Saturday, May 23, 2015

Crime and the enterprise

What do Seagrams, YouTube, Uber, Elon Musk’s PayPal, 1930’s McKesson, Jobs Rip. Mix. Burn, and Las Vegas have in common?

Many very successful enterprises have a history of unethical or criminal behavior. Sometimes there are convictions, sometimes not. The history is usually buried, sometimes it’s romanticized. Occasionally, as with Enron, the crime ends the enterprise.

I think if one wrapped the average CEO with Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth they’d confess to lesser versions of the kinds of sins that put Bernard Madoff in jail.

We don’t pay enough attention to this.

No comments: