The United States Of Wal-Mart And Corporate Social Responsibility By Jim Paymar
It's been called the 800 pound gorilla that you don't want
to mess with. It's been accused of taking customers from small, neighborhood
stores and hurting communities. It's been accused of predatory pricing,
anti-union fervor and paying its employees less than a living wage. It's been
called the United States of Wal-Mart because of its massive control of the
American retail scene.
But in the past several years, Wal-Mart also has been going through
a major transformation and committing itself to progressive policies in the
realm of corporate social responsibility, particularly when it comes to the
products it sells and major efforts to promote energy conservation. READ MORE >
Ecoimagination Or Ecohype? GE On The Hot Seat By Jim Paymar
GE, after decades of legal proceedings that stymied the cleanup process, agreed in 2006 to clean up PCB's spewed from its plants at Hudson Falls and Fort Edward from 1947 to 1977. GE began dredging the river to free it of toxic sediments last year. Only10 percent of the material was removed. Now, GE is asking to delay the continuing effort to clean up the river. It wants the E.P.A. to give it another year to decide whether to proceed with dredging, saying it wants to study the effects of the Phase One dredging before moving onto Phase Two. READ MORE >
GE Hudson River Dredging Site
Toyota Damage Control A Sham By Jim Paymar
The $64-thousand or perhaps $64-million dollar question in Toyota's case, is why wasn't the safety issue front and center over the last decade when Toyota encountered problem after problem and allegedly hid the issues from regulators and the public? Read More>
Toyota now is spending millions on a massive advertising campaign in an effort to clean up its badly damaged reputation. The company is bombarding the television airwaves with a steady blast of commercials touting its STAR Safety System and accident avoidance technology. One ad claims that "everyone deserves to be safe." Is this something that Toyota just realized? The chief engineer in the spot claims that Toyota "always thinks of safety even in the concept design of our vehicles". The commercial claims beg the question: What was Toyota thinking over the past 15 years? Read More>
British Petroleum "Greenwashing Backfired" By Jim Paymar
The black, slimy ooze continues to relentlessly pour from deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico at the site of the British Petroleum drilling site to surface waters and the toxic mess is being swept to shore where precious wildlife is being wiped out in a torturous death. The British Petroleum drilling rig that exploded and sank 40 miles off shore, killing eleven workers, is spewing at least 5,000 barrels of oil per day and is threatening to destroy estuaries along the Louisiana coast as well as severely impacting shorelines in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Hundreds of thousands of people who live along the Gulf Coast are bracing for an economic meltdown just as the devastated region was recovering from the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe.READ MORE>
Goldman Sachs Damaged Reputation By Jim Paymar
Goldman Sachs, in order to turn this reputation disaster around before it causes permanent and irreparable damage, is going to have to take the lead on reforming finance. It is a company with the intellect, the wealth, the power and the connections to do so. If the company were to become contrite about its financial engineering and work with legislators and regulators on eliminating risky and unsafe investment ventures that caused the financial system to teeter on the brink, it would go a long way toward reestablishing its credibility. Read More >
Ford Motoring Down the Reputation Highway by Jim Paymar
You might call it the ultimate reputation management turnaround story. It began in 2000 at Ford Motor company, one of America's oldest and most venerable car companies. It was a rough road at the beginning of the decade, Ford was embroiled in a nasty legal fight with tire maker Bridgestone and its Firestone unit.
Ford and Bridgestone were pointing fingers ateach other over safety problems that allegedly causeda spate of rollover related crashesthat resulted in 174deaths in the U.S.
Bridgestone claimed Ford's design was at fault and refused to recall all the tires Fordwanted off the road.
Ford ended upshelling out$2.1 billion to recall 13 milliontires it claimed were the problem.The two companies severed there 95 year business relationship. Read More >
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