Blank check is no check at all

In the school of hard knocks, Koss's chief executive has made a $4.5 million tuition payment. The lesson in return? Don't exempt your financial executive from oversight, and she won't get to take millions out of your business account to pay her personal American Express bill. What if Koss fails to learn this lesson? Then what started out as a one-time expense will turn into a downpayment on institutional folly. For details, see yesterday's Wall Street Journal article, http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/12/23/koss-executive-accused-of-embezzling-company-funds-to-pay-off-shopping-spree/

Pitfalls like these occur more frequently than most people realize, with many top managers opting to make their tuition payments quietly to avoid embarrassment and loss of investor or consumer confidence. Such faux pas typically trigger an overreaction: a new audit or ethics program, an unleashing of hated sentinels who see catastrophe lurking around every corner. What is a more reasonable answer?

A simple No Dark Corners approach can redesign work flow to reduce opportunities for any individual to go astray. Everyone follows the rules. The workplace puts a premium on transparency, and no one-- no matter how senior or privileged-- gets a blank check to commit significant funds without some kind of witness and authorization. If the leadership at Koss balks about such basics, one can only wonder what other questionable activities may be eluding scrutiny in some accidental or contrived dark corner.

- Nick Catrantzos

How close is too close?

Two recent events illustrate the predicament that torments defenders daily but otherwise eludes executive attention -- until an adverse consequence, that is. Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, controversial and flamboyant, liked to mingle with crowds, keeping a Kiplingesque common touch. But after an unstable member of the crowd exhibited an unsophisticated knack for Berlusconi bashing with a blunt object at close range, blood and broken incisors will now make the PM rethink his priorities for personal protection.

The White House party crasher incident with more minor miscreant social climbers deserves rethinking through the same lens. While defenders step up to take the blame the way they take a bullet, part of the ultimate responsibility for such security failures invariably traces to the top. Usually, a rung on that ladder to the top is a social secretary or image handler whose intense focus on photo ops creates or widens the exposure. But, most of the time, it is the protectee who calls the shots and decides when to ignore defender advice and protection.

Ours is a troubled, volatile world. All leaders need to think seriously about their personal security, not just for themselves but for their fellow citizens who placed them in office for a reason. Part of honoring one's constituency and office is being around to do the job. And that means taking security very seriously when in crowds or exposed venues.

- Nick Catrantzos