The Dangers of Bribery

The downfall of local politician can cast a shadow of filth across your company. Here in Boston, state Senator Diane Wilkerson was arrested for public corruption. In an editorial in the Boston Globe, the newspaper noted that Wilkerson’s arrest raised suspicions about real estate developments in her district that she aggressively supported: The Grimy Side of Politics.

According to Azid Mohammed, Wilkerson pressured local real estate developers: Developer Reportedly Worried Aboud Demands made By Senator. In Wilkerson arrest sting, an FBI agent was posing as a real estate developer offering bribes to Wilkerson if she would help the agent win ownership of state owned real estate.

The danger of bribery is not only that you get caught, but that the official gets caught or someone else in the chain gets caught and brings you down as part of a larger problem.

The Affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against Wilkerson.

Ethics as a Business Process

Adam Turteltaub wrote Ethics as a Business Process for the fall 2005 edition of GRC 360.

Forward-looking companies are seeking to evolve business from soft art to hard science as a means to win in the marketplace, improve competitive advantage, achieve higher market valuations, ensure employee retention, foster fruitful partnerships and strengthen customer satisfaction.

. . .

There are three key areas to consider when examining the creation of business processes around ethics:

People: An organization must examine and manage the extent which ethical conduct is embedded into the fabric of business thinking and fully understand the ethical risks employees face.
Process: An organization must set forth an effective business framework that integrates all ethics and compliance-related activities within the enterprise.
Technology: An organization must leverage tools that automate the process to achieve greater efficiency and provide management with the data it needs to assess the health of the effort and respond quickly to problems.

The Power of How presentation by Dov Seidman

LRN published the transcript of a presentation by Dov Seidman at the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University: The Power of How: Achieving Enduring Success Through Ethics.

Basically, in a world in which nothing stays hidden, you have to act as if you have nothing to hide. But before you can act as though you have nothing to hide, in fact, you must have nothing to hide. There is an opportunity to literally out-behave your competition. You might not be able to answer a phone faster. You might not be able to create an anti-tampering device and market your bottled water on the basis of that device, because all the manufacturers of bottled water have that nailed down. But you can out-behave someone.