LEE SCOTT'S SPEECH DEMONSTRATES WAL-MART'S FAILURE TO LEAD
Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director David Nassar today issued the following statement in response to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott's speech at the company's annual kick-off meeting for its U.S. Stores:
"If Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott's speech tonight was supposed to build on his October 2005 'Leadership in the 21st Century' speech, he missed the mark. Scott hardly mentioned the lofty goals from his 2005 speech such as increasing fleet efficiency by 25% in three years, reducing greenhouse emissions of existing stores by 20% in seven years or reducing solid waste from U.S. stores and clubs by 25% in three years. Listeners must assume progress in those areas was minimal. Instead, he takes credit for health care coverage that others provide, avoids accountability for previous goals and shifts responsibility to others in ways we've come to expect from Wal-Mart's leadership.
"Wal-Mart has a track record of shifting responsibility and tonight's speech was simply more of the same. While demanding cheaper, greener products from its suppliers or less expensive record keeping systems from the health care industry are certainly admirable, Wal-Mart uses them as a distraction for the company's poor business practices. For example, Wal-Mart has failed to significantly reduce its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from its more than 4,000 U.S. stores, failed to provide a health care plan that more than half of its employees find attractive and failed to raise wages that can sustain the company's employees.
"Certainly Wal-Mart has made some progress in a few areas, but the progress thus far is not what we can and should expect from the largest company in the world. Once again, instead of focusing on substantive leadership and actions in these areas from Wal-Mart, Scott focused on shifting the burden to suppliers. In typical Wal-Mart fashion, he takes credit for 'leading' and then doesn't do it.
"We agree with Scott on one thing. No company can make the difference that Wal-Mart can make. It's time for the company to stop talking and start doing."
source: walmart watch
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