The story of Richard White, WiseTech’s ex-CEO, soon to be consultant, and ex-board member of the Tech Council of Australia, isn’t a new one.
It typically goes something like: male executive behaves badly towards people he has power and influence over; it goes on for quite some time until the media gets ahold of it and the public outcry is loud enough for action to be taken; he wants to ‘take time away to focus on his family’; and the golden parachute is deployed.
In the tech and startup community, it happens all too often — see Grapevine’s recent report. But let’s be clear: this isn’t just a tech problem. Leveraging power imbalances for personal gain is an issue that doesn’t discriminate by industry.
In the media, we’ve seen systemic issues of abuse of power at Nine News, including sexual harassment and discrimination, with leadership setting the standard for inappropriate behaviour and toxic culture.
In sport, horrific stories of abuse and sexual assault have mired US gymnastics, pole vaulting in New Zealand and women’s basketball.
And in retail, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries has been arrested for sex trafficking. Closer to home, Country Road is still dealing with the fallout of sexual assault and harassment complaints against former chief supply officer Rachid Maliki, who has reportedly asked employees to stop talking about it.
So how did we get here?
How did we allow these situations to get so dire that people need to scream at the media en masse for any action to be taken?
Looking at the above stories and many others, there are a few common themes.
Money, and lots of it
We, as a society, make excuses on behalf of the almighty dollar. As companies grow, bringing in more revenue and higher returns for shareholders, it becomes easier to turn a blind eye. With money, comes power. The more you have of one, the more you get of the other. The two become so intrinsically linked, that it’s hard to tell them apart.
Removing a CEO for bad behaviour risks the up-and-to-the-right growth we all love. Suddenly, ethics takes a back seat.
We call it a ‘personality quirk’
Being a culturally loose cannon is part and parcel of being a business genius. Right?
Wrong. As far as I’m aware, being toxic doesn’t make you smarter. Happy for somebody to drop me a scientific study that says otherwise.
But instead of calling it what it is, sexual harassment, bullying, racism, etc., we say it’s a ‘one-off’ or a ‘slip up’. Or maybe we just don’t say anything at all. After all, don’t we have bucketloads of money to just pay problems to go away?
Nobody wants to, or can step in
At worst, others at the top enable each other, making excuses for the behaviour or participating in the cover-up of it. At Nine Entertainment, it’s reported that leadership attempted coverups or simply told victims to avoid their perpetrators.
At best, bystanders don’t know if they can, or how to step in. Or, most likely, they’re worried about the consequences of speaking up — Grapevine’s recent report found that 44 per cent of people who submitted a story were afraid to make a formal report due to repercussions.
I get it. When it comes to making a report about somebody with power, especially a CEO, it feels like you’ll be caught out as the only one sitting during a standing ovation.
We build professional structures this way
Organisations are built to protect those at the top. Senior leaders, particularly in industries swimming in wealth, hold all the cards. Removing them isn’t just a challenge—it’s almost designed to be impossible. It’s like trying to topple a giant whose foundation is fortified by layers of loyalty, excuses, and profits.
Take Richard White for example; he’s moving from CEO to Founding CEO. The legal and financial gymnastics done behind closed doors was, I’m sure, almost as impressive as their inability to do the right thing and remove him fully from the company.
These structures serve to reinforce the notion that the less power you hold, the more dispensable you are.
The stories we hear in tech are just one reflection of a broader issue. This pattern exists in every corner of the professional world and until we address the structures that allow these behaviours to persist, we’ll continue seeing the same abuses over and over.
So now what?
Let’s start where we can, with building and shaping culturally safe companies. That means ensuring we have processes in place for people to speak up, and giving them protections beyond what’s written in legislation.
Know what early intervention looks like and how to get it right. Don’t just walk by the little things. Board members- step in and correct CEOs and Founders when they express concerning views about their people and how they’re treated. CEOs – let your executives know what is and isn’t ok and then hold them to it, even in the small moments.
Have consequences for serious misconduct that aren’t a decision tree of outcomes based on the seniority of someone’s role.
The media storm around Richard White has made cultural safety into a talking point. It poses an opportunity for introspection and for change.
Let’s not let that opportunity pass us by.
Feature image: Co-founder of Canopy, Sam Garven.