And it is the responsibility of organizational leaders to do the best, by their words and action, to make sure that they don’t. That highly educated men and women, who initially gathered together for largely noble purposes, are capable of the most incorrigible actions when they lose their moral compass when they lose perspective for the sake of expediency and personal gain. For the indefinite combination of individuals’ blind ambition, and their unquestioned pursuit of an unprincipled corporate strategy, will threaten organizations today as much as they did a half-century ago.Īnd that’s the take-away from this fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Watergate scandal. That while years may pass, the potential for corporate scandal most definitely does not. They should prompt an acknowledgment that while times may change, temptations rarely do. All the President’s Men is a riveting detective story, capturing the exhilarating rush of the biggest presidential scandal in US history as it unfolded in real time. The Dow cracked 1000? What century was that in? Mention “All the President’s Men” to anyone under 50 and they’ll likely will conjure up images of Robert Redford’s bell-bottomed pants and Dustin Hoffman’s long hair.īut for those in positions of board or executive leadership today, the images should be different, and more serious. The first launch of the space shuttle what was that? The Munich Olympic murders never heard of it.

Many current corporate board and executive leaders weren’t even born in 1972, and few others remember the times. Present day organizational leaders should ask, “Could my executives act in such a way, today? Could such a culture arise in my organization, today?”įor sure, 50 years is a long time.

All the President's Men by Bob Woodward