Broken Business

THE CRISIS AT WIND

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

—Bob Dylan

Over the years I have seen a good number of global companies cope with ethics scandals, which have originated from allegations of breaches of laws and regulations. These come to the attention of regulators and prosecutors, who then proceed with their investigations. The details are unique to any given company, but the overarching patterns and trends are generally the same. Ultimately, the companies are found to have had similar, flawed business models and their leaders made similar bad decisions; those leaders appeared to be afflicted with a blindness (often wilful) to issues they should have seen coming.

Before diving into the seven-step process of Empowering Integrity, it is enlightening to start with a salutary tale. What follows is a fictionalized account of a company that has come off the rails and doesn't even know it until it is too late. The reasons for using fiction are twofold. First, for confidentiality reasons, I cannot reveal the names and details of companies that I have worked with. Second, the essence of a fable is to be illustrative. While the company and characters are invented, they are archetypes very much based in truth and reality. The problems they have, and the poor decisions they make, are an amalgamation of issues I have seen again and again.

The story I present here looks at the experience of Wind International, a large global manufacturer of wind turbines ...