385

STEPHANIE OSULLIVAN
diverse global communities is equally as
diverse. And we need people who see
a new way of doing business, who can
figure out how to ship tons of equipment to the far corners of the world
faster than anyone else on the planet
could. We need cyber experts who can
stay at the cutting edge of technology,
which is changing at an unprecedented
pace and accelerating. Those are diversity needs very specific to the Intelligence Community and to our business.
Our job is to understand and
explain the world around us; to assess,
analyze, and respond to the events that
impact our nations priorities. We cant
do that effectively if we are all following the same thought patterns. If you
take a look back at intelligence failures
over the years and decades, you will
find that a lack of diversity played into
our mistakes. If someone with a different perspective had been involved in so
many of those cases that person could
have asked the what if question that
might have avoided the failure.
Irving Janis, the psychologist credited for exposing the dangers of groupthink, actually used the Cuban Missile
Crisis in 1962 to expose the pitfalls of
homogeneity. In short, Janis concluded

that diversity of thought, valuing the

outside perspective, was essential to
avoiding all-out devastation.
That is exactly why Director Clapper and I talk about intelligence integration every chance we get; because
integration and diversity are not just
nice to have. They are imperative.
They make us strong.
In fact, it is the very core of the
ODNIs mission, bringing the best and
most appropriate minds to bear on our
toughest challenges. What that means
is preserving the unique capabilities
of the 17 different intelligence entities
and helping the entire community to
leverage those diverse capabilitiesnot
turning the Intelligence Community
into a big, bland bowl of oatmeal.
But diversity and integration dont
stop there. We need all of you. Integration cannot and does not end at the
boundaries of the Intelligence Community. Our partnerships extend across
the federal, state, and local governments and they depend on American
innovation. With your partnership we
can continue to stay ahead of those
most diverse threats.
So heres my pitch before we turn
this into a conversation: yes, if you

are an expert on cyber security or you

speak four languages there is a place
for you in the Intelligence Community, but if you are an accountant or
a lawyer, if you have a mind for logistics, or you are studying to become
an engineer, there is a place for you
too. There is an interesting puzzle, a
problem, a seemingly insurmountable
challenge out there that we need you
to solve.
And while we cant pay you what
you might make in some private sector
jobs, and we have some tough security requirements, what I can promise
you is the chance to work next to some
of the brightest, and most dedicated
people, people you will respect, people
who are motivated by something bigger than themselves. And together, we
can tackle some of the most interesting and challenging issues facing our
nation today.
As one of my first bosses told me
when I first joined the Intelligence
Community: I promise you, youll
never be bored. You will experience
every other emotion. But you will
never be bored. He was right. The
mission is unparalleled, and you can be
a part of it.

LIES, DAMNED LIESAND BUSINESS ETHICS COURSES

What you do in your business life will affect many around you. And when the hard decisions come, those whose lives are
most affected by your decisions are not going to ask how many business ethics courses you took. They will want to know
whether you are an honest person who treats others fairly and does not hide behind evasions.
Address by WILLIAM McGURN, Wall Street Journal
columnist, former chief speechwriter for
President George W. Bush

ood morning.
Id like to start by thanking
President Nyre and Dean Cante for
inviting me here this splendid autumn
day. The last time I was among the
Gaels, I was just starting college
myself. I was pursuing a young lady
who was then an Iona freshman.
Let me just say, I hope my visit this
time will prove more successful than
that one.

Delivered as the inaugural speech at Iona Colleges

Hagan School of Business Series, Advancing Ethical
and Moral Leadership, New Rochelle, N.Y., Oct. 17, 2015

When the Dean asked me to

speak, I took the opportunity to
ask him his definition of a good
speech. He told me it was simple.
You want a good beginning, and a
good ending. Most important, he
said, you want to put the two very
close together.
My topic today is moral and ethical leadership. But the venue is significant. We meet under the auspices of

Hagan Business School at a college named for an island off Scotland

in the Inner Hebrides.
That island is only 1.5 miles long
and 3 miles long. There Irish monks
nurtured faith and learning at a time
when the European continent was
going through the Dark Ages. I dont
think it a stretch to say that one reason we enjoy the blessings of Western civilization today is because of
DECEMBER 2015

