Whole Foods CEO John Mackey has built a remarkable business.  My jaw still drops every time I walk in to a Whole Foods store.  That’s one reason a seemingly customer-oriented, cool, together business like Whole Foods disappoints me when I hear their CEO completely lacking in common sense.  Mackey’s anonymous participation in a Yahoo stock-market forum talking-up Whole Foods performance while trashing rival Wild Oats is a bit nutty.  The tricky part for public relations professionals who represent Mackey and Whole Foods is how you defend this, at minimum, unethical behavior.

The SEC, FTC and a horde of lawyers will do what they have to do in determining if Mackey’s behavior was illegal.  Legal or not, the result of “Rahodeb’s” postings on the Yahoo site is a loss of corporate reputation, the certain death of the proposed merger with Wild Oats and at some point it could mean Whole Foods says “bye bye” to its founder and CEO. (more…)