I see this as the most damaging event for our brand in the company’s 140-year history…I don’t think these problems can be overcome overnight.”

The picture of Toshiba’s CEO making a ritual deep bow of contrition while cameras whirred and flashed has gone round the world. Hisao Tinaka resigned most publicly on Tuesday 21st July 2015 at a press conference.

He was referring to the accounting scandal at this global company which under his watch has inflated company profits by more than a million dollars over a seven year period.

The recent events at Toshiba are uncomfortably close to the sort of impact Malware makes on a computer.

When Malware invades a computer, things may rapidly go from bad to worse. One minute the machine works fine. Next, unwelcome new programs are forcibly installed. Nasty pop ups won’t go away. Regularly used programs may be deactivated. And in the worst case, valuable information and privacy data are compromised.

In short, Malware triggers a computing environment that becomes ever more unmanageable.

Toshiba, a global company, has been infected with what we might reasonably call “Mal- execs”.

Now, not only has the CEO gone, so have half a dozen other managers along with the vice-chairman.

These infiltrated the body corporate over many years and by the time they were ejected by the body corporate much costly destruction had been wreaked on the company.

This particular strain of “Mal-execs” has led to the entire Toshiba company to being unable to know its true financial position at the end of its normal financial year this March.

In fact, the saga is turning into something of a classic integrity case study. The particular strain of “Mal-execs” that has brought Toshiba low, is best known as “obsession with short-termism.”

More including: Toshiba is not alone, after the fall, managing integrity, and what matters most in preventing this infection HERE.