Sam's Club president speaks at Wharton

In the final Wharton Leadership Lecture of the year, president and CEO of the retail warehouse Sam’s Club, Brian Cornell, stressed the importance of managing energy, not time. “If I had known what I know now back at UCLA in my undergrad years, I would have definitely gotten a lot more sleep and not stayed up all nights studying.”

He was able to offer further advice to Penn students: “Taking advantage of all opportunities, finding good mentors, finding internships and getting a sense of the real world is definitely crucial,” Cornell said.

When asked about business strategy, Cornell stressed the “Five C’s”: understanding consumers, serving customers, knowing the competition, managing costs and surrounding yourself with great colleagues. He urged students to have “the courage to change the norms that will drive success.” At Sam’s Club, this is done with the “latest and greatest innovations, never compromising on quality and personal relations,” he said.

Molly Frew, an first-year MBA student, came to the Wharton Leadership Lecture because she shops at Sam’s Club. “He was successful talking about what he looks for in good colleagues and how to analyze the competition,” she said.

Wharton sophomore Meghan Bethel also “found a lot of useful tips for my future plans of being an entrepreneur and starting a successful business.”

Rohun Bansal, an Engineering and Wharton sophomore, thought this Wharton Leadership Lecture was the most informative of all he has attended previously. He especially liked the fact that Cornell was “able to relate to Penn and relate information that would be useful to us as students.”

However, Vineet Varma, a first-year MBA student, thought the lecture started out rather slowly. It improved when Cornell touched upon ideas of “personal excellence and what he looks for in people he works with.”

Previously, Cornell worked as the president of Pepsi-Cola’s Food Services Division and at Tropicana International. He swears that to this day he only drinks Diet Pepsi and Tropicana orange juice.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.