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In expanding era of sleazy corporate tactics, VW sits atop the heap — for now

 
Published June 29, 2016

Is it my imagination or are more major companies adopting management strategies that are slipshod at best and outright lies at worst — all in the name of bamboozling customers, investors and government regulators in order to pursue short-term profits?

Cynical readers will derisively snort: So what else is new? That's what Big Business does. Where have you been hiding, Trigaux?

Yeah, well, the more you really pay attention to corporations, the more you can appreciate that most generally try to do the right thing. It can be a clumsy dance. Businesses need to make money in order to survive. At times they must make unpopular economic choices. But not sleazy ones.

Yet here we are, witnesses to too many major corporations consciously making quantum leaps in bad ethical or even criminal behavior.

Exhibit A: Volkswagen. What was the company thinking?

VW was a global company that by mid 2015 seemed on track to become the largest vehicle manufacturer on the planet. Now VW finds itself the clear front-runner in the highly competitive Despicable Me Award for the most corrupt of major corporations.

The German company this week agreed to pay up to $15.3 billion to settle emissions-cheating claims with regulators and owners of nearly 500,000 diesel-powered vehicles. VW knowingly lied to consumers and regulators by rigging autos with defeat devices that cheated official emissions tests.

This week's largest U.S. auto-related class-action settlement ever is just one step VW must take to resolve a crisis that sparked global litigation and investigations that cost its CEO his job.

How does a company grow to the size and (positive) reputation of VW while operating under such a blatant lie?

This year, in the Harris Poll's 17th annual Reputation Quotient survey of corporate reputation ratings for the 100 most visible companies in the U.S., VW fell like a rock to the very bottom.

It was the only company to get a "very poor" rating.

It's a sorry tale, made more disturbing by the likelihood VW — after fines and penalties — will simply rebound and be on its merry way.

The Volkswagen scandal is "one of the most flagrant violations of environmental and consumer laws" ever in the U.S., says Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates.

Here's an understatement from VW CEO Matthias Muller: "We know that we still have a great deal of work to do to earn back the trust of the American people."

VW deserves all the penalties that can be thrown at it. But the corporation has had plenty of company in recent years with businesses demonstrating bad behavior.

Faulty airbag maker Takata? GM's deadly ignition switch failure? Toyota's lies over suddenly accelerating cars? BP's massive gulf oil spill? Bank of America's "robo-signing" foreclosure machine? They were all caught, eventually. But the damage was done.

Is this all a fluke, or perhaps the start of a 21st century boom in corporate deceit?

Contact Robert Trigaux at rtrigaux@tampabay.com. Follow @venturetampabay.