Wal-Mart: Remember the Smiley Face (Outtakes Opinion)
by January 31, 2005 12:00 am 62 views
We couldn’t help cringing a little while watching Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott on ABC’s Good Morning America on Jan. 13.
He was there to tell the world that Wal-Mart isn’t the bad guy. But we think he might have done his company more harm than good. He didn’t smile, he evaded questions, and he seemed put out by the press. Charlie Gibson was polite, professional and persistent while interviewing Scott for the few minutes the network allotted to the story.
Gibson’s job is to ask the hard questions, and that’s what he did, three times in one case. Gibson wanted to know why Wal-Mart pays women less than men.
Scott’s response: “We do not have an institutional program to pay women less.”
Well, of course you don’t. So why do you pay them less?
Scott could have gotten all folksy like Sam Walton at that point and said, “Well, Charlie, we just grew so stinkin’ fast, things got a little out of control. But I’m not going to put up with paying women less. It’s not fair. And we’re going to fix it right now.”
Scott’s a personable guy in person. On TV, he seemed like another slippery CEO. He’s the face of Wal-Mart now. Sam has been gone for 12 years.
People often judge a company by the character of its leader. We think Scott should pull off his tie, roll up his sleeves and step outside his fortress of solitude in Bentonville to walk among the people, to talk to them one on one and help them if he can.
Wal-Mart has helped survivors of natural disasters across the globe. But that was a faceless Wal-Mart.
When people think of Wal-Mart, they want to see a smiling human face, not just a bouncing yellow ball. And if that smiling human is helping load trucks to send supplies to disaster victims in Asia or California, all the better. That kind of publicity is worth more than all the full-page newspaper ads Wal-Mart could buy.