The Wall Street Journal-20080116-Wal-Mart Cuts Back on Weekly Managers- Meetings
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Wal-Mart Cuts Back on Weekly Managers' Meetings
One of the most iconic legacies of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s co-founder Sam Walton -- the weekly managers' meeting -- will soon join store employees' blue vests as part of the company's storied past.
Dating back to Wal-Mart's earliest days as a rural upstart, company managers have gathered every Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in Bentonville, Ark., to talk over business results and swap merchandising tips. Despite complaints over the years about the early morning timing, Wal-Mart has required managers at its headquarters to attend two meetings a month, staggering attendance to fit the employees into its headquarters auditorium.
The meetings, which combined business discussions, celebrity visits and lots of cheering, provided a time for bonding and boosting morale. Mr. Walton, who died in 1992, used to tell managers who groaned about the get-togethers: "If you don't want to work weekends, you shouldn't be in retail."
Yesterday Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with $350 billion in annual sales, said it will cut back the Saturday staff meetings to once a month starting in March, for the sake of efficiency.
The meetings will be broadcast on its closed-circuit network to allow those outside Bentonville to view the events, according to a memo to employees. In the memo, the company's head of human relations described the change as providing "the most effective ways to better connect with" its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club employees world-wide. The company said it is looking for a site large enough to accommodate all local managers for the once-a-month meeting.
In the past year, the blue vests worn by store employees -- another Wal-Mart cultural icon -- have been replaced by a polo-shirt uniform. One thing that won't change: Managers who miss the once-a-month meeting still have to make up the time, the company told employees.
