second thing I learned there was to learn from failure.

Boeing is an international company with operations all over the world. I learned not only how to work in a global context, but also a better understanding of teamwork, business and manufacturing operations, and more.

And as I said before, at GE I learned how to trial and error quickly.

It was a turning point in my career, because I would never have seen failure as an opportunity. During GE’s digital transformation, I learned to learn from my failures.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

Companies like Boeing and GE continue to grow because they reinvent and disrupt themselves and accept failure. And most companies don’t try and do it over and over again.

Now Walmart is doing the same. We learn from our failures and reinvent ourselves to gain a place in e-commerce. We are doing things that would have been unthinkable five or ten years ago.

Of course, in the process of Walmart’s digital transformation, you can also see a lot of trial and error models being put into practice. Because things are always changing, failure is inevitable. If you can’t face failure positively, you need to find another way. Many companies are unable to accept failure and are unable to complete their digital transformation.CXO UNION CXO联盟 cxounion.cn

本文由CXO UNION-CXO联盟（cxounion.cn）转载而成，来源：Forbes；作者：Peter High；编辑/翻译：CXO UNIONCXO联盟小O。

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