You ever seen McAfee's business ethics pledge? In case you haven't, they call it "Ethics First" and they proclaim it loud and proud on their website:
We are committed to holding the highest ethical standards. Our business relationships with customers,
shareholders, employees, suppliers, and local communities must always be built on a foundation of integrity and trust. We call this commitment "Ethics First"— doing the right thing at all times in all circumstances...
This is, of course, particularly interesting against the backdrop of the investigation into McAfee's alleged potentially illegal backdating of options contracts to give executives a little extra payola. Although a number of firms are being investigated for this type of activity, McAfee's case is particularly eggregious given their previous history of general securities fraud that caused them to ante up $50 Mil to the SEC.
I find it interesting that McAfee announced their intention to be ethical and then gets mired in all this scandal; I mean, why make an ethics announcement at all if the executives are all openly engaged in various types of illegal activity? Usually, what I'd do in a case like this would be to go to their Standard of Ethical Conduct, point out all the places where they publicly lied, and generally laugh at them. However, this time I've decided to give McAfee a break. Rather than assume they're lying, I've decided to assume that they meant to honestly convey what they were up to but that something happened along the way... Maybe they're using strange definitions of words, maybe somebody in marketing "touched it up" before making it public, whatever. In any case, here's the breakdown:
| They Said: | They Meant: |
|---|---|
| "No success is worth the expense of compromising ethical behavior." | Many successes aren't worth comprimising ethical behavior. Make sure to do a cost/benefit analysis to ensure the comprimises you make at McAfee are worth the risk. |
| ...report possible violations to your supervisor, the Human Resources Department, Internal Audit or the Legal Department. | ...report possible ethical violation opportunities to your supervisor, those guys helping manipulate the stock price, the illegal activity "coverup" team, or that guy manipulating stock option issue dates. |
| In certain circumstances, inappropriate conduct may lead to immediate discharge. | If you get caught doing it, we're going to make you a scapegoat and say we knew nothing about it. |
| Falsifying Company or customer forms (e.g., P.O.s), reports, records or other documents [is prohibited] | Falsifying Company or customer forms (e.g., P.O.s), reports, records or other documents [requires manager approval] |
| Gambling on Company premises, committing fraud, carrying weapons or explosives, or violation of criminal laws on Company premises... may result in disciplinary action. | Gambling, committing fraud, or violation of criminal laws will be done on Company premises... |
| Failure to comply with Company health, safety or other rules... may result in disciplinary action. | Failure to comply with Company health, safety or other rules... may result in disciplinary action. Ethics guidelines don't count. |
And so on. There are, of course, tons more - but it's gets tired pointing them all out.
Posted by Ed at June 1, 2006 10:42 AM | TrackBack