Executive Compensation: Avoiding the Land of the Lost
The Week in Ethics
Executive Compensation: Avoiding the Land of the Lost
Wall Street, like the Will Ferrell bomb Land of the Lost, has too many dinosaurs; business as usual isn’t moving fast enough to extinction. In the wake of the financial meltdown, this has been a busy week for trying to reign in executive pay packages that encouraged bankers to take excessive risks and also setting […]
read more »Private Lives, Public Impact: The End of the Race for Max Mosley
This month Max Mosley, the controversial, all-powerful, president of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) which oversees Formula One and Grand Prix racing, finds himself at the end of a 16-year reign, felled by fallout from leadership some call dictatorial and a sex scandal 19 months ago that smeared the organization he helped build. Mosley […]
read more »Why U. of Illinois Scandal Muddied UC Davis Chancellor
Update: August 9, 2016, Chancellor Katehi resigned today after the investigation report was released. Its findings cited issues with her judgment, lack of candor with university leaders and violations of university policies. Update: April 28, 2016, Chancellor Katehi suspended for 90 days pending an investigation into whether she used public money to fund a social […]
read more »Ethical Leadership Trumped: Leaders Fall at U. of Illinois
The University of Illinois (U. of I.) had a breakdown of integrity. For years, legislators, wealthy outsiders, trustees, and administrators were allowed to influence the admissions process, resulting in less qualified students being admitted over the more qualified, until it exploded this spring. The casualties are still being counted. Most recent is B. Joseph White […]
read more »Beached by Bad Judgment: Another Challenge for Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo has an important question to figure out: was their recent public relations crisis caused by a renegade employee who ignored the rules, and operated outside the culture, to get what she wanted, and if so, what are the gaps that allowed that to happen? Or, could she do what she did precisely because […]
read more »Spanky and Our Lobbyists: How Reputation takes a Beating,
In the spectrum of avoiding conflicts of interest and safeguarding reputation and trust, a particularly bruising episode in the last several days involves a Sempra Energy lobbyist and a California Assemblyman. More than just a story of real or perceived bad behavior, it gets to the heart of what ethical standards are – beyond the […]
read more »Ethical Behavior and Tumbling Toyotas
January 6, 2011 update on Dimitrios Biller: Arbitrator Gary L. Taylor sided with Toyota, in its suit against Dimitrios Biller, ruling Biller must pay Toyota $2.5 million in damages and $100,000 in punitive damages for violating attorney- client privilege and a confidentiality agreement when Biller accepted his $3.7 million severance agreement from Toyota in 2007. […]
read more »The Ethics of Salt
Lawsuits and advocacy groups’ attacks on the food industry are nothing new. They involve a battle of words, PR strategy, research and ultimately responsibility. We’ve been through the sugar wars, pesticide protests, cancer risks, claims on lowering cholesterol, trans fat bans and fighting obesity, to name a few. Recently the first sodium-related law suit was […]
read more »U.S. Rep. Richardson’s Dance with Default
The adage that “it isn’t what happens to you that counts but how you handle it” has a new face in U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA). It is a cautionary tale, applicable to leaders in any industry as well as public officials. When one’s reputation is under attack explaining what happened, clarifying misperceptions, admitting errors […]
read more »Palin’s Power Outage
You have to wonder if it is becoming more fashionable to be a quitter. We’ve seen CEOs hired as change agents declaring victory after several months moving on while the company stays in intensive care. This week Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton resigned with three years remaining on his contract and U.S. Senator Martinez […]
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