In Undercover Boss an owner of a large corporation works inside their business. The executives disguise themselves as someone unrecognizable. Lower level employee's take time to train their executive meanwhile the executive observes smaller details inside the manufacturing process as well as the employee's personal lives.
I watched a episode starring one of the biggest names in golf, Taylormade as well as the companies CEO (Mark King). Mark is a divorced 53 year old with two daughters ages 16 and 20. During the beginning of the episode, Mark spent time doing homework and talking with his youngest daughter. I could see how much Mark valued his daughters and how important family was to him despite being divorced. He expressed optimism towards his past divorce because his past marriage brought his two daughters into existence. I think family is too often taken for granted amidst the chase for materialistic things. Despite being the CEO of a large corporation, Mark still kept his family as his top priority through ending his day at 5 every evening to invest his time in his family. Divorce is always viewed as a bad thing in society, but good came from Mark's past relationship. Mark brings redemption to his family by creating relationships with his daughters and maintaing a family despite the loss of one member.
One of Mark's employee's dropped out of college at 19 to help fight his uninsured mom's financial battle against skin cancer. When Mark discovered the sacrifices his employee made for his family, he was hit hard. Mark choked up and shed a tear as he imagined what it would be like for his own children to sacrifice their future for him. Later on the employee was in shock when he found it he was training his very own CEO. Mark recognized a need in someone else's life and he provided financial resources for his employee to go back to school as well as paying for his mother's medical bills. Cancer presented itself to a mother, and Mark helped to redeem a family after a large financial loss.
1. Corporations are often times too large to know their employee's personal lives, but how can they show appreciation towards all levels of employee's in their business?
2. How can God's kingdom be advanced through customer satisfaction between a company and a consumer?
Interesting artifact choice, Matt. This show is certainly intriguing in the context of our class, though I think it very much masks the structural problems of the corporations it highlights. We see that CEOs, on the whole, are human and they react kindly when they're confronted by difficult situations personally.
ReplyDeleteBut have any of the CEOs gone on to change their corporate culture? Have they fought to pay their workers more or provide better health benefits? Have they offered to lower their own compensation for the betterment of everyone in the company? I don't know the answers to these questions, but I know they aren't generally asked on the show. And I haven't yet seen the news story about a CEO transforming his/her company as a result of their experience on it.