After Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI) CEO John Mackey bizarre antics prompted an SEC investigation and widespread media hoopla, the company's board of directors has decided on a new policy. Top executives and directors will now be explicitly prohibited from posting on online forums about the company, its vendors, or its competitors, except on Whole Foods-sponsored sites.Happily, the change does not prohibit them from posting about other topics. So Mr. Mackey will still be able to compliment his own hairstyle while posting anonymously.
It's kind of bizarre that Whole Foods even had to add this to its code of ethics, and it seems unlikely that this kind of thing will ever happen again at any normal company. Of course, it happens every day over at Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK), where Director of Communications Judd Bagley routinely attacks critics on Yahoo! message boards and Wikipedia.
At least it's good to see that the board at Whole Foods takes ethics seriously, and is willing to take actions to ensure that its executives don't do anything to jeopardize the company's reputation or get it in trouble with regulators.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-07-2007 @ 1:18PM
Jeff said...
It isn't unethical to respond to your critics.
11-08-2007 @ 12:28PM
Michael E. Rubin, GasPedal said...
What an utterly ridiculous thing to do. When they need to be communicating directly with fans and advocates more than ever (you know, *real conversatin*), Whole Foods shut themselves off to the world. Short-sighed, if you ask me.
An ethics code is a good first step. Here's the next one: Train your employees to participate the right way. Call Dell, ask to speak with John Pope, Richard Binhammer, or Lionel Menchaca. Take notes.
More here:
http://www.damniwish.com/2007/11/whole-foods-mis.html
Disclaimer: I work for the post's author. But I would have posted this here anyway. It's that good.