If you were the CEO of Wal-mart, what would you do?

Geez Louise!  Do I have a lot to say about this!?!

Where to start?

OK, **poof **!  I'm the CEO of WalMart.  There are millions of people depending on me for products and services, so I won't just start slashing away at things.  The best thing to do is to find out what people are thinking and feeling and visioning, so--and I think this would be very hard to do, but it's how I’d want to approach it, I’d just put out all these messages that I need to learn as much as I can, and to please be empowered to do your jobs as you have been doing them, and then I’d go around and just meet people and ask lots and lots of questions and talk with them and take notes and build concepts and ideas about what WalMart is for these folks, and what the concept of the enterprise is, and what are their values, beliefs, visions, dreams, struggles, goals, etc.  Then after a season (2-4 months) I’d put together my plan utilizing the best of their ideas, values and goals, and back-burnering anything I just couldn’t support.

Because of my processes of getting to know these people, I would know what some of their important and fundamental values are, and I would tell them what I had learned about their highest values.  I would share my values, which I would hope would be a match for their values:  respect for all human beings, respect for the environment, honesty and love.  I would tell them that I’m not prepared to support any corporate activity that is not in line with these values. 

Then, I’d point out that WalMart makes some important positive contributions to the world.  Three good examples are: First, that WalMart has significantly contributed to creating markets for the products of developing countries, and is responsible for a good piece of the prosperity of, for example, China.  Second, that WalMart is creating a world-wide marketing network, and third, that WalMart has decided to “go green,” and reduce it’s environmental impacts in many ways, and to sell organic produce.  So, I wouldn’t necessarily change these things, but I would encourage people to more deeply understand the processes that are being put in place, and encourage people to undertake these tasks with sincerity.

For example, although WalMart has made a commitment to market organic produce, organic consumer groups are noting that some of the food WalMart sells as “organic” is perhaps only marginally or not at all “organic” by accepted standards, and that also WalMart and other corporate farming interests are working hard to get the legal definitions of “organic” softened and weakened.  Neither would be supported by my WalMart policies.

Under my leadership, there is no question that those famous “always low” prices would creep up over time.  And I know some people would be angry, because right now they can’t afford to feed their kids unless they have access to WalMart’s super-cheap food.  So we would have to work on these issues.  I would start a lot of Reach Out campaigns to families with accurate, easy-to-understand education about nutrition and food costs.  Part of the high cost of food is the predominance of highly processed foods, and I would work to turn some concepts of diet around, and change the way I bought and marketed foods to working families.

One reason that my prices would be creeping up is that I would start to pay higher wages and provide decent health benefits.  I would do Reach Out campaigns that would do things like run TV ads apologizing to the taxpayers of those states, such as Oregon, where WalMart employees are the single largest group of employed persons seeking public health insurance.  I would explain in simple, clear language that paying part of your grocery bill through your tax dollar isn’t fair, because this shifts the responsibility for health benefits from the corporate pocket to the public pocket without anybody voting to do that. 

I would encourage the value of diversity—true diversity—and make sure that policies for employment and advancement were fair, reflective of the host communities, and utilized the diverse views and talents of the many people who worked there.

I would never, ever, ever ask elderly, sick people with broken, bruised veins and tired bodies to work for me.  I would refer those employees to programs that would help them attain a livelihood without having to stand on their feet for hours. 

I would address the issues of the disappearing American Main Street.  I would change the structure of my stores so that instead of being unilaterally monolithic, I would rent retail space to local entrepreneurs, with the goal of reinstituting a kind of Main Street economy for local regions.  This goal would work along with my goal of selling really organic foods, for example.  Local  farmers could have a preexisting network of retail space to utilize.

AND, finally (and I guess I’m probably leaving lots of stuff out, like their policies of shipping stuff and packaging and other important things) I’d have a world-wide contest with some really wonderful prize for the person or persons who could figure out how to best utilize all those “dead” empty WalMart store shells that they leave when they’ve ravaged the retail economy of an area.  I wouldn’t just let them sit there.  I’d find a good use for them or tear them down.

All this I would do, or try to do, if I were the CEO of WalMart.