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I don’t think the VW situation is at all unique, just the handling of it. I understood Deiselgate because I’ve worked for managers who just wanted checkboxes checked, and I’ve seen people who reward monetarily or with praise for solving problems but who don’t check for dead bodies before doing so. Too many coworkers who get promoted for making messes others had to clean up. What if the cleaners don’t exist in sufficient numbers? Or get laid off?

When you combine a mercenary mind with oversight from a person who doesn’t believe in “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is” that’s when the bad stuff starts to happen.

There’s also a machismo school of business that lionizes force of will. Telling employees you want something that seems impossible and expecting them to get it. Nevermind that by far the easiest way to cross an impossible finish line is to cheat your ass off.

How many products do we need class action suits on? How many exposes on child or captive labor? How many superfund sites? How many companies going bankrupt ten years later when the truth comes out, before we hold people accountable and call bullshit on the “aw shucks” response to tough questions?

Or maybe a Bachelor of Arts from a business school is not enough rigorous education to run a multinational company.