Author: Harry Sultan and Tory Wolff

What lessons can be drawn from Walmart’s precipitous shut down of its attempt to launch primary care, dental and behavioral health services?  The Walmart Health management team (after some mid-stream ‘dialing in’) was composed of savvy healthcare insiders; the team could tap into learnings from Walmart’s four prior attempts to launch clinics inside supercenters; and Walmart invested quite a bit of money in the effort. Collectively, however, these assets were not enough for success. We think Walmart Health’s key mistake was to target markets with high disposable income, which, unfortunately