Business people are not very well perceived by the general public when it comes to judging about their professional integrity. The common perception is that they take advantage of the information asymmetry and abuse the privileged position that they have over the external stakeholders. Events such as the Enron and WorldCom scandals seem to support this judgment.
In my opinion, the common view of the business people is biased by those few who break the rules and abuse the trust and harm the interests of their own clients/shareholders for personal financial gain. That does not change the fact that this minority gives a whole wide profession a bad name.
Countless courses in business ethics, which are by now offered at virtually every business school in the country and various publications address that issue. Government regulations are designed to eliminate the possibility of frauds and unethical behavior. Courts prosecute those suspected of unlawful behavior.
Does it mean that unethical behavior can be completely rooted out from the world of business professionals? Last weeks news reports conclude just the contrary.
Legal authorities in the U.S. investigate the back-dating case of Apple Inc options, as it seems that the computer industry giant may be in some trouble. The issue is that options were backdated, which changed their value, this was supposed to be approved on a special board meeting... that never took place. (More on that case: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116856838800274709-search.html?KEYWORDS=apple+&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month ). The news about the investigation hurt the Apple stock price, offsetting part of the rise reported after the company announced the introduction of iPhone.
In a different case, Europe's largest engineering company, Siemens, ran in trouble as its the former CFO and No. 2 in the corporate hierarchy was named a suspect in the on-going German police investigation of a bribery case, amounting to at least half a billion dollar (more on that: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116861598934275269-search.html?KEYWORDS=siemens&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month ).
Even though only a marginal proportion of business professional engages such unlawful practices as the ones named above, their actions influence the way the whole sector is perceived. The funniest thing about it is that usually people who commit such crimes are caught and prosecuted - it is just to hard to destroy all the data pointing to them as culprits. Still, it happens over and over again, hurting individuals, companies and whole professions. When will they finally learn it?
In my opinion, the common view of the business people is biased by those few who break the rules and abuse the trust and harm the interests of their own clients/shareholders for personal financial gain. That does not change the fact that this minority gives a whole wide profession a bad name.
Countless courses in business ethics, which are by now offered at virtually every business school in the country and various publications address that issue. Government regulations are designed to eliminate the possibility of frauds and unethical behavior. Courts prosecute those suspected of unlawful behavior.
Does it mean that unethical behavior can be completely rooted out from the world of business professionals? Last weeks news reports conclude just the contrary.
Legal authorities in the U.S. investigate the back-dating case of Apple Inc options, as it seems that the computer industry giant may be in some trouble. The issue is that options were backdated, which changed their value, this was supposed to be approved on a special board meeting... that never took place. (More on that case: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116856838800274709-search.html?KEYWORDS=apple+&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month ). The news about the investigation hurt the Apple stock price, offsetting part of the rise reported after the company announced the introduction of iPhone.
In a different case, Europe's largest engineering company, Siemens, ran in trouble as its the former CFO and No. 2 in the corporate hierarchy was named a suspect in the on-going German police investigation of a bribery case, amounting to at least half a billion dollar (more on that: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116861598934275269-search.html?KEYWORDS=siemens&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month ).
Even though only a marginal proportion of business professional engages such unlawful practices as the ones named above, their actions influence the way the whole sector is perceived. The funniest thing about it is that usually people who commit such crimes are caught and prosecuted - it is just to hard to destroy all the data pointing to them as culprits. Still, it happens over and over again, hurting individuals, companies and whole professions. When will they finally learn it?
