Alec Hogg: Secret sauce which makes staff evil

Last week, global management consultants McKinsey agreed to pay $573m to settle a slew of legal claims across the United States. The firm best known in SA for facilitating Gupta plunder at Eskom and Transnet, was accused in the US of being part of "a machine that destroyed lives" by developing strategies to turbocharge sales of the addictive painkiller Oxycontin..Also read: Alec Hogg: Magnus Heystek nails Old Mutual.A few years ago, another once-venerable US brand was irreparably damaged when major US bank Wells Fargo admitted its staff created literally millions of savings and cheque accounts on behalf of clients never nothing of it. This grandscale fraud led to the firing of 5 300 staff and cost the bank almost $3bn in settlements. It also lost Wells a long-time shareholder in Warren Buffett..Responding to Friday's newsletter, a Community member said after he'd instructed Old Mutual to sell his investments, by using OM's own platform he discovered the price they settled was lowest of the entire week – reducing payout by over R100 000. After presenting this evidence, he says OM 'fessed up, paid the difference but then closed the platform down to end their transparency..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Also read: Alec Hogg: SA modelled on declining power bloc.In all three of these instances – and many more like them – the people involved would likely claim to be moral, upstanding citizens. Their behaviour, however, was shaped by profit-generating ideas created at the top of the organisation. Such perverse incentives are the secret sauce that make employees evil..Now available – the latest BizNews Digest, our clickable PDF with all the past week's great content – click here to download..NB FOR YOUR WALL STREET JOURNAL ACCESS….Because of The Wall Street Journal's credential requirements to access its site, your password MUST be at least 8 characters and include at least one letter and one number; and it MAY NOT contain any special characters (ie #, !, @ etc). To maintain access to WSJ.com, you MUST enter our partner's website at least once a month via BizNews Premium.TO LISTEN….Today's fresh audio on BizNews Radio.…..(click on the link to access).FB: Malema visits Zuma; SA-variety Covid global economic threat Catholic Church puts assets out of reach of sex abuse claimantsShort-seller Carson Block – other side of the GameStop frenzyMagnus Heystek: Why SA asset manager performance so dismalTaking Stock of past JSE week: Curro, Sasol, Sibanye, Distell Inside Covid-19: Why it may take 7 years for normality to return

Alec Hogg: Secret sauce which makes staff evil

Related Stories

Meet Tshepo Mahloele – Big Capitec shareholder, ABSIP’s “CEO of the Decade” now accused by Holomisa as kingpin of corrupt network

PREMIUM: Making of a great editor – the George Palmer playbook

Premium – BizNews global portfolio: ASML joins – so does Adobe as Bull takes hold again

Alec Hogg: Helen Zille predicts SA choice will be DA or EFF