In My Opinion: Reponsibility Scorecard: CEO Zeroes and a Hero

Justifying his lifestyle and loose ethics, the corporate raider played by Michael Douglas in the film “Wall Street” delivered the memorably ironic line, “Greed is good.” (Greed’s what keeps the economy booming, after all.)

Well, greed officially is not good anymore, even in the business press. Fortune magazine recently excoriated the 25 “greediest executives” who cashed in on billions in insider stock sales while many of them knew their companies were about to nose-dive — in some cases, even while cooking the books to keep the rest of us in the dark.

But “greedy” isn’t a strong enough word to describe the criminally destructive behavior of many of these moguls.

Take Ken Lay and his fellow execs at Enron. While secretly knowing that their corporation was in ruins, on the very eve of declaring bankruptcy management was urging workers to buy more Enron stock and telling them the company was in great shape. This was to help prop up the stock price while Lay and others could finish unloading their own shares before the final crash — never mind that the workers were being set up to have their retirement savings wiped out.

Some might say that’s sociopathic behavior, on the order of swindlers, burglars and bank robbers who commonly are described as having antisocial personality disorders.

We know several in the hall of corporate shame from our own communications industry. Among the Fortune greediest is the former CEO of Qwest, Joseph Nacchio. Forced to resign in June, he personally reaped a $250 million profit from selling Qwest stock during a period when it is alleged that Qwest management was posting phony profits and misleading investors about the company’s health.

Among victims of the Qwest scandal are 27,000 CWA members who saw their 401(k) Qwest stock holdings plummet and in some cases are threatened with job loss as Qwest’s new leadership now works to avoid bankruptcy and turn the company around.
Global Crossing’s CEO Gary Winnick is another corporate looter of the first order. While misreporting earnings and riding his company into total collapse, Winnick urged his workers to buy more stock even as he was unloading his own shares and netting a cool $734 million.

At WorldCom, while management was booking more than $7 billion in phony profits, CEO Bernie Ebbers was pocketing $400 million in company loans. Adelphia’s John Rigas, recently seen on TV making the “perp walk” with federal agents, also is accused of accounting fraud totaling billions.

These are world class examples of greed, but more than that —
greed at the expense of tens of thousands of workers who lost jobs and retirement savings and of millions of shareholders bilked out of billions of dollars in investments.

However, there are other business leaders out there whose examples can help restore our faith in human nature.

A sharp contrast with Enron and WorldCom is Malden Mills, a Lawrence, Mass. textile company. It is also in bankruptcy court, but for very different reasons.

This community-rooted, family-owned company, known for its famous Polartec and Polarfleece materials used in winter clothing, won national media attention in 1995 when owner and CEO Aaron Feuerstein continued to keep his idle workers on the payroll after a fire destroyed his plant. Further, he rebuilt the plant in Lawrence, where people depend on the mill for jobs, rather than shift to overseas operations as some of his bank creditors wanted.

“I have a responsibility to the worker . . . I have a responsibility to the community,” Feuerstein told Parade Magazine. He said he considers his loyal workers an asset, not a cost item. These values, he explained, sustained the company for 90 years and contribute to the excellence of his product — a mainstay in the clothing lines of L.L. Bean, Patagonia, and Lands End and popular with mountain climbers all over the world.

The U.S. military is another big customer.

Feuerstein emerged as a hero to workers and business reformers, but not to everyone. GE Capitol Corp. led a group of lenders last year that forced Malden Mills into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing during an economic slump in the apparel industry.

Malden Mills is now fighting to climb out of bankruptcy and to retain Feuerstein as CEO, with strong support of loyal customers like Bean, but also with opposition of some of the bankers. The community and progressive supporters around the country are promoting the sale of Polartec products this winter to help out.

As the subject of corporate responsibility takes the media spotlight, it’s fitting that examples of outrageous corporate plunder and abuse finally are being exposed and punished.
At the same time, we need to highlight the examples of good corporate values — employers who play by the rules, who respect their workers, and who are good citizens within their local communities and in the American community overall.

I can tell you that, personally, this holiday season I’ll be buying quality Polartec clothing for people on my gift list.