I know Tom Hardin personally, and I knew the basic facts of his story from his LinkedIn posts and our conversations. I ordered his book, Wired on Wall Street, the day it was published and finished reading it a few days later. Reading mostly at bedtime, I had to force myself to put it down in order to get some sleep. It is pacy and brutally honest. Thoughtful and insightful. Complicated financial topics are clearly explained and don’t get in the way of the story (he admits to using generative AI tools to help with that).
Mid-week I was speaking to a group of MBA students and their faculty and I was moved to recommend they read it. Young people beginning their professional lives would benefit. More than any dry compliance presentation ever could, Wired illustrates how our humanity can lead us to do bad things, when we are not bad people. It highlights how easy it is to act in contrast to our values and self-image.
Despite being set in the context of the financial services industry, the insights and lessons Wired contains are relevant to anyone who may find themselves in a situation presenting an ethical dilemma.
One thing in particular did scare me. Tom relates how his children took the situation in their stride, despite his felony conviction and his actions radically changing their lives. He says, “these are kids who’ve grown up consuming scandals and controversies in bite-sized social media posts – politicians, celebrities, influencers rising and falling in the span of an Instagram story. Things that would have scandalized previous generations barely register now.” The implications of this, in the current world, are frightening.
My overall feeling reading the book was hope. In the decades of my legal career, and more recently working in values-based integrity I have sometimes glimpsed the power of a second chance; the motivation that comes from deep inside to make something right. I believe that there is much that is good in most people.
We must cultivate organisational cultures that harness that goodness and tap into the intrinsic positive values that allow its expression. I reject the idea that the best way to do this is through complicated and uninspiring policies and procedures. I have dedicated the previous fifteen years to addressing the imbalance towards compliance. Reading Tom Hardin’s book reinforces my conviction that this was time well spent. He would never have had to write this book had the culture in financial services been healthy. None of the numerous controls, policies and procedures prevented him from making these four trades. An ethical environment would have likely meant the question never arose in the first place.
Thank you Tipper X for all of the soul searching you have done, and thanks to your wife Sue for her fierce defence of your soul and the support that made this outcome possible.