386
the prayers and work of centuries of
these now forgotten monks.
The Iona community ought to take
encouragement from this legacy. Your
college name is no accident. It is a testament to founders who thought big
and understood the lasting impact that
a little institution with large convictions can make on our world.
This college is also a legacy of
Blessed Edmund Rice and the order
he founded to provide education for
those who otherwise would never get
one. Indeed, at the time Brother Rice
set up his schools for Catholic children
in Ireland, they were illegal.
As I prepared for this speech, I
wondered what Brother Rice would
have made of the word ethics. I
have a hunch old Brother Rice would
prefer simple right and wrong.
And I do too.
I come to this topic as a newspaperman who majored in philosophy
as an undergrad. Im sure some of the
parents here today will relate to my
dad. I think he looked at my decision
to major in philosophy as a guarantee that I would end up living over his
garage for the rest of my life. Happily
for us both, I managed to find gainful
employment.
My talk has three parts. First, I will
talk about the field of ethics, and why
the increase in ethics courses doesnt
seem to be producing more ethical
business leaders. Second, I will spend
a little time on the shortcomings of
profession-based ethics. Finally, I will
come to my main proposition, which
is that strong business ethics cannot be
had without strong personal character.
Let me start with perhaps the biggest problem with the teaching of ethics today. Relativism.
At so many universities today, students do not emerge from the college ethics courses they take with a
greater ability to distinguish between
right and wrongand offer a rational
explanation for why. To the contrary,
all too often they come out believing
that its all subjective.
Some of this has to do with a popular misreading of science. As we come
VSOTD.COM

VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY

to know more about the human brain,
growing numbers of people posit that
free will is an illusion and that what
we think of as right and wrong are
really just brain impulses over which
we have little or no control.
That is a crude oversimplification,
of course. And it has more to do with
a distortion of science than actual science. But it is real, and it is palpable.
Now couple this with the schools
of philosophy that reject the idea of
objective truth about man and his
nature. Once you do, you begin to
appreciate why the most lethal thing
you can do for a young mans sense
of morality is subject him to a college
ethics course.
These courses do not turn good
people into bad ones. But often it
leaves otherwise good people confused
and unsure of themselves, so that even
when they do the right thing, they
are not confident they can explain in
rational terms why their chosen course
was right.
This is not the place for a philosophical counterattack on the idea of
relativism. But I will say this:
Ive never met a relativist who lives
that way. A wronged relativist, for
example, does not say Under my
subjective code stealing is bad or my
brain impulses tell me you should not
have misled me.
To the contrary, he says, This guy
robbed me or That guy promised
to re-do our bathroom for $2,000 but
he lied and ripped me off. These
are appeals to others based on some
implicit and objective recognition that
a great wrong has been done.
This is a healthy and natural
instinct. But it is undermined by de
facto relativism when unformed minds
are introduced to variousand often
contradictoryschools of ethics and
left to fend for themselves.
This leads to my second point. I am
suspicious of business ethics. I am also
suspicious of values.
It is not because I dont believe
people in business should behave ethically. Its because I believe that ethics
modified by adjectiveswhether it

be business ethics, lawyer ethics,

journalistic ethicshave too been
reduced to a regulatory code separate
from character.
Ditto for values. When my wife and
I teach our children, we dont teach
values. We work to instill virtues.
I appreciate that each field has
unique circumstances that lend themselves to unique ethical dilemmas. Let
me give you an example from my own
field. In the news business, we have
practices that good journalists are
expected to follow. Years ago I took a
course in such ethics. And it included
some wise and practical guidelines.
For example, a reporter is supposed to get both sides of the story.
The instructor reminded us that
when you call someone for his side of
the story at 4 pm after your story is
already written and right before your
piece is going into the paper, you are
not really getting his side. To be fair,
you have to give people a reasonable
time to answer.
But so much of the course turned
out not to be about right and wrong
at all. It was really about best ways
to protect ourselves from being sued.
Thats good and useful, and it will
keep you away from some unethical behavior. But it has less to do with
doing the right thing than how to steer
clear of legal trouble.
Ditto for the idea that business ethics is about paying for your profits by
checking off some social boxesi.e.,
contributing to some charity or supporting some cause. These charities
and causes may well be worthy. But
when character is taken out of the
equation, business ethics can become
a cynical exercise in buying off bad
behavior with contributions to some
popular social cause, a latter day form
of buying indulgences.
Let me give another example of
what I mean by confused reasoning.
Many years ago, while on a long train
ride through Vietnam with an old college friend, he told me about an ethics
exercise he had taken at his Fortune
500 company. It began with a hypothetical: 30 people are stuck below the

