"They've got 30 years of people winging it."
So about 30 years ago Wal-Mart hired a video company, Flagler Productions Inc, to help produce PR events. Over those 30 years, the company captured footage of top executives doing, well, very interesting things. After Wal-Mart decided to hire another video company 2 years ago, Flagler decided to sell these videos. Business historians, documentary filmmakers, plaintiffs lawyers, and union organizers are calling from all over the get a hold of this “unvarnished look at Wal-Mart leaders.”
So what is that unvarnished look? Managers in drag leading thousands of co-workers in the company’s corporate cheer. Managers mocking foolish or dangerous use of a product sold in its stores. One manager jokes about setting fire to wet wood: “I torched it. Boom! Fired right up,” when in fact a 12 year old boy was injured when a plastic gasoline can exploded while doing just that.
After being dumped, Flagler offered to sell the whole video archive to Wal-Mart for several million dollars. Wal-Mart countered with an offer of $500,000, arguing the footage wouldn’t be of interest elsewhere.
Pretty interesting article.
