Subscribe to my Feed
Archive for May, 2008
Next Entries »To report or not to report: that is the question
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008Here’s an ethical dilemma for you, taken from my own experience while driving to work. A truck pulled out in front of me, spewing noxious black exhaust so thick it completely obscured my windshield for a few seconds. I was blinded long enough to cause an accident (though I didn’t, thank Heaven). There’s no question that [...]
Legal compliance: it’s not just a business decision
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008Lately, I’ve noticed a disturbing attitude emerging from some companies with respect to legal compliance. Maybe it’s a product of too many cost-benefit analyses, but it seems that, with increasing frequency, companies are treating legal compliance as optional rather than mandatory. They weigh the costs of getting caught against the short-term profits they can garner [...]
A non-profit association is still a business
Sunday, May 11th, 2008A friend who works for a non-profit association (and an awful lot of us in D.C. do) was absolutely shocked by the intensity with which his association’s audit firm reviewed his association’s books this year. “They had so many questions, it drove us all nuts,” he lamented. “They’ve never gone after us so aggressively before. We’re [...]
Do you have an apology question?
Saturday, May 10th, 2008Once in a while, I’ll get an e-mail from a reader who has an ethics question, or who needs to make an apology but isn’t sure how to do it. I’m always delighted to get those questions and happy to help whenever I can.
To make that easier, I’ve set up a new “Ask Lauren” section [...]
Will the next President regulate credit default swaps?
Friday, May 9th, 2008Continuing my Friday series on ethical issues facing the next President, let’s go to Wall Street. You may remember my posts from a few weeks back discussing how Bear Stearns got bailed out by JP Morgan Chase and the Fed when subprime lending took its toll. It turns out that subprime mortgages may [...]
Flying through Chicago? Rats!
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008My goal in setting up this blog was not to pick on the air travel industry, but they make it so easy, Just last week, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that it would seek $10.2 million in fines from Southwest Airlines for safety violations. The agency claims that Southwest flew 46 planes almost 60,000 [...]
How hard is it to apologize effectively?
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008Recently, an acquaintance asked me about my new book, The Art of The Apology. She was surprised to learn that there was enough to say about apologies to provide content for even a short book. She wondered, “is apologizing really that difficult?”
Yes … but only if you want your apology to be effective.
Apologizing [...]
Société Générale’s CEO is resigning … but should he?
Sunday, May 4th, 2008Back in February I commented on the governance implications of the multi-billion Euro trading disaster at Société Générale, one of the largest banks in France. The bank’s CEO, Daniel Bouton, is taking one for the team, and has agreed to step down from his position later this month. Bloggers are using phrases like [...]
Will the next President apologize to America’s minorities?
Friday, May 2nd, 2008Continuing my Friday series on ethical dilemmas facing the next President of the United States, my focus turns to Australia. In February of this year, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered an eloquent apology to the indigenous people of his nation for their harsh treatment at the hands of colonists who came to their land, [...]
So, what makes an apology “appropriate”?
Thursday, May 1st, 2008As I’ve thought back on this week’s installment of Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle’s New Earth Webcast series, one aspect of their conversation with a particular viewer stuck in my mind. You may recall that the viewer in question was disappointed because, although she always apologized when she had done something wrong, she didn’t always receive [...]
Next Entries »