387

WILLIAM McGURN
sea in a sub you have two hours to
get them out and the arithmetic
says you dont have enough time to get
them all out.
Those trapped had all sorts of
stories. One was a man with six kids
who was about to cure AIDSbut
he cheated on his wife. (My friend
told me many of the women put him
last). There was a handicapped elderly
person. There were young children.
There were men and women who
were making tremendous contributions to humanity in medicine, in
charitable work, and so forth.
It turned out that the answer the
company wanted you to give was to
bring them out by age, with those
youngest going first. I asked how
that was any more objective than my
proposal.
My proposal was this: the strong
defer to the weak.
This is one of the bedrocks of civilization. The weakest and most vulnerable go first.
In this sense I believe the wheelchair-bound grandmother in Iowa
goes before the Stanford brain surgeon. Its a variation of women and
children first. But I dont think you
would get that from any ethics textbook today. And I find that alarming.
My point is simply this. You cannot have business ethics without ethical businessmen, in the same way you
cant have journalistic ethics without
ethical journalists or medical ethics
without ethical doctors and nurses.
The more we try to substitute regulation for character, the further we get
from the goal. The flier for this series
speaks about how to navigate a complex world where ethics and values
often conflict with business situations
and decisions.
In fact, I believe complexity can
be an excuse. Dilemmas may well be
complex and involve many factors. But
the principles that we need to apply are
usually pretty simple: honesty, integrity,
and the willingness to do unto others as
you would have done to yourself.
Was it really all that complex what
Bernie Madoff did to deceive his

investors? Or when the dean of the

Stanford Business School chose to
have an affair with a professor who
was not only a subordinate but married to another Stanford Business
School professor? Are the issues of
right and wrong here really difficult
to discern?
Lets look at this from another
direction. My nephew recently graduated from West Point. As an officer in
the United States Army, at some point
he will be responsible for the lives of
men and women under his command.
West Point takes this responsibility
seriously. What people do not appreciate is that West Point is not designed
to produce the most brilliant generals.
West Point is a pact between the
American people and the United
States Army. It says to this nations
moms and dads: you pay for the training of these officers. In exchange,
when your son or daughter in uniform
is in harms way, we promise they will
be led by men and women of character and ability.
The honor code reflects this. Its
pretty simple: A cadet will not lie,
cheat or steal or tolerate those who
do. That covers a lot of ground. Its
not just taught in an ethics course.
Its meant to infuse a cadets entire
approach to his military career.
Ask yourself this: If the Army
believes that character is essential
on the battlefield, can it be any less
important in the boardroom?
So what is the answer?
Again, I think the answer is
what its been at least since Aristotle:
character.
Whats more, this is in fact how we
live in reality. In the marketplace, we
are often unsure of whom we are dealing with. So when we have to go to
someone we dont knowto buy a car,
to hire a plumber, to find a babysitter for our childrenwhat are the two
things we want to know most apart
from price?
The first is whether the person is
competent. The second is whether we
can trust them. Put it this way: if you
are making a big purchase, what gives

you more reassurance: a multipage

guarantee in fine print or the comfort that comes from knowing you are
dealing with a person you can trust?
When I was at the White House,
we used to have a saying: If it
wouldnt look good on the front page
of the Washington Post, probably you
shouldnt do it. Thats not bad advice.
Because if you are doing something
in the shadows, its a pretty good sign
its not the right thing. But character is
much larger than this.
Let me end with a story about an
engineer and a corporate leader who
were faced with a huge ethical challenge of their own. The engineers
name was William LeMessurier. The
businessman was Walter Wriston, the
chairman of Citicorp.
In 1978, a year after Citicorps
brand-new signature skyscraper
opened in Manhattan, its engineer
received a call from a student who
asked him a question about how the
building would hold up under pressure. Mr. LeMessurier went back to
his calculations and realized hed
miscalculated: under certain strong
windswhich came every 16 years
the building could be knocked down.
He investigated further, brought in
other engineers, and consulted with
the architect.
They decided to go to Mr. Wriston with the bad news. Mr. Wriston,
said Mr. LeMessurier, was fantastic.
He asked only needed to be done.
They came up with a plan to quietly
strengthen the building over a few
months, floor by floor. And they did it,
too, at a cost of millions.
They had many other choices.
Mr. LeMessurier could have kept
the info to himself, worried that
exposing his mistake would ruin
his career and invite lawsuits. When
Mr. Wriston found out, he could
have berated Mr. LeMessurier, and
threatened ruin and lawsuits to
absolve himself of any liability.
But they didnt.
Instead, they did what needed to
be done and they spent what it
took. In the end they were rewarded
DECEMBER 2015

