Charles Redfield, Sam’s Club executive vice-president of merchandising, described some of the major business and career lessons that he has learned at a recent meeting of the Economic Club of Phoenix.

As reported by the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, these are some of Redfield’s key observations:

Career Lessons: The Business 

• “’Customers and colleagues are the same everywhere around the world.’ Customers want to trust the organizations they do business with; colleagues want someone to listen, act and follow through.”

• “’Transparency is the new norm.’ In this new world, the details of businesses are in public view. This relates to trust, Redfield said, especially around pricing. But beware, he said, because transparency can be good for companies but it can also be used as a weapon.”

• “’Global opportunities are difficult to execute.’ Sam’s Club can leverage scale, but that’s not as simple as it seems. Example: genetically modified foods, common in the U.S., are not welcome in the U.K.”

• “’E-commerce crosses all boundaries.’ It’s changing the way we do business, he said, and ‘guess what? The customers are moving faster than we are.’”

• “’Talent is global.’ The workers of the future need to think globally, but make the business locally relevant. We need to think globally to leverage scale and be open to new ways of thinking and working.”

Career Lessons: The Person

• “’Listen and embrace change.’ Listening is an underrated skill, he said. ‘Being truly open minded and listening allows you to create change in a way that you team and your organization will go on the journey with you.’”

• “’People. People. People.’ The key to everything is your people, he said. Be fair; be transparent; be consistent; be clear about direction.’”

For the audio of Redfield’s talk, click his image below.