I wrote this post about a month ago for Forbes.com and my column, “Accounting Watchdog” on a very important legal decision related to a real estate company, Centro, in Australia. Centro’s auditors were PwC.
Stanford University Graduate School of Business Professor David Larcker and his research associate, Brian Tayan, have developed a case study on the recent David Sokol – Berkshire Hathaway corporate governance slip-up. They emphasize, “The success of this system is predicated on the expectation that Berkshire Hathaway managers operate with high levels of integrity.” I don’t think Berkshire Hathaway’s leadership defines corporate governance the way everyone thinks they do. The bigger question is: Should that matter to their investors or anyone else?
