Is Steve Jobs handing off to Tim Cook The Right Analogy For Doug McMillon to John Furner?

With a merchant and operational focus, John Furner has had a storied Walmart history, which is both similar and different to his previous boss Doug McMillon.

Doug spent more time in Walmart International, and took big, bold risks on eCommerce, acquiring Jet to disrupt itself -- giving Marc Lore broad authority to experiment, ... until, he didn't.

With detailed knowledge of mostly US operations, John Furner is perhaps more in place to optimize and grow the portfolio than take big risky new bets. Which at this stage, may be quite appropriate. Here are some thoughts based on publicly available information:

* Don't stray too far from the core

* Leaning into the digital transformation and AI focus that McMillon pioneered

* Continuing to lean into the digital services profit growth

Of course, we know that John Furner had one of the largest hands in building these new businesses as leader of the US in the past 6 years. He is known as a no-nonsense operator.

It's worth noting, that Furner does not have the same broad International background that McMillon did (Furner spent 3 years leading merchandising/marketing for Walmart China, whereas McMillion spent 5 years running all of Walmart International). It could say something.

Expect the company to lean considerably harder into AI-driven transformation. Expect the company to continue to stay true to the Walmart formula: make the business more efficient, give the gains back to customers, repeat.

In fact, you might say it's almost certain that Furner could continue to make Walmart one of the most efficient and customer-centric retailers in the world. What is not yet known, however, is will he see opportunities to take big risky bets and in what areas?

One thing about Walmart, it's not typically known for these types of "moonshot" projects like Google and Amazon have typically been known for. (think about Amazon: AWS, Zoox autonomous vehicles, Fire Phone).

The smart money expects that not to change too much on Furner's watch.