Last week’s episode of my podcast Beneficial Intelligence was about doing the right thing. Google used to say “Don’t be evil,” but now they are struggling with their employees who want them to do the right thing. Amazon is unpopular for squeezing warehouse workers, and McKinsey paid $600 million for the role their advice played in the opioid epidemic in the U.S. They could have done the right thing, but didn’t.
As CIO, you also constantly have opportunities to cut corners and squeeze employees to work a little harder. But if you want to attract and retain top talent, you need to do the right thing.