Public integrity.

In recent years, corporate scandals like the Enron affair have made most people critically aware of what a lack of public integrity looks like.

Although, at the end of the company's life, the firm was riddled with willful deception, few, if any, of the people involved probably intended it to go that way. The loss of integrity often happens like this, one bit at a time, until the players find themselves trapped in a situation they can't easily get out of without a lot of disruption. Of course, as Enron proved, the disruption comes anyway, because the situation is untenable. Lack of public integrity can't be hidden indefinitely.

On the opposite side of the coin is Google, who have as part of their mission statement, “Do no evil.” This has created a sense of integrity about the company that the public celebrated — until now.

Google is at a point of global expansion that forces it against a “Ceiling of Complexity™.” There are charges that they have been complicit in turning over the names of protestors in China, leading to these individuals' arrests. They have also been accused of suppressing content on the Internet in order to comply with regimes that don't allow free speech or protests against the government.

These issues have brought the company negative attention, and the public integrity of the organization is being challenged, using its own criteria. If they can transform this situation and define the next level of their public integrity, they have a big future ahead of them. If they can't, their future will be in question.

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