{"id":597,"date":"2008-10-04T12:24:46","date_gmt":"2008-10-04T16:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=597"},"modified":"2014-11-14T16:01:13","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:01:13","slug":"wal-mart-president-and-ceo-the-americas-offers-insights-on-doing-business-responsibly-in-the-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2008\/10\/wal-mart-president-and-ceo-the-americas-offers-insights-on-doing-business-responsibly-in-the-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Wal-Mart president and CEO, The Americas, offers insights on doing business responsibly in the region."},"content":{"rendered":"

It should come as no surprise that a guest lecture by a highly placed Wal-Mart official would draw a crowd. And when you add to the equation that the speaker\u2019s job focuses on The Americas and that he would be delivering the speech in the College of Business Administration\u2014with its prominence in business research in The Americas and its faculty and student profile in which the region is strongly represented\u2014success should be assured.<\/p>\n

It was.<\/p>\n

The attendance numbers and the enthusiasm generated by the appearance of Craig Herkert<\/strong>, president and CEO, The Americas, for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., were every bit as significant as anyone could have anticipated. As part of the college\u2019s Herbert A. Wertheim Lecture Series, Herkert spoke about \u201cSuccess Factors in Serving and Winning the \u2018Working Class Customer\u2019 Market\u201d to an audience of between 300 and 400 college faculty members, administrators, staff, students, alumni, and business partners.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An enthusiastic crowd of between 300 and 400 heard about Wal-Mart\u2019s presence and goals in Latin America.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lecture conveys commitment to local communities.<\/em><\/p>\n

Herkert impressed John Zdanowicz<\/strong>, professor and Florida International Bankers Association Chair, Department of Finance and Real Estate, and director, Jerome Bain Real Estate Institute. He zeroed in on what Herkert had to say about service and how it ties to capitalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was happy to discover that the company is contributing to the welfare of individuals in less developed countries in Latin American by promoting capitalistic business ventures and by providing financial services to the poor,\u201d Zdanowicz said.<\/p>\n

Monique<\/strong> Catoggio<\/strong> (EMBA \u201903), director of advancement and alumni relations, saw the timeliness of Herkert\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith our current economic crisis and the criticism so many major worldwide companies are experiencing today\u2013as many of them should\u2014it was refreshing to listen to a CEO who seems to truly care about the communities in which Wal-Mart is growing and expanding,\u201d she said. \u201cIs Wal-Mart profiting from its targeted cultural marketing and retail strategies? Absolutely! But are these communities benefiting from it as well? It definitely seems they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herkert\u2019s message about working with locals to develop businesses interested William Hardin<\/strong>, associate professor, Knight Ridder Research Professor, and director of real estate programs, Department of Finance and Real Estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWal-Mart has to create much of the infrastructure it needs to do business in many Latin American countries,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is integral to success in their target markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lecture took place on September 10, 2008, part of the Herbert A. Wertheim Lecture Series, which has brought distinguished speakers and experts in business leadership and entrepreneurship to Florida International University since 1993.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It should come as no surprise that a guest lecture by a highly placed Wal-Mart official would draw a crowd. And when you add to the equation that the speaker\u2019s job focuses on The Americas and that he would be delivering the speech in the College of Business Administration\u2014with its prominence in business research in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[499,1093,1336,3806],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24111,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/24111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}