Current Project - Prize trips for sales reps.
Current project is an analysis of the culture of "prize trips" for successful sales people. Many German organisations, in the past, were used to using "prize trips" as motivation for their sales reps. The most famous case was centered around the ERGO-Insurance group who sent 40 of their best reps to Budapest where prostitutes were waiting to "service" the gentlemen in the local Spa. Whores wore coloured arm bands to indicate whether they were reserved for the specific management levels.
The whole business backfired for ERGO when Phillip Krohn from the FAZ reported on the trip.
Even though the idea of paying your reps prizes in the form of sex outings is not necessarily illegal, to make sure the trips were outside the country's borders and for legal reasons not in Germany itself.
It turned out that the population took a dim view and it ended up with ERGO's sales losses meaning they had to fire 1800 sales reps to save the company. Some customers even demanded refunds.
Shocking for us was the report that of 45 reps who were invited to the shag party (everyone could watch) only five had the decency to turn the invitation down. So much for the moral standards of sale reps it would seem.
FAZ and many other media outlets reported on the case, which occured over ten years ago but even in 2018 there were legal battles going on. A quarter hour documentary on Frontal21 - a TV news program - reported.
Shocking was the number of companies employing this type of motivation. There were reports that many companies had stopped having trips abroad and that many had also stopped any type of trip, at all.
i-pw.org will be following up on this and other stories in the near future. We have made contact with Phillip Krohn and hope to gain more in depth story material.
For now and for those who can read the original German reports
There are dozens of others.
See you soon........