The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Archive for October, 2010

Countrywide: How Artificial Reality Trumped Leadership

In a post-mortem on mortgage lender Countrywide Financial and its former CEO, Angelo Mozilo, columnist Gael O’Brien explains how personal baggage and ego unchecked can drive unintended outcomes – sometimes persuading a leader to turn a deaf ear to criticism and information that’s needed to get back on course.

Scary New Wage Data

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston says an analysis of recent U.S. government wage data shows that since 1980, the bottom 90 percent of Americans have seen their incomes go nowhere, while on the highest steps of the income ladder, the further up you are, the greater your gains. “This orgy of money exhibitionism,” he writes, “has created a society in which commas — it takes three to be a billionaire — count more than character.”

GSK to Pay $750 Million Fine; Whistleblower to Get $96 Million

GlaxoSmithKline and a subsidiary agreed to pay $750 million to settle charges that between 2001 and 2005 they distributed adulterated drugs made at GSK’s now-closed manufacturing facility in Cidra, Puerto Rico. U.S. authorities said a corporate whistleblower who had filed a lawsuit against GSK under provisions of the U.S. False Claims Act will receive approximately $96 million from the federal share of the settlement.

Opinion: Inglorious CEOs

As each headline about corporate malfeasance is juxtaposed against record profits and bonuses, Americans become more jaded about the ethics of today’s business leadership. Many CEOs seem to lack the emotional awareness to deal with their own image problem.

Citizens United: Waking a Sleeping Giant

A constitutional law expert says the U.S. Supreme Court ’s January ruling in the Citizens United campaign spending case raises a host of corporate governance issues that should be addressed by legislation before the 2012 Presidential election. “One of the reasons that this is such an objectionable decision,” she argues, “is it allows corporate managers in publicly traded companies to spend what Justice Brandeis called ‘other people’s money.’”

Docs on Pharma Payroll Have Blemished Records

Drug companies say they hire the most-respected doctors in their fields for the critical task of teaching about the benefits and risks of their drugs. But an investigation by ProPublica uncovered hundreds of doctors on company payrolls who had been accused of professional misconduct, were disciplined by state boards or lacked credentials as researchers or specialists.

Lawsuits Say Pharma Illegally Paid Doctors to Push Their Drugs

Drug companies say the millions of dollars they pay physicians for speaking and consulting justly compensates them for the laudable work of educating their colleagues. But ProPublic reports that a series of lawsuits brought by former employees of those companies allege the money often was used for illegal purposes — financially rewarding doctors for prescribing their brand-name medications.

Opinion: Traditional Philanthropy Gives Way to a New Power

For generations, philanthropy was the exclusive domain of the wealthy and powerful. Many of the great benefactors of the early 20th century made their fortunes from the railroad, steel, and oil industries. How times have changed. Many of today’s entrepreneurs are building their businesses based on the idea of fulfilling a new kind of social contract, one in which organizations voluntarily take responsibility for the “triple bottom line”: people, planet, and profits.

Johnson & Johnson, Under Investigation, Tops CSR Index

Johnson & Johnson topped a list of companies perceived by American consumers as having the best reputations for corporate social responsibility practices. Months after research for the Index was conducted, the company admitted that it misled regulators and consumers by using contractors to buy defective Motrin painkiller products from store shelves rather than announce a recall.

Bike Lanes and Paths Are the Rage Across America

Around the U.S. new bike lanes and paths are all the rage, helping cash-strapped cities simultaneously green operations and trim budgets—adding bike lanes is far less costly (to taxpayers and the environment) than building new roads