• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, June 6, 2015

Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting is always an elaborate performance for investors and shareholders, and in many ways, this year’s days-long production doesn’t seem to have been much different. There were the usual celebrity hijinks, for example, including actress Reese Witherspoon as MC, performances by Rod Stewart and Mariah Carey, and an appearance by comedian Carol Burnett.

But in keeping with its recent campaign, and promise of $1 billion, to convince its employees that it doesn’t deserve to be the world’s most hated retailer, executives tried to put its 2 million associates center stage.

“With hard work and determination, you can exceed your highest expectations here,” President and CEO Doug McMillon says, in remarks prepared for the event. “I’m so proud of the work we’ve done this year to demonstrate how we’ve always felt about our own associates, our team.”

He compared them to superheros. “We do have super powers. They’re our passion, our commitment to our customers, our caring for one another. Really, our superpowers are those that help us make someone’s day better; their life better.”

The company has been roundly vilified for its low wages, difficult working conditions, and discriminatory practices, and it seems to be recognizing that changing that image is essential if it wants to recover its growth mojo. With promises to relax the dress code, allow associates to change the temperature in their stores, higher wages for its 100,000 managers, and new badges that say “Our people make the difference,” Walmart is hoping associates can help solve its central problem: Stubbornly slow sales at its supercenters. And its 2 million associates can change that, he says, “one customer at a time.”

He also told attendees the Bentonville, Ark.-based company needs to more work faster “and stop talking about digital and physical retail as if they’re two separate things. The customer doesn’t think of it that way, and we can’t either. Customers just want us to solve their everyday problems with an easy, seamless shopping experience.”

In a Q&A session that was also webcast, he told analysts the company knows that it needs to innovate faster. “We are very aware that this is a 52-year-old business that drove a lot of volume with supercenters, and you’ll see us do more tinkering to learn, so that we’ll be comfortable with failing — on the appropriate scale and not too often,” he says. 

E-commerce continues to be its biggest avenue to growth. “Every time we introduce a new service we’re asked if we are finding new customers or just deepening our relationship with existing customers, and invariably, it is both,” says Neil M. Ashe, president and CEO of its e-commerce division.

Shareholders also elected Greg Penner, 45, as the company’s new chairman, succeeding Rob Walton, 70, who has been chairman for 23 years. Penner is Rob Walton’s son-in-law, and the news is disappointing to shareholders who had hoped to elect a chair that was independent of the Waltons. While Walton family members own some 51% of the company stock, many investors, including some large pension funds, believe that following its bribery scandal in Mexico several years ago, the chain needs stricter oversight.