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, […]
Tag: Business
Why reputational risk keeps grabbing the limelight
“The most valuable asset in the capitalist economy is not cash, stock or buildings, but trust.” Economist Intelligence Unit, Risk of Risks What would a serious blow to your company’s reputation cost? This was once a rather academic query–most organisations could afford to consign it to the back burner. Today […]
Customers get the worse deal as stakeholders
Misleading customers can be an expensive luxury. In 2013 for example, fines for swindling their customers cost Npower nearly £4 million in 2013, Scottish Power £8.5m, Tesco £300,000, AXA £1.8million. This month, March 2014, Toyota admitted misleading customers and agreed a huge $1.2 Billion criminal fine. Also this month in […]
The high cost of leaders who lose their moral compass
Little sympathy can be spared for bosses with a record of ethical failures. Often though, their resulting downfall proves the start of an incredibly costly and seemingly endless saga of damage repair as successors try to pick up the pieces. Almost simultaneously, both CEOs of global security companies Serco and […]