Chief Fun Officer

I found an article that I think it describes something great (Business Today, July 6, 2003: Geeks And Their Funny Bone tech Companies Are Going Out Of Their Way To Make Working Fun.. An Indian company called NIIT appointed some 51year old person named Thadani to become a CFO - not Chief Financial Officer, but Chief Fun Officer. His mission is, and I quote: "To bring the smile, rather the guffaws, back into the workplace." He says that "There's a new intruder who has crept into our lives. It is causing terror in NIIT. As the CFO, I declare a prolonged war against that intruder-seriousness." He hired an "army of officers" and the theme of the year is 366 days of fun. NIIT is a company busy in e-commerce and as all the others, suffering under the dot.com stigma of reduced profits and so on. But this is not the reason for the person to be engaged. The main reason is to reduce the turnover amongst the workforce in India which is actually a booming dot.com country - average turnover rate is high at 13-14%, apparently. And the job of Mr. or Mrs. Thadani would be to lower the rate in his or her company but I don't know the level of attrition here.

There are more examples in the article, so please e-mail me to always_wow@yahoo.com.sg, if someone wants to have the details.
My big questionmark is only, if to "command" fun is the right way to go? I mean, can you say - okay, now le't be funny, or, let's have fun, but please, not too long - like that? Shouldn't one hire people with the right attitude from the very first beginning - some, who are able to bring fun to the workplace and make the place a WoW? Isn't it a cultural issue? People leave, because they don't like something in the company - it is not just the perks they receive. And to command them fun won't make them stay longer. True? But still, it is a beginning