A Walmart executive VP says seeing the world helped her create a communicative and empowering workplace
Andrea Albright has already been to 61 countries, and she’s not slowing down anytime soon.
It’s part of her job as executive vice president of sourcing at Walmart, which has spent 12 consecutive years at #1 on the Fortune 500 and is the largest retailer in the world by revenue, with profits of $19.4 billion for its fiscal year that ended in January (up by 25% over the last year). Albright, who joined the company in 2005 and also serves as operating partner of Massmart, its African subsidiary, estimates that she spends about 65% to 75% of her time away from home. While that sounds like a schedule that would run even the most rugged road warriors ragged, she keeps things manageable by never checking a bag and utilizing her in-flight time for personal care. And she never travels anywhere without her favorite condiments in tow.
Albright sat down with Fortune to talk about bucket-list birthday trips, the virtues of roadside Vietnamese tacos, and how travel has made her a more effective communicator.
What’s the best trip you’ve ever taken?
When I turned 40 last year, my husband took me on a whirlwind 10-day trip for my birthday. We started in New York City—where I lived for four years and met him—with a bunch of our friends. Then some of us flew to Munich for Oktoberfest––my birthday is in September, and we were there then. After that, we flew to Croatia to decompress and stayed in Stari Grad, this tiny village on the island of Hvar. There were all these cats running around and lavender fields, it was amazing. We ended the trip in Amsterdam. It was so much fun, with all these different pieces that were bucket list items.
Italy, which we did for my husband’s 40th, was another really fun one. We spent a couple days in Rome and then headed to Florence and a bunch of wineries in Tuscany; I’m a level 2 sommelier, so I was in charge of that part. Then we spent a couple days in Santorini. We like multi-destination trips.
I became a sommelier because I get these wild hairs to go back to school when I think I’m not learning enough. I became an apprentice electrician during Covid because it was hard to find anyone to do work at your house then. My husband learned how to install tile. I’m trying to decide what I want to do next, and he’s trying to keep me from going back to school.
If you could go anywhere in the world you haven't yet been, where would it be, and why?
Patagonia and Antarctica—it’s the last continent I have yet to visit and I’m desperate to see it. We have an office and a retail business in Chile, and we have a salmon farm in Patagonia that Walmart works closely with, so I hope to go soon and then tack on an extra week to go to Antarctica.
I also really want to see the Great Wall. I’ve been to China so many times—the first time was with my dad, who used to run Walmart’s hardware and paint department, when I was 17—but I haven’t gotten there yet. That’s the wonder of the world I’m most excited about.
What's your favorite/most memorable meal you've had while traveling?
I’m laughing at this question because I’m kind of famous for eating everything. The most memorable meal was in South Korea, on one of my early trips to Asia. They put this live octopus on the table, poured alcohol on it, and set it on fire. It was still moving and I sat there thinking, “Oh my goodness, I’m going to eat this.” It was actually really good.
Vietnam is one of my favorite countries, and one of my favorite things to eat there is a vegetable called morning glory—it’s like a cross between asparagus and a spring onion, and it takes up chili and garlic flavors so well. You either love it or hate it, and I’m always really excited to have it. There’s a one-star Michelin restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City called Vietnam House where our party of six had an incredible, six-course meal with an unbelievable array of food that was about $130 per person, including alcohol and tip. There’s also nothing better than a roadside Vietnamese taco.
Lima is probably my favorite food city overall. I was there at a conference in November and they served the best ceviche I’ve ever had. To serve that at a giant event was quite a feat in itself, and the quality was amazing.
What are your favorite travel hacks?
I travel with a little bag of condiments all over the world, including hot sauce, tajin, and olive oil, because you never know when you’ll get bad hotel eggs or weird food that it's disrespectful not to eat. It goes everywhere with me.
I also always bring beauty treatments on flights, whether it’s teeth whitening, an eye mask, or a face mask. When you're stuck on a plane for a really long time, there's nothing better to do than all the beauty routines you neglect when you're busy. Sure, people walk by while I have a face mask on, but you're captive for 10 hours—what else are you going to do?
What three things do you never travel without?
Besides my condiment pack, there’s this travel cube—the Protégé International Travel Adapter—that I can’t live without. It has all the countries I need, a great spare fuse, and it’s inexpensive.
The third one is my Dagne Dover travel backpack. It's neoprene and has so many different pockets, including a hidden one on the back for your passport. It's easy to sit on my carry-on, and it washes really well.
Do you have any hard and fast travel rules?
I never check a bag. I think the longest trip I've done without checking a bag was 16 days.
If you pack really well, you can do that easily and still bring three or four pairs of shoes.
I have such a wide range of events—I might be in stores one day and meeting with a government official the next—so I try to make sure everything I bring is as versatile as possible. I take light fabrics everywhere I can because I can always layer them, and they take up very little space. I also have a travel drawer full of minis of my entire beauty routine. I can fit everything I need—skincare, makeup, hair products—in my Tumi toiletry bag, whose capacity seems endless, and stick it in my backpack.
Every 12 weeks, I take at least a week off to travel with my family. We choose a different country every trip. For spring break in a couple weeks, we’re going to South Africa to go on safari and to Cape Town.
What’s the most important life lesson you’ve learned from travel?
Travel has taught me to be so much more flexible and patient. Life happens—I’m going to have delays and flights where I won’t get enough sleep because my seat is broken. There's so much that’s out of your control. When I first started at Walmart, I would get so stressed out about being late for a meeting or missing a day of the itinerary. Now I’m so much more comfortable with the unpredictability that comes with travel. You just have to make the most out of what you're given in that situation. I can control my reaction to delays, deadlines, and challenging personalities.
Are there any lessons from your own travel experiences that you've applied to your work at Walmart?
I'm so grateful to my parents for traveling with me from the time I was really young, because it put me in a place where I wasn't afraid to take risks. I wasn't afraid of other cultures or other people. And I’m grateful I’ve been able to do the same for my children.
You have so much more empathy for everybody when you're the minority in another country—you can't possibly not have empathy and not have understanding for different cultures and people around the world. I’m so much more aware of the global context and have become much more flexible to meet people’s needs and change my style and communication to simplify my messaging and to make sure that it translates in a way that my colleagues will understand. That's really important for creating an environment that people want to work in, in which they feel empowered, and where people are respectful of each other and you’re getting the best of their ideas. And where we can effectively communicate with each other and say the hard things, so we can move through problems more quickly. From an early age, travel definitely put me in that context.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
