As Walmart Fights Amazon, A Lot Rests On One Man – Suresh Kumar

Kumar, in turn, is banking enormously on his 7,000 enggs in India

- Sujit John

In the 12 months ended June, Amazon outsold Walmart for the first time, the New York Times reported a week ago. It makes Amazon the biggest retail seller outside China (Alibaba is bigger than both Amazon and Walmart). It also marks the first time Walmart has been outsold since it became the biggest US retailer in 1990.

Amazon, whose sales also come from third-party sellers, was helped by the massive surge in online orders during the pandemic. Walmart’s sales too grew sharply, but not as much as Amazon’s. The difference between them could narrow as people once again step out to shop. But the dramatic changes happening in retail show that technology will be core to success. And at Walmart, the entire tech responsibility is that of Suresh Kumar, who came from Google to be the global CTO and chief development officer (CDO) of Walmart in July, 2019.

Kumar, a Tamilian who grew up in Bengaluru, did aerospace engineering at IIT Madras, and a PhD at Princeton University, US. Then followed a series of fabulous and varied roles at some of the biggest US companies – IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.