Lessons from the FIFA scandal

Another FIFA official, Chuck Blazer, has already pled guilty to 10 counts including taking bribes and is considered a “chief informant” in the Justice Department investigation.

Corruption runs deep in that organization, and few would doubt that it’s been that way for years or even decades as FIFA maintained its virtually monopoly on controlling the highest levels of the world’s most popular sport.

So what lessons does this provide for the successful advisor? A few come to mind:

• You are not above the law. While an organization as large, visible and powerful as FIFA obviously never flew “under the radar,” so to speak, certainly there is some hubris there. Officials probably believed no one would dare challenge the way they conducted global business. Whether it’s a famous athlete, a high-powered CEO or the trust fund kid living off the family name or business, the rich and powerful seem to sometimes feel invincible, have a sense of entitlement and feel they should be above the rules that apply to the “common” people. Anyone who has become a wealthy, highly successful and well-known professional in their community should beware of the traps this feeling lays down. All it takes is one incident of bad behavior brought to light to knock you off that high horse.

• Remove high incentives for misconduct. Whenever you have the potential for someone to be able to cash in by exchanging a vote, extending influence or breaking the rules for monetary gain with little oversight, you have a scenario ripe for bad behavior. More than one advisor has been tripped up by rationalizing a “one-time” ethical misstep as being “just the way things get done” in certain circles, such as the circle a bad client runs in. Surely he won’t make the same misstep again, unless he gets away with it the first time or a similar situation arises.

One transgression often leads to another, and before long an advisor who never thought he would find himself on a slippery slope is caught in a pattern of morally disengaged actions. Corruption will eventually cause any legitimate business to implode, so it is important to create and enforce a strong ethics policy making it clear that such transgressions will not be tolerated.