How two Kellogg alumnae are navigating ambiguity to make an impact at Walmart

Starting your first role as a newly minted Kellogg MBA graduate can be exhilarating and intimidating. You want to make a good first impression, demonstrate success and lead with empathy. But how do you stand out as a new hire on a team that is totally new to the organization? Avery Siciliano ’22 MBA and Julia Markun Schmeling ’22 MBA share their reflections on navigating ambiguity one year into their roles on the Surety of Supply and Sourcing Innovation team at Walmart.  

By Avery Siciliano ’22 MBA and Julia Markun ’22 MBA

If you recall grocery shopping during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, it wouldn’t be surprising if empty shelves come to mind. It felt like a situation that could not have been planned for, but that’s exactly the type of experience Walmart’s Surety of Supply and Sourcing Innovation team is working to prevent for the future.  

Necessity is the mother of invention 

Formed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Surety of Supply and Sourcing Innovation team drives innovative and proactive thinking about how Walmart sources products for long-term resilience. Worldwide issues such as pandemics, climate change and economic disruptions are changing the way retailers think about global supply chains. Walmart recognizes that innovation and supplier relationships are key to mitigating these risks to ensure customers can access the products they need.  

While the idea of surety of supply has always been essential to Walmart’s success, the creation of a dedicated team to dive into critical issues and support long-term resilience is new. How should Walmart mitigate the risk of climate-induced weather impacting produce? How should we think about early-stage start-ups that could transform textile manufacturing? How do we reduce waste and carbon emissions while delivering everyday low cost for our customers? And — most importantly — how do we instill the same innovative mindset throughout a massive organization with more than fourteen thousand associates based in the Bentonville headquarters alone?  

These are the high-impact questions that energize us and fuel our work. As we reflect on our first year on a new team, we want to share how Kellogg prepared us to stand out and manage through ambiguity to have a positive impact on people and the planet.  

Lean into ambiguity  

The Surety of Supply team was not much more than a vision when we joined, and it was up to our team to turn the vision into reality. Instead of being paralyzed by the unknown, we decided to lean into ambiguity and seek opportunities in the gray space.  

We learned the ins and outs of current processes to better communicate our team’s objectives. We created new tools and templates to help eliminate obstacles and support our colleagues through the transformation. We also focused on developing relationships throughout all levels of management to demonstrate the benefits of our work and understand how we could be the most effective at implementing long-lasting change.

Kellogg taught us the importance of recognizing knowledge gaps — discerning between what we know and what we don’t — and the value of asking the right questions. A year into our new roles, we continue to navigate ambiguity and tackle projects that challenge conventional ways of thinking. In doing so, we have consistently demonstrated our ability to influence others and translate details into bigger picture decisions that move teams forward.

Leverage your unique background and skills

When stepping into a new role, we often work hard to adapt to our surroundings by absorbing new information and immersing ourselves in the culture. However, when your team is still in “start-up” mode, it is critical to lean on your past experience to make an impact.

As our small-but-mighty team was first formed at Walmart, it became apparent that the similarities between team members were limited to a curiosity to learn and a shared unfamiliarity with the concept of surety of supply. By design, each of us came from wildly-different backgrounds and areas of expertise — from supply chain and merchandising leaders to a recent engineering graduate, an environmental sustainability expert and a former public relations professional. At first, many of us questioned our place on the team; “how did our skills prepare us to make a difference in this role; especially when compared to the expertise other colleagues were bringing to the table?”

However, rather than distance ourselves from our prior roles to fit in, we learned to lean into our diverse experience. Not dissimilar from our experience connecting with classmates at Kellogg, leveraging our colleagues’ unique skill sets — and being confident in our own abilities — has only enriched our ability to learn and grow while also accumulating some quick wins for the team.

Communicate your team’s story effectively  

Although often dismissed as a soft skill, storytelling and communication are necessary superpowers when pioneering the way for a new team within a massive company.

The results our team produces are difficult to quantify and may not have a measurable impact for multiple years. So, you can imagine the hurdles we might experience when trying to influence established ways of working or prove our value to leadership.

Communication is always important, but navigating the ambiguity that comes with positioning a new team has only underscored the power of knowing how to tell a compelling and persuasive story. Fortunately, our team is well-prepared. Not only do we bring a wealth of experience from past roles, but we’ve also been able to exchange learnings from notable Kellogg classes including "Visualization for Persuasion" and "Selling Yourself and Your Ideas" to amplify this skillset as we expand our impact.

Being able to articulate our purpose, lean into experience and feel comfortable with the uncomfortable have set our team up for success as we strengthen a new muscle within Walmart. We’re grateful for the opportunity to directly apply our Kellogg experience — not only to further our own careers within this new organization but to also make a lasting impact on the company as it helps individuals around the world save money and live better.  

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