Interclean Generic Benchmarking

Wal-Mart Leadership

Whether it's the environment, product sourcing, healthcare, wages, community involvement or diversity, Wal-Mart is investing in the future. Even with this huge success, Wal-Mart has received criticism over numerous issues, not the least of which is its size. To better understand critics and Wal-Mart’s impact on the world and society, the leadership and management team spent a year meeting with and listening to customers, associates, citizen groups, government leaders, non-profit and non-government organizations, and other concerned individuals.

Social-Environmental Responsibility

Wal-Mart’s environmental goals are simple and straightforward:

1. To be supplied 100 % by renewable energy.

2. To create zero waste.

3. To sell products that sustains our resources and environment.

Wal-Mart is planning to execute a broad slate of new initiatives this year under the leadership of an executive team that during the past 18 months was impacted by scandal, retirement, burnout, restructuring and an influx of new hires. The sweeping transformation that resulted among senior management requires a scorecard to keep track of who's who and who's new. “Leadership is not about looking over your shoulder and living in the past. It is about looking over the horizon and envisioning the future,” Scott said. Wal-Mart would continue to demonstrate leadership and work for change on major issues important to Wal-Mart’s customers, communities, associates and suppliers worldwide. Wal-Mart can take a leadership role, get out in front of the future, and make a difference that is good for our business and the world. Wal-Mart sees the impact that rising energy costs have on customers who must choose between filling their gas tanks or buying food and medicine. In the coming months and years, the company will work to extend its mission of saving people money so they can live better to help customers use less energy and spend less on energy.

Today, Wal-Mart is working to lead an effort by major global retailers to create common social and environmental standards for suppliers. The company will also require its suppliers to meet specific environmental, social and quality standards and it will make compliance with those standards part of its contracts. On healthcare, Wal-Mart sees many opportunities to make a difference for both associates and customers -- because what Wal-Mart does best is exactly what the U.S. healthcare system needs the most: affordability, accessibility, efficiency and a genuine desire to work together for positive change.

Concern for Work-Force and Customers

Over the last two years, Wal-Mart has made significant improvements to its health benefits and launched its game-changing $4 prescription program in the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Brazil. And just this week, the company announced that its improved benefits have helped more Wal-Mart associates get health insurance this year.

Wal-Mart is going to focus next on e-prescribing, electronic health records and helping employers better manage their pharmacy benefit programs.

Ford Motor Company Leadership

Due to the tough economic times, Ford Motor Company has been forced to take a good look at the business and evaluate how they operate. Market share continues to dwindle and profits are suffering considerably because of competition from foreign automakers. Ford has lost market share for the past 10 years and has dropped to a low of 17.4% last year in 2005 (Vlasic & Hoffman, 2006). To combat the decline in profitability, Ford has made a very bold move with the introduction of its “Way Forward Plan.” This plan is a restructuring initiative designed to provide some relief by replacing many highly skilled positions with entry level staff, in exchange for keeping plants open.

Accelerating the growth of future leaders is the focus of Ford Motor Company’s New Business Leader (NBL) program, which reaches some 2,000 managers around the world each year. Jointly developed by internal and external resources to Ford, NBL had introduced an innovative approach to leadership called the Quantum Idea Project (QIP). The Quantum Idea Project is intended to drive revolutionary change in Ford. In the first phase of the NBL program, participants identify a quantum idea that should help transform Ford into the world’s leading consumer company for automotive products and services.

In a second phase, the new business leaders form into cross-functional teams to move their fresh ideas into action plans. To assist this process, Ford executives lead sessions on topics ranging from business acumen and managing change to leadership fundamentals and “Influencing Up and Out.” Participants design a specific plan of action and work on their “teachable point of view” for more effectively advocating it.

During the final phase, participants devote more than 40 hours over a three-month period to implementing the project. They of course, encounter many obstacles to implementation, and in overcoming these barriers they further learn to sharpen goals, surmount resistance, and take corrective action. While project results are important, the real measure of success is what these new business leaders learn from the experience rather than the success of the projects themselves.

The New Business Leader is based on precepts that move beyond traditional development approaches. It features a unique “up and out” thrust requiring every participant to influence those “up” beyond the immediate organization and “out” of the scope of his or her current job responsibilities. It has also moved from:

• General training to a focus

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