Not by a long shot.  There will be plenty more.  Fifteen years ago it was Michael Milken. Twenty to 25 years ago, we were talking about bribery scandals.  If it isn't accounting scandals it will be something else.

Timothy L. Fort
Academic Advisor, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
Lindner-Gambal Professor of Business Ethics at George Washington University Business School

New regulations may have been necessary, but they don’t fix the real problems. The scandals are rooted in two mistaken ideas: a view that sees business and ethics as separate, and the belief that good management consists only in increasing the company stock price. We need to make business and ethics go together and we need to see management’s role as creating value for all stakeholders.

R. Edward Freeman
Academic Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration, The Darden School

Sarbanes-Oxley did not fix everything, nor did the amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, for that matter.  However, the executives and directors we speak with indicate that it has helped them to discover new insights about their company processes and systems that have improved their controls – which is certainly beneficial.

Dean Krehmeyer
Executive Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics

We have certainly not seen an end to large business scandals.  Anyone who has been around the business ethics field for a while knows this.  Every round of scandals is followed by new regulation and perhaps better behavior for a while.  Nevertheless, it seems that some people will find new ways to get around laws and regulations.  So, it will continue to be very important for regulators and others to keep their eyes on industries that are ripe for new types of scandal.  Elliott Spitzer's focus on unethical "business as usual" in whole industries has been particularly helpful in this regard.

Linda K. Trevino
Academic Advisor, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
Professor of Organizational Behavior and Cook Fellow in Business Ethics, The Pennsylvania State University

Absolutely not. There will always be scandals like this. The lessons of the day are to remember that there will always be such people. Scandals can’t be “fixed”, but we can learn from them to create more awareness, more accountability, and remember how important it is to find ways to put business and ethics together.

Andrew Wicks
Academic Advisor, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
Associate Professor of Business Administration, The Darden School