From the pinnacles of power by Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers
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January 8, 2009, 5:02 pm

Power Point: Be original

doug_mcmillon“We can’t copy. If you want to copy somebody, you’re going to be second at best, and always a step behind.”

– Doug McMillon, newly named president and CEO of Wal-Mart (WMT) International. He’s succeeding Mike Duke, who is due to take Wal-Mart’s helm as CEO Lee Scott retires.

When McMillon talked with Fortune’s Geoff Colvin in “The Colvin Interview” last October about innovation and Wal-Mart’s global growth prospects (click here for video), he was the 42-year-old CEO of Sam’s Club, a $44 billion business. If you know anyone younger running such a giant business, tell us his or her name. Now McMillon will be running a $90.6 billion business. That’s 25% of the world’s biggest company. No wonder Wal-Mart watchers say that McMillon stands a chance to be Wal-Mart’s CEO himself someday. –Jessica Shambora

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Pattie SellersPatricia Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Can Meg Whitman Save California?", Melinda Gates ("The $100 Billion Woman"), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). And she has broken ground with insightful pieces on career management issues such as ego ("Get Over Yourself!"), and "Charisma: Do You Need It? Can You Get It?" Pattie chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. And she has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" cover package since its launch in 1998. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big consumer brand companies.
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Jessica ShamboraJessica Shambora started with Fortune as a reporter in June of 2008, following a stint as assistant editor at Travel+Leisure Golf. Shambora has written for Sports Illustrated, SI Latino, Women's Health, and Triathlete. She is a frequent contributor to Postcards.
Every year Fortune and the U.S. State Department sponsor the Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership, which brings rising-star women from developing countries to the U.S. to work closely with participants of the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit - among them CEOs Andrea Jung of Avon, Ann Moore of Time Inc., and Ursula Burns of Xerox.
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