Profit can not be the one and only objective for business leaders. Disregarding corporate social responsibility and ethics often turns into a huge mistake in the aftermath.
In 2001, it was revealed that Enron, an American energy company, had hid billions of dollars in debt accumulated from unsuccessful projects and deals in financial reports. What once was the seventh biggest company in America collapsed, declaring America’s, then, largest corporate bankruptcy.The Enron scandal also led the company’s auditor, Arthur Andersen, formerly one of the Big Five accounting firms, to voluntarily retire from practicing as Certified Public Accountants and surrender its licences. The firm’s criminal charges were later overturned by the Supreme Courts of the United States but the audit failures caused severe damages to the firm’s reputation, of which still have not fully recovered.
The Enron scandal sets just one of many warnings to corporations that profits cannot be put before ethics.
Resources: http://www.economist.com/node/940091