Prathibha Rajashekhar, Walmart’s senior vice president for automation and innovation/stores and supply chain, was born and raised in India, where, with the support and encouragement of her grandfather, she attended the University of Mysore and earned a degree in computer science. Her early career was in automotive manufacturing and financial services consulting, but while she enjoyed the problem-solving aspect of working in technical fields, she said her goal had always been making decisions from within a business.
To help reach that goal, Rajashekhar attended Duke University in North Carolina and earned a Master of Business Administration. She joined Walmart shortly thereafter. During her 13 years with the company, she has held roles in technology, finance, strategy, supply chain, human resources and merchandising and positions that include senior director for next-generation supply chain and senior vice president for private brands and sourcing for Sam’s Club. Today, she and her team work alongside store, supply-chain, transportation and delivery operations partners to identify problems experienced by both associates and customers and apply the right technology to solve those problems.
“For example, one of the biggest pain points for store associates is executing pricing changes,” Rajashekhar said. “This is a tedious process that typically takes them hours. To solve this, we’re in the process of deploying digital shelf labels, which are battery operated. This allows associates to digitally execute hundreds of price changes in just minutes, but we didn’t just stop there.
“We challenged ourselves to determine how we could find even more value with the technology to improve the associate experience and incorporated what we call ‘pick to light’ and ‘stock to light.’ The digital shelf labels have six different colors of LED lights, which we use to help guide our associates to the exact location when stocking an item or picking an item to fulfill an order. As a result of applying the right technology to the right problem, we’ve not only been able to solve an associate pain point but also enhance other experiences, such as stocking and picking.”
The majority of such technological improvements are seen in places a customer will never directly interact with yet will nevertheless improve their experience, such as the supply chain. Rajashekhar and her team are working to transform Walmart’s supply chain to be more flexible and connected to enable it to adapt to customer needs with speed. As part of that effort, they are adding automation and robotics to supply-chain facilities. This technology has enhanced the work Walmart’s associates do, making it less physically demanding and more mentally stimulating while also increasing the speed and accuracy at which stores are restocked and packages are delivered. Other innovations, however, will influence the customer experience much more directly.
“We’re working on several innovations, but one that customers are currently loving is drone delivery,” Rajashekhar said. “We recently announced that we are bringing the convenience of drone delivery to 75 percent of the Dallas-Fort Worth population. This is the first time a U.S. retailer has been able to reach this many households in a single market.”
This early stage of the drone delivery program is built on two years of trials, during which time Walmart completed more than 20,000 safe deliveries. The system already includes stores across more than 30 towns and municipalities in the DFW metroplex and offers deliveries in 30 minutes or less, with some deliveries as fast as 10 minutes.
“We are a people-led, tech-powered retailer dedicated to helping people save money, live better,” Rajashekhar said. “Technology is most impactful when it’s used for good. In that vein, I believe [artificial intelligence] will continue to be transformative, as will autonomous delivery mechanisms such as drones, autonomous vehicles and zero-emissions vehicles.”
In the past year, Rajashekhar also became a board advisor for SES-Imagotag, a world leader in information technology and digital solutions for physical retailers, and a board observer for Symbotic, a warehouse robotics automation company. Recently, she was also named Emerging Innovator of the Year by the Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit. The award that recognizes companies and their leaders in the early stages of growth that have demonstrated outstanding technical or entrepreneurial talent, contributed positively to northwest Arkansas, and helped advance the region’s economic ecosystem.