388
for doing the right thing when people
learned what had happened. But there
was no guarantee it would come out
this way. Id say the difference was
simple: these were men of character.
My friends, most of you will never
find yourselves in such a position.
Most of you wont even have to make
those gut-wrenching decisions, such as
closing down a factory that is essential to a towns economy or taking
responsibility for an industrial accident
and the damage it has inflicted.
But what you do in your business
life will affect many around you. And
when the hard decisions comefor
example, firing a person who just isnt
up to the jobthose whose lives are
most affected by your decisions are not
going to ask how many business ethics
courses you took.

VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY

They will want to know whether
you are an honest person who treats
others fairly and does not hide behind
evasions.
If you are a person of character, they may still disagree with your
decisions. But they will respect you as
someone who asks the right questions
and steps up to his responsibilities. Just
as important, you will respect yourself.
Not everyone asks these questions.
But we are discussing right and wrong
at Iona today because this is an institution that expects its sons and daughters to be leaders and not followers.
As Pope Francis reminds us, business is a noble vocation. For a healthy,
thriving business not only makes profits for its owners, it gives men and
women the opportunity to provide for
their families and achieve their dreams

as they produce the goods and services

society wants.
So as the sons and daughters of
Iona make your way in the world of
business, I ask you this:
Regard your work life as a calling
and not just a job.
Treat everyone you deal with the
way you would like to be treated
yourself.
And when it comes to complex
ethical challenges, know that the right
thing to do will become more clear
if you remember that those on the
receiving end of your decisions are
human beings with the dignity that
comes from being fashioned in the
image and likeness of our Creator.
Thank you for having me, and
thank you for listening. Im happy to
answer any questions.

SHARPENING OUR VALUESFOCUSING OUR PRIORITIES

The task of sharpening institutional values is admittedly not easy. One faculty member confided before this meeting: I
dread endless hours of discussion. I dread that a lot of effort will be spent, without results.
Address by ROBERT L. VENINGA, Professor Emeritus,
School of Public Health, University of Minnesota

here is a wonderful story about

legendary coach Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers. He
was livid at the fumbles and errant
passes of his team. At the conclusion
of a game he grabbed a football and
shouted to his players: Men, this is
a football. Men, this is a football. At
which time a player asked: Coach,
can you go a little slower?
Today is not a time for going slow
for I want to address one of the most
important issues facing academia and
that is how to discover new values for
a new era and how to put a spotlight
on values that should never change. I
applaud you for setting up a thoughtful process to reexamine the bedrock
values of the University of Sioux
Falls. To say that this is an important task is an understatement. Steven
Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer noted: I dont think we know

VSOTD.COM

Delivered as a homecoming presentation for faculty and staff,

University of Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls, S.D., Oct. 8, 2015

what our values are anymore. I dont

think anybodys asked these questions
in decades. How else could we have
inner cities the way they are or an
educational system in the condition it
is? What do we care about? What do
we stand for? What are our priorities? We simply dont know, and were
already paying the price.
If an institution forgets its core
values its prestige, vitality and future
are diminished. When executives are
asked why their companies lost market
share, the answers are instructive: We
became complacent. Our energy
went to the latest management fad.
We lost our creative spirit and competitive fire. In brief, these companies
forgot the reasons for their success and
their foundational values.
The task of sharpening institutional
values is admittedly not easy. One
faculty member confided before this

meeting: I dread endless hours of discussion. I dread that a lot of effort will
be spent, without results.
I dont want you to have endless
discussions and I certainly dont want
the process of reviewing your values
to conclude without positive results.
Therefore consider four strategic suggestions: First ask challenging questions and have zero tolerance for
bland values that elicit little enthusiasm. Rather design value statements
that are so powerful that parents of
prospective students will say: Wow!
So thats what the University of Sioux
Falls stands for! I want my daughter/
son to be a part of that experience.
In order to discover and reaffirm
bedrock values, penetrating questions must be asked. When I suggest
to my students that they are playing
it safethey arent taking demanding courses and are dodging essential

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