If the scandals that have plagued corporate America in the past two years haven't gotten you thinking about your own company's vulnerabilities, then the latest revelations out of WikiLeaks certainly should.
In an interview with Forbes' Andy Greenberg, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange declared that half the documents that have been fed to the organization are from corporations, and that sometime early next year his organization plans what presumably will be the first of many corporate disclosures. It will begin with information about one of the nation's leading banks. The target is rumored to be Bank of America, and the bank's stock tumbled 3 per cent shortly after the rumors were publicized.
WikiLeaks is promising to give a voice to the disenfranchised, disgusted and disillusioned within Corporate America, those who have knowledge of company behavior ranging from distasteful to criminal. "Companies turn people into leakers by their failure to listen, look and respond," says business consultant and author Margaret Heffernan, whose forthcoming book, Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril, will tackle the issue.
In other words, it will no longer be a company's general counsel who will decide if and when something is disclosed to the public. Now, it's any insider with a flash drive who's troubled or disgruntled by an organization's conduct.
And the types of information WikiLeaks is disclosing can be more damaging — and memorable — than a traditional corporate crisis. A "transactional crisis," in which something ranging from discomforting to catastrophic strikes a company, may occur because of an accident or event that could not have been foreseen. Such an event, ranging from Mark Hurd's resignation from HP over a sexual harassment investigation to the BP oil spill, carries its own set of baggage. How an organization fares in its aftermath depends on how quickly, compassionately and comprehensively it responds.
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