By Angela Marshall
Spitzer gave the keynote address during Molloy's third annual Joseph F. Maher Leadership Forum on March 14. This year's topic was The Conduct of Business: Restoring the Public Confidence. Following Spitzer's address, a panel of business leaders led by Ron Insana, co-anchor of CNBC's Business Center, continued the ethics discussion.
The idea for the center and the forum was sparked by the recent Enron and WorldCom scandals. Spitzer said students need to learn that the bottom line is not the only measure of success.
The attorney general said it is not just the corrupt business people who are to blame for the recent scandals. Everyone failed simultaneously, he said, blaming boards of directors, attorneys and investment banks alike.
He said the problems began when small improprieties were tolerated. The envelope of acceptability was pushed and continued to be abused because those who should have spoken up relied on group think and did nothing to stop it, according to Spitzer.
Thankfully, we have awakened, he said. We will say Ôno more.' We will demand a higher level of ethics.
Despite these strong words and his belief that fire walls have been created to head off the deficiencies that led to this corporate crisis, Spitzer ended his speech by asking How long will it last?
We learn the lesson and then we forget, Spitzer continued, saying he hopes Molloy's ethics center will help.
The center will target three distinct audiences: the business community, the public and Molloy students. A variety of programming options will be available for each.
Our region is the world capital of commerce, said Molloy President Drew Bogner. The leaders of commerce are here. The discussion of business ethics will take place here. Molloy College is here. Because of our geography, tradition and values system, it would be a missed opportunity to not provide the forum for this vital discussion.
The leadership panel assembled for the forum included Ronald E. Blaylock, CEO of Blaylock & Partners; Matthew T. Crosson, president of Long Island Association; Michael J. Dowling, president of North Shore-LIJ Health System; Douglas W. Kurz, office managing partner of Pricewaterhouse Coopers; Thomas M. O'Brien, CEO of Atlantic Bank of New York; Nancy Nugent, attorney; Fred Price, COO of Sandler O'Neill & Partners, and Peter Quick, president of the American Stock Exchange.
Members of the panel agreed that ethics must be taught in school because no regulations are going to block someone bent on getting around them. Crosson quoted statistics stating that 80 percent of high achievers in high schools admitted to cheating and that 84 percent of college students believe you have to cheat to get ahead.
This has as much to do with character as it has to do with rules and regulations, Dowling said. He believes there are too many people thinking about themselves instead of participating in corporate citizenship.
