In the world of finance, there are a select amount of manipulative masterminds that sit on a throne of lies. Those who commit these white-collar crimes take advantage of institutions and all classes of people. Ultimately, the enormity of these crimes brings ruin and chaos to the lives of those affected. In this manner, Bernard Lawrence Madoff is just one of these individuals who ran history’s largest Ponzi scheme. To begin, Bernie Madoff was born in Queens, New York in 1938. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Hofstra University in 1960 and shortly thereafter started his own firm known as Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC., which offered reliable returns, alongside his wife Ruth. Due to the companies growing popularity from those reliable annual returns, his client list grew to include impressive celebrities like Steven Spielberg, Kevin Bacon, and Kyra Sedgwick. Also included were some of the Continue reading
Business Ethics
Ethics in Financial Reporting
Integrity is of utmost importance for a successful career in business and finance in the long run. Some believe that the world of finance lacks ethical considerations. Whereas the truth is that such issues are prevalent in all areas of business. The business environment in much of the world is reeling from the revelation of several financial scandals in the past few years. The optimism of the turn of the century has been replaced by scepticism and distrust. It will be discussed as to how we landed ourselves in this situation, what is being done to correct it, and what the future holds for us. Though Enron has been used as the poster-child for this purpose, breakdowns in accounting and corporate governance in Enron as well as in other companies will be discussed. Some companies that have encountered financial reporting problems will be discussed along with the role of auditors Continue reading
What is Servant Leadership?
In many situations we are able to draw associations or determine one situation resembles another. When individuals in leadership roles give of themselves so that others may have it is often associated with a negative connotation. Although giving and serving is not viewed in the political or religious aspect, leaders tend to develop their own views and formulate ideas that have been tampered with by politician or religious leaders. Many of the political and religious leaders have a major influence of the day-to-day operation and views of society. We first have to know what leadership is. Leadership is the ability to get other to follow you willingly. A leader must have a vision and know exactly where to go. They also have to take the vision and act upon it and not sit back and let the followers do all the work. Within the vision, they have to communicate with Continue reading
Examples of Unethical Behavior by Organizations
Unethical Behavior by Organizations Anything that a businessman can do in the best interest of society is to be a good businessman. It means that they should try to maximize the profit which is the ultimate target of any business. Here is the point when businessmen think that instead of wasting time and resources with ethics they should focus on finance, marketing and business operations. As long as a business is operating within the rules, the only social responsibility of business is to increase its profit with the use of business resources. Concisely it can be said that remain in open and free competition without being involved in fraud or deception. Multinational corporations operate in countries where bribery, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, and lack of concern for the environment are neither illegal nor unethical or unusual. The company must decide whether to adhere to constant ethical principles or to adjust Continue reading
Social Entrepreneurship in India
Social entrepreneurship as the concept was coined long ago but has been in the corporate parlance in just the recent past. Traditionally, entrepreneurship has been associated with profit making individuals who aim high and achieve a lot for themselves in the world of tough competition. And the success of enterprise was and is being judged on parameter like return on investment and net income margins. But, with the empowerment and awareness of the citizens of the developing world, a new revolution has started, particularly among the youth of the world. This revolution is the growth of Social Entrepreneurship – the form of entrepreneurship where profits are not the end result, but just the means to achieve the end result of social upliftment and further empowerment. Social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector by adopting a mission to create and sustain social value, by recognizing and Continue reading
The Lessons from Enron: The Importance of Proper Internal Controls
The events were finally resulting the filing for bankruptcy in December 2001, started way much before fraud at Enron could be even suspected.  Andersen played a major role in the collapse of Enron.  Andersen failed two times regarding audit issues just a few years short time before the collapse of Enron, at Waste Management in 1996 and at Sunbeam in 1997. The two audit failures mentioned above should have been huge warning signs for Andersen to protect itself against another client failure but what they had to face regarding Enron was worse than they ever had.  Some internal memos at Andersen made it clear that several conflicts existed between the auditors and the audit committee of Enron.  These memos contained several e-mails as well which expressed concerns about accounting practices used by Enron.  David B. Duncan as the leading partner on the audit tipped over these concern. There is Continue reading