Green Buckeye

Months ago I listened to a podcast that featured John Mackey of Whole Foods talking to Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma.

I was impressed that Mackey reached out to Pollan, who had criticized Whole Foods in the book. Listening to Mackey talk, I thought he sounded sincere in his desire for Whole Foods to do the right thing. He was educated and passionate about organic foods and corporate farming. He seemed self-aware and conflicted about the impact of Whole Foods on the organic food movement.

It's disappointing to learn now that for years Mackey was surreptitiously posting comments on a Yahoo stock-market message-board that bad-mouthed rival Wild Oats. Why? Yeah, the company could potentially gain from such antics, but at what cost? He claims he was "having fun."

It looks like Mackey, aka "rahodeb," and his company will discover the long-term costs in loss of reputation in the coming days, months, and years.

Of course, no one is perfect. We all make mistakes, even (or maybe especially and most publicly and sensationally) CEOs of large corporations. If we're lucky, the mistake is such that we can recover and learn from it. I hope Mackey gets a clue about transparency and integrity and recovers personally. His personal redemption, though, is not the end of the story.

What is most disheartening is that the cynics will say, "I told you so." They'll say that no successful businessperson is truly sincere about transparency, which is an aspect of corporate sustainability and the "triple bottom line." They'll say that people like me are naive about the way the business world really works. They'll say that they're justified in continuing with "business as usual." Because Mackey was a high profile example of someone who was - at least publicly - trying to do the right thing. And his fall from grace will be very expensive in terms of good will and momentum for the sustainable business movement.

Tags: "John Mackey", "Whole Foods"

Labels: business, news, sustainability