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« Previous Entries Next Entries »Watch Second City’s ethics shorts, laugh, and learn
Monday, June 14th, 2010Last week, I was delighted to get a call from Bill Briggs of MSNBC about Second City’s new series of business ethics training films. That’s right - the fabulous lunatics who brought us Saturday Night Live have produced a series of shorts showing employees what not to do where business ethics are concerned.
Companies are [...]
Let your employees have a life
Sunday, June 13th, 2010Returning to my series on keeping your business out of court, let’s talk about a mistake that employers make all too often, especially when times are hard and unemployment is running rampant. Some companies may find it very, very tempting right now to come down hard on employees who seem to put their work [...]
You need to see Cousteau’s dive into the Gulf oil spill
Thursday, May 27th, 2010Sorry, folks, change in plans … we’ll talk about the ethics of “gotcha” journalism tomorrow. Right now, I’m urging anyone who cares about business ethics to check out Carl Franzen’s post today on PoliticsDaily.com. Franzen covers a new video of a deep sea dive by Phillipe Cousteau, Jr., grandson of the great Jacques [...]
Will conflicts of interest ruin oil spill tests in the Gulf?
Monday, May 24th, 2010Wouldn’t you think things were bad enough in the Gulf of Mexico? The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has already dumped millions of gallons of crude into the waters of the Gulf and ugly residues are starting to wash ashore. The New York Times reported Friday that local environmental officials in the Gulf states [...]
Respect confidentiality
Friday, May 21st, 2010For today’s post on keeping your business out of court, let’s address a topic that’s in the news with increasing frequency: breaches of confidentiality. AOL is reporting today that Facebook and other social media sites have been charged by Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman with sending personal information about its users to online [...]
United flies the friendly skies - not so, American Airlines
Thursday, May 13th, 2010Let’s give BP and its partners in disaster a break today and talk instead about how the airlines and, in particular, American Airlines, are handling their customers these days. Last Thursday, I flew to Minneapolis to speak to the entertainment lawyers’ section of the Minnesota Bar Association. (They’re a great group, by the [...]
Now we know why BP hasn’t apologized
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010For the past several days, I’ve wondered why British Petroleum’s CEO, Tony Hayward, has skipped the crucial words “we’re sorry” when discussing the oil leak that’s pouring into the Gulf of Mexico after one of his company’s offshore drilling platforms exploded. It seemed odd because Hayward had already said that BP would pay for [...]
Did regulatory corruption lead to environmental tragedy?
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010On September 12, 2008, when the outcome of the Presidential election was still very much in doubt, I wrote a post asking whether the new President would interact ethically with the powerful oil and gas industry. It gave me chills to realize today that my 2008 post cited a report from the Inspector General’s [...]
Don’t play favorites with your customers, either
Friday, April 30th, 2010Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s address another risk that companies and, in particular, professional firms often face. Anyone who’s ever been in business knows that all customers are not created equal. Some buy more products, are nicer to deal with or offer more referrals. Others [...]
What the heck happened at Goldman Sachs?
Thursday, April 29th, 2010As the wars over the banking reform bill wage on in the Senate, it’s hardly surprising that our fearless leaders chose this week for hearings into the backroom shenanigans at Goldman Sachs. After all, one major point of the legislation is to keep greedy investment bankers reasonably honest. If Congress can prove that [...]
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