Source: Associated Press

If you would have told me a little more than a week ago that Pennsylvania State University would have been marred by the discovery and subsequent arrest of a football coach/alleged child predator that would have brought the downfall of the icon that is Joe Paterno as well as the school’s Athletic Director and President, I would have advocated for your committal to a psychiatric ward. But as much as I attempted to rub my eyes and make it all go away, the reality – and severity – of the situation remained. And rest assured, we haven’t heard the end of it.

Like most events of this magnitude, the downfall was swift and devastating on multiple fronts. What’s more, blame cannot be placed on just one person. It’s true that Jerry Sandusky is the person charged with committing heinous acts, but he alone didn’t cause the upheaval of an entire football program or university. There were other folks to blame there, for their actions or lack thereof.

We’ve seen this same scenario in recent days, though in much different contexts. MF Global Holding’s demise last week came about almost as suddenly and put 1,000-plus individuals out of work seemingly overnight as questions lingered as to where significant sums of money went. It’s cause – poor oversight and accountability as well as overexposure in the European markets, despite the fact that company head Jon Corzine came in with significant credentials for this financial acumen and integrity. While certainly not as revolting as tales of alleged rape on a college campus, the effects of MF Global going under severely impacted many innocent bystanders nonetheless.

Source: Bloomberg News

So if we can displace our anger and sadness for just a moment, there’s a lesson for us fellow business owners here. No matter how successful we may become, we can never stray away from fundamental core values of honesty, integrity and transparency while also ensuring that no act that is inconsistent with the organization’s stated beliefs is tolerated. For when we do, we go down a very slippery ethics slope and alter its basic guiding principles. When that happens, the result will be very similar to what we saw at State College in Pennsylvania and Wall Street; an immediate and destructive end. Make no mistake – no organization is immune from this very real fact. If high standards of accountability and action aren’t maintained each day – EVERY day – institutions will most certainly fail.