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Showing posts from July, 2011

Lessons from the Murdoch scandal

(Published in Business Mirror under the Mirror Image Column, June 20, 2011) It’s all over the press. News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch has obviously metamorphosed from a venerable media mogul to a subject of assault from all sides. Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World last week after it was accused of hacking and eavesdropping on the phones of politicians, murder victims and other famous personalities. There were also reports and revelations of cover-ups and potential bribery of the police, the resignation of top Murdoch executives and the death of a whistle-blower. A scandal of this proportion is rife with invaluable business, management, and leadership lessons that we can learn from. Clearly, ethical conduct is one of them. It’s obvious that eavesdropping on other people to get information and publish it is absolutely unethical, not to mention the reported police bribery to cover up. But what is glaring is the gap between what Murdoch is publicly preach...