Ethics? what's that gonna cost me?

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The golden rule of consulting...: ... is that they'll never let you make too much change. No matter what they say and no matter what they offer, radical change is never welcome.

In all 6 six cases you presented I would say that the organisations are dysfunctional.

My primary reaction would be to walk away from all of them.

My secondary reaction would be to negotiate a fee structure with a large up-front payment and then to write the report as I see fit. If they dispense with my services then so be it.

My overriding concern would be to not get sucked in to the spiral of corruption. If you endorse, in any way, the corrupt practices then when the inevitable investigation happens and your report is found then you're next on the investigator's list as a suspect or a collaborator.

I have had similar situations. With one of them the customer wanted me to falsify the project details and schedules so as to qualify for government grants that would underwrite a large portion of the cost. I walked away. Eight months later the police called at our premises investigating corruption. I was able to show that we cut our links with the customer BEFORE any crime was committed and our evidence supported a prosecution.

I have been instructed to lie directly directly to the chairman of a board by one of his underlings about the state of a project. In the meeting I gave my view and not the underlings and my contract was not renewed. Later (about 8 weeks) the truth came out and the underling "moved" to another business elsewhere. If I had lied I still would have lost the contract because there is some evidence you cannot cover up.

Maybe I would make more money by jumping on the gravy train, but I need to look in the mirror in the morning when I shave and I like to be able to sleep at night without worrying about the cops knocking on the door at 5am.; Posted by: bportlock Posted on: 01/16/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use