Earlier this week I wrote about poverty: how its brutal reality makes corporate compliance programs so difficult to implement, because people in emerging markets (foreign officials and employees alike) need to take bribes to survive. Bribery is a necessity as much as it is a blight on progress.
That column got plenty of attention and comment on Twitter, LinkedIn, and elsewhere. Some people did rightly point out that higher salaries alone will not end the endemic problem of bribery; better regulations for free trade, a culture that values the rule of law, and firm anti-corruption discipline among corporations are all just as important, they said. I agree.
