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Risk Management
« Previous EntriesShouldn’t the Deepwater Horizon spill serve as a wakeup call?
Monday, August 30th, 2010The New York Times reports today that, despite the mess caused by the Deepwater Horizon leak, oil companies are taking increasing and largely unscrutinzed risks as they drill deeper for offshore petroleum. According to the Times, rigs are becoming larger and more complicated, are farther than ever from the coastlines (and immediate support in [...]
Empower your people
Friday, August 27th, 2010Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s focus on a recent experience I had with my own family. To celebrate my oldest daughter’s 10th birthday, we went to Disney World … in August. It was a great trip overall but the heat was nearly unbearable, and I’d decided [...]
Why did HP give Mark Hurd a $37 million severance package?
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010When former CEO Mark Hurd resigned from Hewlett-Packard Co. last week, he joined a lengthy list of top business executives who have stepped down after being accused of personal ethical lapses. Of course, this isn’t HP’s only recent scandal. HP suffered considerable public embarrassment just a few years ago when its chairwoman, Patricia [...]
Observe health and safety rules
Friday, August 6th, 2010Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s look at a high-profile story that’s back in the news. Four months ago, an explosion at the Big Branch mine killed over two dozen workers. According to news reports, the mine had been repeatedly cited by inspectors for safety violations, but [...]
Get the whole story
Friday, July 30th, 2010Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s look at a potentially disastrous mistake made recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. One of its employees, Shirley Sherrod, recently got caught in the cross-fire of accusations of racism between the NAACP and the Tea Party. In an effort to [...]
The oil may have stopped flowing, but BP’s work is far from done
Monday, July 19th, 2010We’ve finally gotten some reasonably good news out of the Gulf of Mexico. It seems that the new cap that BP put on the leaking rg is (mostly) stopping the flow of oil and gas into the water. Now, as long as the seabed doesn’t start crumbling and leaking like an overbaked pie [...]
The psychology, ethics and law of apologies
Friday, July 16th, 2010Yesterday, I had the pleasure of joining reknowned psychiatrist Aaron Lazare and NY Times ethicist Randy Cohen on the Diane Rehm show on NPR. Our topic was apologies, and we spent about an hour kibbitzing the best and worst recent apologies. As a long-time fan of Ms. Rehm I had a ball, and [...]
Be nice to your staff
Friday, July 9th, 2010Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s talk about a mistake that managers make all too often. A friend of mine (let’s call her Sam) was complaining recently about her new boss. Seems that the boss who hired her has left for greener pastures, and her new boss [...]
Consider becoming a B Corporation
Friday, July 2nd, 2010Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s talk about a new kind of corporation that may offer a safer vehicle for doing well while doing good. Let’s presume that you’re the head of a publicly traded company. You’re also something of a social activist, and you want to [...]
How often has BP lied?
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the Interior Department has reportedly fined the U.S. unit of BP $5.2 million for submitting “false, inaccurate or misleading” reports regarding its energy production on Southern Ute Indian Tribal lands in Colorado. According to the Journal, the department alleges that tribal auditors found that BP reported [...]
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