Patrick Kuhse Speaks about Ethics

By Elizabeth Macanufo 

January 2011

For the past three years, Patrick Kuhse has enthralled incoming Consortium students with his presentations at the Annual Orientation and Program & Career Forum. During his presentation, entitled "Prominence to Prison: Why Smart Leaders do Dumb Things," Kuhse details his journey of being an expert on ethics the hard way - by taking part in his own criminal acts and suffering the consequences.

For many years, Kuhse worked as a successful stockbroker and entrepreneur. Then, when a friend offered him a position as an investment advisor for the multi-billion dollar investment portfolio of the state of Oklahoma, he accepted. Things there started slowly, but with his "greed goggles" on, he began bumping his commission levels ever higher.

This eventually triggered a federal investigation. Prior to indictments being handed down, Kuhse fled the country and spent four years on the lam in Costa Rica, trying to avoid the FBI and the federal government. Subsequently, he decided to turn himself in and take responsibility for his actions. He spent four years in both a foreign jail and federal prisons, and now devotes himself to speaking to audiences worldwide about the importance of ethical behavior.

Following his presentation this past spring, Kuhse spoke with IN Magazine about ethics and MBAs.

IN Magazine: Why do ethics and business seem so intertwined?

Patrick Kuhse: I don't think you can separate out someone's business ethics from their personal ethics. I know a lot of people who have tried that. In my life, it seemed like I had a set of ethics that were rock solid for my personal life, and then I had a different set of ethics for my business life, which were good, but there was a hole in them. That's what created my story. I think if I would have thought all of it was intertwined in my life and used the same set of ethical goggles for every decision, this wouldn't have happened.

One of the critical thinking errors I talk about is situational ethics, where we can conveniently compartmentalize our ethics in one situation, versus another. I suspect on Wall Street and Main Street that happens a lot. We take care of our families and our responsibilities, yet somehow, when it's a business situation, we separate ourselves out from the personal side more than we should. That's where the adverse situations seem to stem from.

IN: Why do you think ethical compartmentalizing occurs?

PK: When people have gotten in trouble, they often are tempted to take the easy way out. They reach into their bag of ethics and pull out the one that's the least costly to them, taking the least amount of time and effort. Ethics is easy until it costs you something.

IN: What are the ethics lessons that can be learned from the recession?