Revelations about the PR firm Bell Pottinger, again raise the issue of what exactly is an ethical business leader? Reports suggest this firm earned £100,000 a month in fees, running a secret campaign to stir up racial tension on behalf of its billionaire clients. Now the firm’s own future is […]
The failure of BA’s chief executive Alex Cruz to avoid toxic tone from the top will resonate for months, perhaps years. True the airline’s share price has not died a death. Toxic tone from the top can take months, even years to undermine a brand. No amount of high tech […]
In some ways it was a classic case of angels versus the bad guys. On one side was Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever—long admired as the closest you get to being an ethical leader while running a huge multi-national. On the other side, a well-resourced group of ruthless deal makers, […]
The US election has been one way answering what sort of leader some people want. Another is the spell-binding Abel Gance silent movie Napoleon. Once again this extraordinary achievement packed out a major London venue in November 2016. It keeps happening. Whenever this marvel of cinema rears its head, audiences […]
The fall of John Stumpf, long serving CEO of Wells Fargo makes good headlines. Some 5,000 or so employees fired for abusing the trust of the banks’ customers sounds even better. It seems to show a management on the war path. Is this the top team riding to the rescue […]
Most companies claim to have important values. In the best ones these drive the organisation, guiding both direction and culture. Yet as Enron demonstrated, boasting about values is easy. Making them come alive, and sustaining them is far harder. One leading global communication company for example, call its values “Guiding […]
Andrew Leigh meets Rohit Malik, Aon Hewitt’s HR Leader in India Aon employs over 72000 people worldwide. As we’re looking at ethical leadership, does anyone in the company actually talk about ethics? Rohit Malik, Aon HR Director: We have a clear focus on operating with ethics and maintaining zero tolerance […]
In Eye in the Sky, the film starring Helen Mirren, we see an ethical dilemma up close. Should the British forces use a drone to kill people preparing right now to be suicide bombers? Taking out the house with a Hellfire missile should be simple enough. Action may save scores, […]