Remember Jeffrey Skilling? He was the man who made Enron famous for all the wrong reasons. In 2006 this former chief executive arrived at a courthouse in Texas, for sentencing. He left with 14 years to serve, which a few years later was reduced to 10 years. Skilling is now expected […]
Tag: unethical
Ethical fading: is it happening right under your nose?
Martin Shkreli, has been called the most hated man in America. CEO of a tiny company Turing Pharmaceuticals, he had bought the lifesaving prescription drug Daraprim from its owner Impax Laboratories. He promptly hiked the price 5,455% from $13.50 a pill to $750. He has since resigned from his job […]
Uber: In urgent need of ethical leadership
What kind of leadership is emerging at Uber, the so-called conventional taxi killer? For many users Uber looks a sure thing—a disruptive technology promising to improve the hiring experience and even make it cheaper. It’s a personal-car service aiming to get a client a car in less than five minutes. […]
Another fine mess you’ve gotten us into
What’s another €94m fine between friends? The latest penalties on several banks for fiddling interest rates by running a cartel, is hardly the stuff of headlines. J.P. Morgan, no paragon of ethical performance in recent years, must pay €61m for crooked behaviour involving Libor, from 2008-9. Yet can you envisage the […]
Means not Ends: Fifth Pillar of Ethical Leadership in Business
This is the fifth pillar of ethical leadership in business Means not just ends The fifth pillar requires a focus on means and not just ends. This is when a leader shows concern with how their organisation achieves its goals, not just the goals themselves. Siemens […]
Big business risks losing its social licence—Part 1 of 2
You need a licence to open a café or sell wine from a UK store. Should enough local people object you may be stopped. This is part of the “social licence”–where society affects what business can do. That a firm needs a social licence seems strange. Yet most would agree […]
Why telling lies to ourselves leads to unethical choices
When it comes to doing the right thing, many business people suffer from cognitive dissonance. Take for example Novartis the pharmaceutical giant. CEO Joe Jimenez recently stressed the group’s commitment to compliance but he also added We don’t want to do anything that puts us at a competitive advantage.” […]