Siemen's Bribery Scandal

In a different time and place the type of business that the company Siemens engaged in was legal. Prior to 1999 this German company was using unethical business practices and a loop hole in German laws in order to bribe many different countries. These bribes were used in order to win contracts and make money. Even after proper laws were put in place, Siemens still found a way to ride the system. It was not until 2006 that everything was starting to unravel and Siemens had the rug pulled out from under their feet. The high level of corruption can be explained by looking at the way Bribery was viewed in Germany. Before 1999 it was not illegal and this was a way of business. These bribes could also be deducted as a business expense. Just because a law was put in place did not mean that this company would stop. In order to prosper this company took the easy way out and decided not to change the way they did business. Most executives knew this culture and this way of doing business. When they continued to use bribery they started to use hard to trace bank accounts and thousands of consultants in order to hide their practices. The managers rationalized the bribes as being useful money. Siemens saw the corrupt behavior as a way to keep the business alive and to not jeopardize thousands of jobs overnight. I believe that these types of actions led to certain reactions by managers and employees alike. If a manager at Siemens had taken a stand there are a few things that may have occurred. If they had taken a stand they could have been pushed out or fired from the company because they do not wish to “keep the business alive”. Another possible option would be that the company bribes that manager to carry on and keep quiet, possibly signing some sort of compliance contract in order to not be allowed to speak out about the culture of the company. This kind of corruption led to a very big distortion in competition in many different ways. Siemens had an inaccurate market