Objective: Address the Mexico Situation

Wal Mart De Mexico

Implementation

The implementation phase will propose a plan of action to be followed. The implementation is a complicated process, for several reasons, including (1) the complexity of the issue; (2) the fact that this is a corporate cultural problem and not just a marginal event; (3) that the company's top management was involved or at least condoned the actions and (4) that the company's image was so badly damaged. As a consequence, the implementation plan will take all these aspects into consideration and will directly address them

address the Mexico situation

The first action that needs to be undertaken is strictly related to the Mexico case. It is difficult for the company to state that it will change its corporate culture while still perpetrating wrongdoings by former executives. As a consequence, the company needs to undertake all reasonable action in order to ensure that the executives and members of the board linked, in any way, with the Mexico scandals, resign. Furthermore, it should take measures to ensure that they are replaced with executives that are recognized on the market as having focused on ethical issues during their tenure in other organizations. This should be the first phase in the implementation plan.

The second phase is related to taking action to correct some of the wrongs done in Mexico. This will imply a proper external investigation into the matter, which will be paid by Wal-Mart. It can go beyond using a single auditor like KPMG and as far as employing several external teams that can conduct an objective investigation into the matter.

The third phase is related to implementing the right measures addressing the case, after the conclusions of the external audits. These measures could include taking appropriate legal action, offering to cooperate with the prosecutors in any potential action against the executives and members of the board who participated in the bribe actions in Mexico and paying any necessary compensation.

Objective: address corporate culture ethical issues

The first phase of the implementation phase implied dealing with the immediate consequences of the Mexican crisis. However, as the analysis underscored, the issues here were much more profound, reflecting a corporate culture that encouraged such actions in foreign countries where Wal-Mart operated. As a consequence the second part of the implementation phase will deal with the corporate culture issue. In order to address some of these corporate culture issues, the message needs to be driven top-down, by company executives. At the same time, ethical seminars will be conducted, with mandatory presence, and a new position, which will monitor the ethical activity in the company, will be added to the organizational structure.

Objective: improve corporate image