The Business Ethics Blog

I just found this neat little commentary by William Raspberry called “Corporate Crooks Take Lead in Teaching Executive Ethics.”
The author is commenting on the now-common practice of having corporate criminals and disgraced executives speak on ethics. This practice is generally seen as serving two purposes: one is that it provides an object lesson for business students and the business world more generally, and the other is that it forces the miscreant to recount, publically, the wrong they’ve done.
Raspberry’s skepticism about this practice is well taken. I must admit that I roll my eyes every time I see another flyer for one of these events. But Raspberry’s criticism misses one key point: when key figures from well-known scandals give talks, people are likely to actually show up. Given the choice, who would you rather hear give a talk on corporate ethics…former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, or some business ethics professor? So, as much as we might doubt the direct educational value of what a corporate criminal has to say, at least there’s a good chance that a public talk by such a person will generate discussion and draw focused attention to serious issues.

Here’s a story from CTV news about students at McGill university protesting a talk given by Paul Coffin, who was convicted for his part in the federal sponsorship scandal.

The first man charged and convicted for his part in the federal sponsorship scandal served part of his sentence Tuesday by speaking to a group of would-be business leaders at McGill University.

Former advertising executive Paul Coffin was a guest speaker at a management class on the Montreal university campus Tuesday. Such public speaking engagements are part of his conditional sentence.
For the small but boisterous group of protesters who gathered outside the classroom however, Coffin’s mere appearance was an affront.

“The guy should be in jail,” one incensed protester told CTV News. “He stole our public funds and got the trust of the Liberal Party to steal our money and the only sentence he gets is getting into the schools and trying to convince people that what he did was wrong?”

“He should be in jail, not at McGill.”