Posts Tagged ‘leadership’
On the Importance of Ethics and Leadership
Several weeks ago we had a post about the ethical missteps at Boeing, where I heaped lots of blame on now-fired CEO Dennis Muilenberg. That post generated many comments on LinkedIn, including a few that speculated: were these problems really due to Muilenberg, or was he undermined by subordinates who didn’t want him at Boeing?…
Read MoreMore Misadventures in Ethics From Boeing
Boeing’s risk management failures with its 737 MAX jet turned out to be the biggest cautionary tale of corporate governance in 2019. Now we have one more glimpse into those executive misjudgments courtesy of the New York Times. The Times published yet another in-depth article about Boeing’s troubles on Sunday, this time starting with a…
Read MoreManagement Override and Navy SEALs
Keeping pace with all the ethics and compliance lessons one can learn from the Trump Administration is no easy task. Nevertheless, we have yet another one: the perils of management override, as demonstrated by President Trump’s determination to keep a disgraced Navy SEAL in military service. The story evolved quickly over the weekend. It begins…
Read MoreGreat Example of CEO Setting the Tone
Compliance professionals talk all the time about the importance of “tone at the top,” that accurate but overused phrase that means CEOs should demonstrate the importance of disciplined, principled performance to their workforce. Tone at the top has always struck me as one of those things where you know it when you see it —…
Read MoreNortham and Ethical Accountability
Another week, another challenging example of executive misconduct that ethics and compliance officers should consider. Our star this time around: Virginia governor Ralph Northam. Last week photos surfaced from Northam’s medical school yearbook, published in 1984. On one side of the page is Northam. On the other side is a photo of two unidentified men,…
Read MoreMichigan State Reorgs Compliance Again
Breaking news from East Lansing, Mich., today: Michigan State University has reorganized its office for ethics and compliance just four months after the department was created, consolidating the office into the university’s existing internal audit function. We last saw Michigan State blundering around the compliance world in June, when acting university president John Engler said…
Read MorePwC’s Ethics Leadership After Tragedy
PwC is trying to recover from tragedy this week in a way that every ethics and compliance professional should applaud: by asking employees to confront difficult questions about race and empathy in America, in a statement directly from the firm’s U.S. leader. A risk assurance associate at the firm’s Dallas office, Botham Jean, was shot…
Read MoreAnother Compliance Lesson From Michigan State
One of the most painful failures to watch in corporate compliance this year has been the tragedy at Michigan State University: a culture of sloppy procedures and aimless oversight that allowed Larry Nassar, a doctor affiliated with the school, to assault hundreds of girls and young women for nearly 20 years. Nassar is spending the…
Read MoreThe Importance of Purpose
Mission matters. Even at publicly traded companies, where so often “the mission” seems to be making ever more profit for shareholders— at the best of them, that’s not true. They still articulate some greater purpose, and believe that purpose is worthwhile. Their leaders like talking about that purpose, whatever it is. I’ve been reflecting about…
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