Prevention Vs. Mitigation
One of the causes of problems of this magnitude is that firms often move to prevent the enforcement of laws they are violating rather than put into place policies that prevent the behavior. This is generally tactical thinking because the odds tend to favor that eventually the company or industry will be caught and that the longer this behavior goes on the bigger the impact when they are. Apparently, law enforcement entities in most countries have no sense of humor when it comes to cover ups.
Google clearly recognized they had a problem when they placed so many people into the Obama administration but it was always unlikely that this practice would pass from administration to administration. And as the objectional behavior increased, the potential liability increases with it and the problem moves from one that is just painful to one that could destroy the company. Over the decades we’ve seen companies as strong as Google broken up or crippled including Standard Oil, RCA, IBM, Microsoft, and Google looks to be next.
