Harvards lesson in ethics (USA Today via IndyStar.com)
Add comment October 3rd, 2006
Harvard’s lesson in ethics (USA Today via IndyStar.com)
Jeffrey Skilling, who was convicted in May of masterminding a massive accounting fraud at Enron, has one.
So does E. Kirk Shelton, the former vice chairman of Cendant who was found guilty last year of fabricating earnings at the company.
What do these men, former titans of the new economy, share besides being snared by investigations into securities fraud? They have master of business administration degrees from Harvard Business School.
If any lesson is to be learned from the accounting scandals of recent years, it’s that no one — not even executives trained at some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning — is immune to the temptations of the executive compensation bonanza, where subtle manipulations of accounting entries can translate into bonuses and stock options worth tens of millions of dollars.
As a result of the wave of accounting frauds exposed at Enron, WorldCom, HealthSouth and other companies, business schools across the nation have beefed up their offerings on ethics education.
