The Accountability Crisis
2010-06-29
BP, UBS, AIG, Lehman..the global economy is suffering from an accountability problem. CEOs might be responsible for the management of the companies but in the very end are not made accountable for their mistakes. This provides publicly listed companies with a comparative disadvantage with respect to corporate credibility and trustworthiness. Who will ultimately be made responsible for the finance tsunami, or the collateral damage of the crisis such as the wave of suicides in French companies or the environmental disaster caused by the BP crisis? While the patron and entrepreneur is exposed with his or her personal wealth to crises, the Haywards and Ospels of this world are leaving the damaged companies through the backdoor with a fat retirement package. In this spirit CEOs are nothing more than excessively paid employees.