Business with Integrity, Bernie Madoff vs. Arkadi Kuhlman

After the scandals at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and Adelphi Cable, I was hoping business leaders couldn’t stoop any lower. And, I was wrong.

Bernie Madoff has certainly taken the cake. And that cake cost $50 Billion Dollars. That’s a lot of cake! Think of one million. Then times that by one hundred. Then times that by 10. Then times that by fifty! And then by infinity!!!

At what point did he say to himself…..”Wow, this is getting out of control…” Maybe at 10 billion? Sounds like no.

I am not sure how people get to this point? I am guessing that most don’t start out that way. My guess is that Bernie probably started out a hard working guy with principals and integrity. But then something happened. Maybe he left integrity once and got away with it. Nobody noticed. Then he went for a little more, and a little more. Before he knew it, he started feeling comfortable out of integrity and became numb to the things that would make most people feel uncomfortable.

However, instead of dwelling on a scandal, I am going to tout the coolness of one of my new favorite business leaders - Arkadi Kuhlman.

He is the CEO of ING Direct. If you haven’t heard of it, check it out and find out why they are signing up 100,000 customers per month.

Besides being massively cool (he rides a Harley to work), he has founded an online bank with no fees, an awesome interest rate (2.75% on checking currently!), and the best mojo around.

This guy seems like the real thing and I have high hopes for him.

Arkadi recently irked many retailers and credit card companies by taking out an ad campaign urging people NOT to spend their money this season but rather save it. He wants Americans to get back their original old fashion values of saving responsibly. Wow, imagine that…

This guy has so much integrity that he actually turns customers away. If a customer doesn’t have the ING Direct values of financial responsibly, he will get fired. The customer gets fired!

Imagine that…. Having the courage to stand up for your integrity in the face of losing business. I am sure a business is much better off anyway when it can deal with customers that share its values; as long as the values are good!

So Bernie Madoff, shame on you for walking away from integrity and never returning.

Arkadi Kuhlman, hats off for being an example of what business leaders should be. Please don’t change?

For a cool video of Arkadi talking about saving go to:

http://home.ingdirect.com/about/about.asp