Spencer Johnson's bestseller Who Moved My Cheese? is a cute parable that concentrates on how to deal with change. Johnson's first maxim, as stated by the mice, is that "they keep moving the cheese." Translated into human speak, "change happens." His point is that today's world presents many alterations and that individuals must acknowledge that the world is changing. His remaining adages exhort humans to adapt and adjust to this fast-changing world; complaining about it or blaming others doesn't accomplish anything. Specifically, Dr. Johnson admonishes us to "anticipate change," "monitor change," "adapt to change quickly," "change," "enjoy change!" and "be ready to change quickly and enjoy it again and again."
 
While Johnson's book provides an entertaining way to consider how to live in today's quick-paced society, it unfortunately does not address values or core beliefs. It pretends that principles and morals either do not exist or are not important. This omission robs the book of lasting relevance, since it equates human existence with successful adaptation to a turbulent social environment.
 
Barbara Toffler recently wrote Final Accounting, which gives her account of working for Arthur Andersen as an ethics partner. Amid the myriad of swirling events since 1990, the Andersen way and the Andersen culture did the firm in. Something happened between the time when Andersen or Spacek steered the firm and when latter-day hucksters led the organization. The auditing firm once stood for integrity and honesty; it changed to coveting money. It once defended the public good; it became every person for himself. It once believed in the investor; it turned into a machine in which partners fought to maximize their own compensation. It used to believe in auditing; it developed into a consulting engine. Toffler's book provides a crisp but melancholy account of a new culture of values that destroyed the firm. As she says, when Andersen discarded its old venerable values, the firm committed suicide.
 
Johnson's list affords some utility when one considers how to cope with change in a hectic world. With respect to principles and ethics, however, I suggest that Johnson's list needs a major overhaul. I offer a new list:

If Arthur Andersen had understood these things and embedded them in its culture, it would still be the auditing firm of choice.
 

J. EDWARD KETZ is the MBA Faculty Director at the Smeal College of Business at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Ketz's teaching and research interests focus on financial accounting, accounting information systems, and accounting ethics. He is the author of the forthcoming Hidden Financial Risk, which explores the causes of recent accounting scandals.