Somewhere over the rainbow
If you seek a five forces analysis of Wal-Mart, please try this page.
It has become fashionable of late to paint the war between Wal-Mart and its critics in starkly antithetical terms. On one side is the undeniably successful behemoth of Bentonville with strong support from the financial community, denizens of and politicians from Red States, pro-family groups happy with Wal-Mart's refusal to vend seemy and obscene CDs, several notable economists and journalists who praise the firm for its creation of massive consumer surpluses, as well as other pro-business types.
On the other side are Big Labor, unsettled but undeterred by its attempts to unionize the firm's 1 million-plus employees; a small army of union-funded and highly-motivated, if not always on-target, anti-Wal-Mart organizations; Blue State senators and big city politicians looking for votes; the brie and brioche-eating, Whole Foods-loving, Saab-driving, I-look-down-my-nose-at-Wal-Mart-and-their-customers types; anti-sprawl activists; small business groups claiming economic damage from Wal-Mart's competitive moves; disgruntled former employees; inefficient suppliers unable and/or unwilling able to meet the firm's increasingly rigorous demands; a large swath of the mainstream media, the New York Times most notably; universal healthcare advocates; and a host of assorted cranks, malcontents, anti-capitalists, organ and axe-grinders.
And while there is more than an element of truth to this characterization, there is also something lost by doing so. The tendency to construe in black and white terms, irresistible and easy as it may be, makes us lose sight of the fact that there are not only shades of grey in this debate, there is an entire spectrum of opinion. In fact, as a recent article by The Morning News of Bentonville Arkansas makes clear, it's increasingly a rainbow spectrum:
Wal-Mart Partners With Gay-Lesbian Chamber
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is joining with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to help advance diversity within the Bentonville-based retailer’s operations, the company confirmed Tuesday. Dee Breazeale, a Wal-Mart vice president, will serve on the chamber’s corporate advisory council, which works to educate corporate America on the benefits of workplace diversity.
“We are honored to have Wal-Mart's support of the NGLCC. Our partnership will not only provide more opportunities for the NGLCC, but the business community as a whole,” Justin Nelson, chamber co-founder and president, said in a news release. “We are pleased with this addition to our organization and to our council.” Wal-Mart has also agreed to sponsor some of the chamber’s programs, including two of its conferences.
While this may seem like an incongruous move by Wal-Mart, there are several compelling rationales, none of which are mutually exclusive. I'll call these reasons the 4-Ds: Discrimination, Demographics, Diversity, and Denial. Briefly, they are:
A close examination of the entire article suggests that Wal-Mart may perceive a positive interaction between Demography and Diversity, i.e. that the composition of the workforce can and should reflect the demographics of the customer base and that benefits will accrue therefrom. I've never entirely bought into this argument. It sounds good, but so do a lot of policies that management theorists have never demonstrated conclusively to improve firm performance, provide it a better "fit" with its environment, or result in more valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate resources and capabilities.
Still, any firm that wants to experiment, discover, and decide for themselves ought to do just that. And this is what I think Wal-Mart might actually be doing- exercising "Discrimination" of the positive kind, i.e. discernment, the ability or power to see or make fine distinctions. In this case that would be discrimination that works in the favor of the shareholders, most of whom probably don't care one iota about who Wal-Mart's employees sleeps with. That having been said, this announcement does make one wonder whether in fact it is politics or business that makes for the strangest bedfellows.
File Under: Wal-Mart
Other blogs posting on this article include: Wal-Mart out of the closet at BenettonTalk | Wal-Mart quietly partners with gay group at On Deadline | Wal-Mart & Gays at Reveries |
Tags: Wal-Mart | WalMart | Business | GLBT | Gay | lgbt | retail
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