4 ms·

If by not go well, I'm assuming you mean adopted by many American firms. I'm assuming you're unfamiliar with "the Wal-Mart cheer". I'd love to say it was isol

If by not go well, I'm assuming you mean adopted by many American firms. I'm assuming you're unfamiliar with "the Wal-Mart cheer". I'd love to say it was isolated, but my wife worked for a big 4 consultancy firm straight out of university. Just do a Google search for "Ernst and young happy day". I'd paste a link, but I'm afraid I'd actually have to watch it again...

bitwize 7y ago
Oh man, I'm getting flashbacks to the cringe I felt the first time I heard the KPMG song: https://youtu.be/NCvKXgp-Awo https://youtu.be/NCvKXgp-Awo It's no coincidence that corporate anthems like this sound similar to the Scientology hymn We Stand Tall: https://youtu.be/XyNh1j3dsp8 https://youtu.be/XyNh1j3dsp8
jhbadger 7y ago
There's a long history of US firms doing this sort of thing. IBM used to have an official songbook and employees would sing "Ever Onward" like they were at a school pep rally. https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/music/music_EO1.html https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/music/music_EO1.htm...
- ACow_Adonis 7y ago
  Actually, I'm not a historian in this area, but it would be fascinating to know whether this kind of thing actually started in America, got exported after ww2 (like Japanese baseball), and then reimported with new/old takes from the likes of Japan post 80s and seemed weird to the now globalizing US corporate culture. (Like how 'do the needful' supposedly got imported into India during the days of the English empire, fell out of use in the modern English world, and is now being reimported from India). I only bring it up as there are just so many parallels in American culture that would see corporate team building and identity type activities as a natural extension: prep rallies, cheer leaders, pledges, marching bands, frats, school songs, etc. These activities have some parallels outside the US, but they're activities that can seem distinctly 'weird' and not done to the same extent if you come from outside the US. And not only do we have actual history (ibm) and many contemporary US companies doing these kinds of practices, in many ways the practices make much more sense if taken as a natural extension of already common American cultural practices...

bitwize 7y ago

Oh man, I'm getting flashbacks to the cringe I felt the first time I heard the KPMG song: https://youtu.be/NCvKXgp-Awo https://youtu.be/NCvKXgp-Awo It's no coincidence that corporate anthems like this sound similar to the Scientology hymn We Stand Tall: https://youtu.be/XyNh1j3dsp8 https://youtu.be/XyNh1j3dsp8

jhbadger 7y ago

There's a long history of US firms doing this sort of thing. IBM used to have an official songbook and employees would sing "Ever Onward" like they were at a school pep rally. https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/music/music_EO1.html https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/music/music_EO1.htm...

ACow_Adonis 7y ago
Actually, I'm not a historian in this area, but it would be fascinating to know whether this kind of thing actually started in America, got exported after ww2 (like Japanese baseball), and then reimported with new/old takes from the likes of Japan post 80s and seemed weird to the now globalizing US corporate culture. (Like how 'do the needful' supposedly got imported into India during the days of the English empire, fell out of use in the modern English world, and is now being reimported from India). I only bring it up as there are just so many parallels in American culture that would see corporate team building and identity type activities as a natural extension: prep rallies, cheer leaders, pledges, marching bands, frats, school songs, etc. These activities have some parallels outside the US, but they're activities that can seem distinctly 'weird' and not done to the same extent if you come from outside the US. And not only do we have actual history (ibm) and many contemporary US companies doing these kinds of practices, in many ways the practices make much more sense if taken as a natural extension of already common American cultural practices...