Before his impactful tenure at Google, Keshav Goel played an instrumental role in driving financial strategy and operational optimization across Walmart’s vast eCommerce and Physical Stores divisions.
As a Finance Lead/Manager from August 2016 to April 2020, Keshav’s innovative approaches resulted in multi-million dollar savings and established replicable frameworks for enterprise-wide improvements.
In his capacity as the finance lead for a $4 billion-plus eCommerce portfolio encompassing Electronics and Gaming, Keshav directly influenced its financial success. He notably drove over $22 million in savings in shipping costs through strategic process optimization initiatives, directly enhancing the company’s bottom line. His responsibilities also included collaborating with key vendors like Apple and Samsung on vendor negotiations and developing annual operating plans crucial for peak season readiness.
A significant achievement was his ability to drastically reduce Inventory Reserve Adjustment (IRA) risk from $19 million to just $1 million by meticulously tracking co-op documentation and effectively communicating risks to leadership.
Keshav’s strategic impact on Walmart’s physical stores was equally profound. He was pivotal in shaping the national self-checkout strategy across more than 4,000 stores, which led to approximately $12 million in savings in asset protection.
A standout original contribution was his development of a unique, data-driven model to optimize asset protection budgets. This sophisticated model accounted for diverse factors such as store entrances, operating hours, security inputs (like theft and crime rates), store size, and sales.
This innovative methodology led to a projected $29 million in savings on a $410 million base, significantly surpassing the initial $26 million target and demonstrating a clear, quantifiable impact on large-scale retail operations.
Beyond direct cost savings, Keshav led initiatives that transformed inventory management. For a $150 million category, he drove a 30% reduction in overstock inventory within just three months, achieving results 11% better than the next best category.
Crucially, he created a replicable template for other teams to adopt, showcasing his commitment to scalable, systemic improvements. He secured management buy-in by clearly illustrating the economic impact of dead inventory and the significant financial drag it imposed on profitability.
His approach included developing and implementing a multi-pronged action plan for inventory reduction, involving strategic pricing actions, store transfers, vendor returns, and liquidation, while also negotiating favorable terms with fulfillment teams to minimize costs.
He also implemented a robust process and decision-tree for future inventory buys, considering factors like margin profiles, return policies, and price elasticity, ensuring financially sound purchasing decisions.
Furthermore, Keshav’s collaborative leadership was evident in his work with the Walmart CFO to lead a cohort-based marketing allocation strategy for over 20 million customers during long-range planning, ensuring optimal marketing spend.
Keshav’s academic foundation is exceptionally strong, beginning with an Integrated M.Sc. in Economics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur (July 2007 – June 2012). During his time at IIT Kanpur, he engaged in significant research, presenting a paper on LBO value creation at the Asian Business Research Conference in Bangkok.
He also gained international exposure, spending a year at Technische Universität München under the Erasmus Mundus Fellowship. Building on this, he pursued a Master of Finance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management (July 2015 – June 2016), where he achieved an outstanding GPA of 4.7/5.0 and an impressive GMAT score of 760/800. While at MIT, his leadership qualities were recognized as he was elected Class Senator and Investment Club Leader, even organizing a notable student trek to meet Warren Buffett.
Further cementing his expertise, Keshav is a CFA Charterholder, holds a CAIA Level I certification, and was recognized as a Reserve Bank of India Young Scholar Awardee (Top 50 nationwide) and has written a top-seller book on Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis (Link to book on Amazon).
Keshav Goel’s tenure at Walmart exemplifies his capacity for strategic innovation, leveraging data and original analytical models to drive substantial operational efficiencies and financial impact across a massive retail enterprise.
