Gilbert Fiorentino may not be a household name, but millions of online shoppers recognize the name Tiger Direct.

In a nod to the corporate excess and bad culture, as represented by John Thain and disgraced CEO Dennis Kozlowski, we now have Fiorentino.

The truly shocking part of this story is found in the comment section; the stories from employees whose descriptions of their work environment will raise your hackles even as they make you cringe.

Dell sued TigerDirect for trademark infringement for “repeated and blatant” violations regarding the resale of its computers and in 2008 the Florida Attorney General’s office sued for failing to pay advertised rebates to consumers.

But this isn’t just another CEO running amok.

Fiorentino may have founded Tiger Direct and be CEO of CompUSA (bought out of bankruptcy), but Systemax owns the whole shebang.

And it is Systemax that turned a blind eye for all those years as Fiorentino created and maintained a culture of intimidation and abuse of both employees and vendors for more than a decade.

“He was making a lot of money for the company and I think people looked the other way for a long time. … If he wanted it, he took it, for whatever reason,” –William “Cully” Waggoner, a former employee who was fired in 2009 after five years with the company, but won a court settlement challenging the action. A blind eye until a worm turned and made that fateful whistleblower call.

Now Systemax claims it wants to change its corporate culture.

A memo last week to employees talked about embracing changes like a more “open management style” and elimination of competitive postings of hours worked by each employee. “The prior management regime was not the reason for the Company’s success – you were.” –Systemax Executive Committee

This is the same executive committee that was blind all those years.

If you believe them I have a great buy on a gorgeous orange bridge that would look terrific on your front lawn.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/salim/402620871/

This entry was posted on Friday, May 6th, 2011 at 1:15 am and is filed under Business info, Culture, Ethics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Tags: abuse, Dennis Kozlowski, imperial CEO, John Thain
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.