The News of the World is dead, but does the fallout stop there! Is this a crafty damage limitation exercise to curtail further investigation into News Corp practices?
Much has already been written about the disgraceful practices that News Corporation allowed at NoW and the total lack of accountability in its management hierarchy. Whilst the legal case and subsequent public enquiries will rumble on for years, there seems to be almost unanimous agreement that News Corp has acted unethically in its phone hacking of innocent victims and their families. Whether its politicians, bankers or journalists, plausible deniability seems to be the watchword. It may constitute a legal defence, but when will public figures learn that ‘I didn’t know, I’m as shocked as you are’ doesn’t really cut it anymore!
How quixotic that companies flourishing scarce advertising dollars, concerned for their brands, are the new arbiters of ethics, probably the only constituency that has any influence on News Corp behaviour. Well done Ford et al.
How bizarre also that News Corp should have a Code of Ethics for the CEO and Senior Financial Officers, but not one for the rest of the organisation! In the light of past events, it is quite clear why! No one wanted to restrict the questionable methods of those sent out into the murky twilight world of News of the World ‘investigative journalism’. Interesting also that ethics in the eyes of News Corp is only related to money and those who are responsible for it; values principles, responsibility seemingly have no part.
Learning the lessons:
ReplyDeleteAlthough we are in the middle of a media feeding frenzy over the Murdoch ‘empire’ and this still has some way to run, it is perhaps instructive to stand back and consider what can be learnt from this, and its wider applicability.
In this regard I will make three points:
1.Governance: it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape the conclusion that this organisation either lacked necessary governance processes and procedures, starting right at the top and falling (failing?) down through the whole organisation, or chose to ignore them. The Nelson ‘blind eye’ and ‘plausible deniability’ can quickly come to dominate in the absence of rigorous and transparent corporate governance.
2. Ethics: this is not an easy nor a trivial subject in a corporate context but if the prevailing culture is one of making the news and getting the scoop at all costs, it certainly appears ‘the end justifying the means’ becomes the default option, where success is defined and rewarded by outcomes alone.
3. Leadership: perhaps it’s a cliché but a corporate culture and its associated behaviours are set and maintained by what the company’s leaders say and, more importantly, actually do. So, if the company has good procedures on paper/in theory but in practice ignores them and implicitly supports ‘bad’ behaviour, intelligent staff will quickly understand what is rewarded and react accordingly.
And of course, the record shows that a company can get away with this for a while, perhaps indeed quite a long time but in the end something gives, gets revealed and then the house of cards is vulnerable. Suddenly – too late – people begin to see that corporate reputation is more than just a useful word. It has impact, value and can really spoil your party if it’s gone bad. One minute you are being feted by the world and its leaders and the next you are close to pariah status; your next major business deal is in jeopardy and you are having to cut firebreaks, sacrificing people and important projects, just to survive.
So, what can we conclude? Many things of course but here a few thoughts:
- Business performance is about the short, medium and long term
- Reputation has to be earned and actively retained
- Your company is a part of society not apart from society
- You need to invest in your stakeholders
- All those boring apparently non-core things like board accountability, good governance, serious codes of conduct and demonstrable corporate social responsibility activity are essential if the company is to be sustainable over the long term.