As was reported in SN on April 11, 2005, Wal-Mart Stores last month staged a two-day media conference in Bentonville, Ark. It was attended by representatives of about 50 news organizations, including this one.
The conference was unprecedented for Wal-Mart, which has long been noted for its closed culture. Clearly, the activity was a bid to beat back some of the unpleasant publicity that has surrounded the company lately concerning whether it's a good place to work and to shop and -- more than that -- whether it's a fundamentally honest corporate citizen.
In addition to staging the conference, the company has been running advertising aimed at softening its image by suggesting that opportunities abound for its workers, among other objectives. To cite one example, a radio spot has been running lately in the New York City market, which Wal-Mart seeks to penetrate, premised on the musings of a supercenter clerk in Monroe, N.Y. In the ad, the clerk observes that there are many avenues for advancement to, say, store management, or even beyond the store to jobs such as site planning. Indeed, she joshes that the opportunities for career development are so robust, she has developed the ambition to become Wal-Mart's CEO. Most charming.
So, what has happened in the wake of the openness initiatives? Most notably, the publicity floodgates have opened, causing much ink to flow and much broadcast time to be spent on Wal-Mart's issues. Much of the recent publicity goes like this: The situation is set up by a rehash of the unpleasantness that has pummeled Wal-Mart; a few competitive dynamics are cited; it's observed that the discounter is sprucing up its product line; then the conclusion is reached that the company is obliged to change some more.
As an example, a news feature ran in the Sunday New York Times business section earlier this month under the title "Teaching Wal-Mart New Tricks." The article was decorated with a photo illustration of a Wal-Mart truck seemingly jumping through a hoop of fire, in the manner of a circus lion. A lion tamer, holding a stool and whip, is shown nearby monitoring the action. The wide-ranging article included all the familiar background and predictions.
The entire situation concerning Wal-Mart's new sunlight initiative broaches some considerations for supermarket retailers, some of whom follow a strict no-publicity policy in hopes of discouraging news coverage, while others are far more open to viewing the business press as stakeholders of sorts. Doubtless, had Wal-Mart remained silent about its troubles, publicity would have occurred anyway. But since it talked, publicity evolved to present more nuance. Moreover, any company that won't tell its own story runs the risk of having others tell it.
In the final analysis, any organization -- including businesses and their boards -- that remains insular for long periods will develop a siege mentality, become prone to believing its own circular reasoning, and is likely to commit huge errors that it won't even recognize until the house falls in.
