As a Wal-Mart associate and shareholder, I disagree with your characterization of our CEO, Lee Scott, as one of your Cowards of the Year. You cite his dismissal of Jared Bowen, a self-proclaimed whistle-blower, as a sign of cowardice. Removing several key executives from the organization wasn't an easy decision, especially in this tough economic environment when our company needs people with experience and histories of strong performance. He made difficult decisions knowing that those associates have many supporters within the company who would disagree.
Mr. Scott realized that it's important for our customers, our shareholders, and our more than 1 million associates to have faith in our management team and to know that everyone is held to the same high ethical standards. He has consistently praised associates and suppliers who use the open-door policy to raise their concerns. In my own experience, I have seen him address issues that I've brought to his attention. As far as I'm concerned, standing up for high ethical standards should've earned Lee Scott a place on your list of the courageous few of 2004-2005.
Nirupama Raghavan
Rogers, Arkansas
I was very disappointed when I read your "Cowards of the Year" article. I would like your writer to trade places with United Air Lines CEO Glenn Tilton for one day to understand how complex it is to manage an airline with 62,000 employees. I'm an account manager at United, and even if you paid me Mr. Tilton's $4.5 million compensation package, I wouldn't take the job. Would you do it? In regards to the pension obligations, he had the guts to do something about it. His predecessors didn't do anything; they just let the deficit keep increasing. It was a very tough decision--but without a resolution, perhaps 62,000 people would be unemployed by now.
Jesus Perez
Miami, Florida
Toyota doesn't know what Six Sigma refers to only because the term Six Sigma was coined by Motorola as a way to refer to what Toyota has been doing for more than 50 years (Six Sigma Stigma?). It's easy to believe that Toyota people don't use the term, but to suggest that Toyota doesn't use Six Sigma-like methods as part of the "Toyota Production System" is at least disingenuous.
John Gunkler
St. Paul, Minnesota
I was disappointed by the simplistic way you portrayed successful off-sites (The Art of the Off-site). In my 24 years as an event developer for midsized and large corporate clients, I was always more interested in how events could affect business outcomes than in how memorable the events could be. Memorable events score well in exit surveys, providing kudos to the host and planner, but they do little to alter attendee attitudes or change behavior.
Isaac Waksul
Long Beach, California
The reference to Anne Szostak in Preparing for Act II was in error.
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