Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Corporate Embarrassment
Having one of your senior executives arrested is the height of corporate embarrassment. That is what happened to IBM. The executive was indicted on insider trading charges for leaking confidential information to a network of hedge fund operators.
There is little a company can do about something like this. An organization can train its people in the need for integrity, stress the need to keep information confidential, hammer the principle of honest dealings, but all that might not be enough. Ultimately, it comes down to the actions of individuals and when they fail, especially at a senior level, the entire company is smeared. IBM will get through this, but it will hurt for a while. The incident is a reminder of how vigilant one must be when handling confidential information.
There is little a company can do about something like this. An organization can train its people in the need for integrity, stress the need to keep information confidential, hammer the principle of honest dealings, but all that might not be enough. Ultimately, it comes down to the actions of individuals and when they fail, especially at a senior level, the entire company is smeared. IBM will get through this, but it will hurt for a while. The incident is a reminder of how vigilant one must be when handling confidential information.
Comments:
I think that by having a senior executive fired can sometimes resmeble the compaines code of ethics. Like the article said, the company can only go so far in training for integrity. I think that it is highly important to always be training people for integrity, even the senior executives. You can not always trust everyone, even the people in the highest positions. I think that IBM can make it through this, but i think that they need to start evaluating everyone in the business on a month-to-month basis.
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