Societal distrust of “Big Business”

A few years ago big business took a big blow as such giants as Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Andersen, at one time the unchallenged leaders in their respective world markets, suddenly fell. In a short period of time, hundreds of thousands of people became victims of the actions of a relative few. However, in the mire created by such circumstances, many courageous and accountable people took action and came out on top.  Take, for instance, one intimate interview with Jim Copeland, former CEO of Deloitte & Touche.  In this interview, Fortune Magazine reporters captured the essence of the CEO’s choice to face reality:

“As the news that employees in Arthur Andersen’s Houston office had destroyed thousands of Enron-related documents scrolled across a TV news ticker one afternoon in early January, Copeland’s stomach turned.  He knew instinctively that the focus of all the public outrage, the government investigations, and the breathless media coverage would shift to Andersen and, by extension, to the rest of the accounting profession.” Copeland, knowing his firm would not escape scrutiny and criticism, mustered the courage to face the situation head on.  One of the toughest realities he had to face was the need to separate consulting services, a very lucrative part of the firm, from accounting and auditing services.  Deloitte & Touche had long tied consulting and accounting services together because of the natural synergies and benefits to clients, and the firm was committed to maintaining that strategy until one morning when Manoj Singh, head of the firm’s consulting services business in the United States, showed up in Copeland’s office.  Fortune reported the pivotal moment: “Singh had just learned that a big audit client was backing out of a contract to use Deloitte Consulting for a multimillion-dollar restructuring and cost-reduction study. The client was concerned about the perception of a conflict. Copeland nodded sadly and picked up the phone.  He dialed Douglas McCracken, the head of Deloitte Consulting worldwide, and William Parrett, the managing partner for Deloitte’s American accounting tax, and related services.  That afternoon the four men—Copeland, McCracken, Singh, and Parrett—locked themselves in a conference room for five hours.  They emerged, Copeland recalls, with tears in their eyes.  They began working the phones, hosting marathon conference calls with partners around the world.  Their message was simple: The one-firm model was dead. Deloitte & Touche would reluctantly separate from Deloitte Consulting.”

With that message the whole company took one firm step Above The Line®. While their might be a societal distrust of big business, your company doesn’t have to be a part of it.  If you focus on the key concept of accountability you will see the powerful results that come from individual and organizational accountability.