The conduct is different from McNeil’s 1982 recall when the 8 cyanide poisoning deaths occurred in Chicago. In that situation, McNeil earned the praise of the president, the loyalty of customers, and a get-out-of-jail free pass on everything since that critical decision to recall without hesitation $150 million in Tylenol. How the mighty art fallen! In 2010, the FDA found metal particles (more…)
Gary Aguirre, a former SEC lawyer, was right, the agency was wrong, and he has had the last word. In 2005, Mr. Aguirre tried to get the agency to move on Pequot Capital Management for insider trading in Microsoft stock. The agency refused to “go after the big fish,” and Mr. Aguirre was suddenly a non-performer. He was portrayed as a gadfly, a “basket case,” and then fired for insubordination. (more…)
The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse documents the phenomenon of the precursor in companies that find themselves in legal and ethical difficulty. The precursor can be a lawsuit that is dismissed, a regulatory agency investigation that finds nothing, an employee warning that is poo-pooed, or an internal report. When a business is rolling along doing just fine on the profit side of things, these precursors are ignored too frequently. Bad decision to ignore these rumblings. Wal-Mart has been living through the fall-out of failure to act when a precursor hits. (more…)
If you thought that “The Seven Signs” applied to only for-profit entities, you would be wrong. Numbers pressure is everywhere, even in government and even if meeting the numbers is self-destructive. If the just-released Office of Inspector General’s report is any indication, employee stats may have been the root cause for the SEC in Fort Worth, Texas passing (four times) on bringing enforcement action against Stanford Securities because it was not a “quick hit” for their success-rate stats. (more…)
Minnesota businessman, Thomas J. Petters, was sentenced to 50 years for his $3.7-billion Ponzi scheme that claimed to be selling appliances to Costco. What a ride he had! He purchased Polaroid, Sun Country Airlines, and part of Fingerhut Cos. He drove a Bentley and several Mercedes. He owned several multimillion-dollar homes and he bilked a religious charity of the $28-million it invested with him. Run a quick profile: iconic leader, high returns, non-stop acquisitions, philanthropic commitment, sycophantic direct reports. Oh, those seven signs were there once again. And the end result is the same: financial collapse for the company as well as its investors. The Seven Signs is available on amazon.com.
Coming December 2010: the Seventh Edition of Marianne's Businss Ethics book with case studies and reading. Available at cengage.com soon.
Coming December 2010: the Ninth Edition of Marianne's Business: Its Legal, Ethical, and Global Environment
Never trust the people you cheat with. They will throw you under the bus.
Meet Edgar P. Benchley. Charitable people tend to call him a nerd. Others use less subtle descriptions. If you hear Edgar chatting to himself, don't be alarmed. He has an invisible friend who's kind of a cousin to Harvey from the old movie of the same name with Jimmy Stewart.