It’s well accepted that the CEO is the most important element to setting a company’s ethics and compliance tone. At most companies the board of directors pays close attention to integrity and ethical values when considering candidates for the position, and in measuring the CEO’s performance.
But here’s a vital question: “How do we really know whether an individual is truly honest and ethical?” The short answer is that in many cases we just don’t. We’ve seen a number of companies oust their tarnished chief executives and scramble to quickly find a replacement—including Best Buy, Boeing, and Hewlett-Packard, among others—after they used questionable judgment, causing upheaval and associated pain and reputational damage.
