I’ve had a couple people email me the “news story” about JCI winning an award from some outfit called Ethisphere as in Ethics and sphere for its ethical ways. You can be sure that with all the carping about JCI going on in Duluth its local representatives are working over time to repair their tarnished reputation. You can find a link to the story in this skeptical post in the DuluthPolitics blog.
As I’ve said before you don’t get to be a Fortune 100 company in the US by developing a reputation for ripping your customers off. JCI manufactures air conditioners. On a hot day who doesn’t enjoy a good air conditioner?
But just as we do not permit the legal standard of “guilt by association” to prevail in our courts of law neither should we adopt the “innocence by association” standard. Look at the ripoff artists who have been unmasked in this recession as their ponzi schemes have imploded. Almost without exception men like Bernie Madoff and Tom Petters have cultivated reputations for their charitable work. It was charity with other people’s money.
The first person to beat the hell out of me for expressing doubt about JCI was Ralph Doty who told his readers that the JCI folks he had worked with in Ohio were honorable people. So what? That kind of guilelessness is what gives you Bernie Madoffs. Its as though Ralph has never heard the adage most children learn early about rotten apples. I can just imagine Ralph leaning over to a friend and whispering, “Bernie is my guy. If you’d like to get some investment advice I’ll give you an introduction.” If our courts worked on the principle that Mother’s are the best judge of character no Mother’s son would ever be found guilty of any wrong doing and we would have no need of jails.
I think the idea of acknowledging ethical work in business is a good idea but I know little about this outfit other than what I have found on its website. It reminds me of all the phony award factories that have been set up with some hidden donor’s political agenda in mind who go about finding important politicians to hand out awards to. They stoke the ego of an important person. They give the politician good publicity and perhaps even political cover if the award is undeserved. In return their hidden benefactors may get help when they lobby for favorable treatment or helpful legislation. In the case of this “award” its being circulated throughout Duluth now to shore up JCI’s sullied reputation.
There are two major examples that have been in the news that demonstrate the rotten apple principle where JCI is concerned. New Orleans and Chrysler. Perhaps Duluth will make it a triple.
