I call the drivers the “Seven Deadly Sins of Organizations.” The (un)ethics drivers identified and described are:
1st Deadly Sin: Those that “deny and deflect” as a strategy to obscure unethical conduct.
2nd Deadly Sin: Disingenuous leaders that say one thing and do another.
3rd Deadly Sin: Those that “move fast and brake things” without regard to consequences.
4th Deadly Sin: The “smartest guys in the room” who think that they are above it all and can get away with anything.
5th Deadly Sin: Those that hide behind the screen that “everybody does it.”
6th Deadly Sin: Those that think everything is grey and look for excuses for their actions.
Let me further elaborate on the 7th Deadly Sin because it is particularly applicable to the latest article I read (more below)…
7th Deadly Sin: Those that blame misconduct on attorneys and external auditors who approved the conduct at sometime and somewhere. I pointed out that attorneys often blow by the ethics part on their way to defending (at all cost) questionable actions on the part of their clients. And external auditors can be conflicted because they, too, are being paid by their clients and can fall in to the “tell them what they want to hear” trap.
Well, now I can officially add external consultants as a potential driver (“turbocharger”) of unethical conduct for organizations. It was just reported by The New York Times that McKinsey agreed to pay a fine of $573 million for its part in “helping to turbocharge” opioid sales through its work with Purdue Pharma.
So, here is the 8th Deadly Sin of Organizations: Just because an external consultant recommends the actions, doesn’t mean its okay. The consultant can be as unethical as the client. (As I absolutely believe in the case of opioid manufacturers, marketers, etc….)
Here’s some background: McKinsey was hired to advise Purdue how to increase sales (and defend against the pushback) in the middle of the ongoing opioid epidemic. And McKinsey, in its desire to earn consulting fees, disregarded “ethics” as a part of its recommendations.
And here are some great snippets from the article:
“McKinsey worked with Purdue executives in finding ways “to counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers that overdosed” on the drug.”
“In 2013, the federal government reached a settlement with Walgreens, the pharmacy chain, to crack down on illegal opioid prescriptions. Sales to Walgreens began to fall. According to the Massachusetts lawsuit, McKinsey recommended that Purdue “lobby Walgreens’ leaders to loosen up.”
“By 2018, senior executives at McKinsey were becoming aware that they might face liability for their opioid work… a leader in the firm’s pharmaceutical practice, wrote to another partner… ‘It probably makes sense to have a quick conversation with the risk committee to see if we should be doing anything’ other than ‘eliminating all our documents and emails…’”
WOW.
What was McKinsey thinking?… Other than more fees, more fees, more fees?
As Tim Cook has recently, and very appropriately, stated in the context of technology and privacy…
“Too many are still asking the question ‘How much can we get away with?’ when they need to be asking the questions ‘What are the consequences?’”
This is so relevant to more than just technology, though. McKinsey, as well as all leaders and organizations everywhere, need to focus on ethics and the consequences of their actions. McKinsey clearly didn’t and are now paying for their actions.
I will leave you with these two questions to ponder today:
Do your organization’s actions match their values?
Do your organization’s actions match YOUR values?
If not, it may be time for a change in 2021.
Grab my book, Becoming The Everyday Ethicist, and check out Chapters 6-10 which are ALL ABOUT Organizational Ethics and what companies need to start doing TODAY. And start influencing change.
