As I prepared my remarks, it became clear to me that the scope of business ethics is rapidly changing. The pattern in the financial services industry suggests how the goal posts of "right behavior" are shifting in most every other industry. The four stages I identified are not necessarily sequential. More accurately, all four stages are in play at the same moment.

Corporate executives love to complain about benefit plans. Who can blame them? Faced with intense pressure to slice expenses and fix their balance sheets, benefit expenses look like the fat cow in the pasture that they cannot butcher.

Truth is, employers turn out to be the biggest winners when perks match worker needs. Innovative benefits keep a company's best workers around longer, lead to higher morale and boost productivity.

Bob's first test took place in Austin, Texas. The city's major airport at the time was situated only ten minutes from the state capital building. The airport was hemmed in by local neighborhoods, making expansion almost impossible. To meet a growing demand for air travel, Austin city officials elected to build a new airport and selected a locale situated far outside city limits.

Nearly one in three managers who change jobs fail in their new ones and either quit or are asked to leave within 18 months, according to a recent study conducted by the Philadelphia-based firm Right Management Consultants. Well, if my grasp of the latest divorce rates are right, at least new managers have a better chance of keeping their job than they do of staying married. But it's still not a rosy picture.