The recent headlines about Ashley Buchanan getting fired from Kohl’s for pushing through a vendor deal involving someone he had a personal relationship with got me thinking about conflicts of interest and what happens when they go unchecked.
It doesn’t always start big. Sometimes it starts with a favor. A meeting. A recommendation. A fast-tracked deal that skips a few steps because someone “knows a guy.”
And just like that, the playing field tilts.
What is a conflict of interest, really?
It’s when personal interests get in the way of making clear, fair, and objective decisions at work.
Rather than being based on facts, performance, or strategic value, decisions are quietly swayed by relationships, loyalties, or self-interest.
For example, in a retail setting, a store manager may strongly suspect inventory levels are off and there is less product in the store than the inventory system shows (high shrink). But the manager does not audit or reconcile the discrepancy right away, delaying it through the quarterly reporting period because bonuses and bragging rights are tied to accurate inventory counts.
It doesn’t have to be illegal to be damaging. It just has to make people wonder: Was that a fair decision?
And once that question is in the air, the damage begins. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest can damage a person’s reputation for fair dealing.
The impact might not be noticeable right away, but it runs deep
Conflicts of interest weaken the foundation of a business by undermining the very thing high-performing organizations rely on: trust.
- Trust in how deals are made
- Trust in how resources are allocated
- Trust in who gets access and opportunity
- Trust in whether leaders mean what they say about values
When that trust erodes, people stop speaking up. They stop flagging risks. They start hedging their bets and protecting themselves. The real risk isn’t just one bad deal—it’s a culture of silent compromises.
But what if you haven't seen it yet?
This comes up a lot in my classroom.
When we talk about conflicts of interest, some students get it right away. Others pause. Some don’t even think it's that big of a deal to benefit personally from a business deal.
They haven’t felt the weight of it yet, what it does to trust inside a company when someone makes a decision for reasons that aren’t on the table. Here are a few real-world business examples:
Example 1: The personal discount that no one talks about.
You work for a company that buys equipment from a major supplier. Your manager, someone you respect, negotiates a great deal for the business. Later, you overhear them mention that the supplier also gave them a steep discount for a personal home project.
Technically, it didn’t cost the company anything. But ethically, it blurs the line.
Was the business deal really based on value or influenced by that personal favor? Can you trust future decisions to be objective?
Even if no policy was broken, the doubt sticks. And that’s when trust starts to erode.
Example 2: The courtside ticket after the contract.
A senior leader signs a major contract with a vendor. After the ink is dry, the vendor offers them courtside tickets to a game. Not the team – just the decision-maker.
It’s not framed as a thank-you. It’s just access, a relationship-building gesture. But now the questions start: Would the vendor have made that offer before the deal? Would another supplier—maybe with better pricing—have been considered fairly?
These small perks send a big message about who benefits and how.
Example 3: The retreat invite with strings.
Your team is choosing a software vendor. The winning company offers to host a strategy retreat at a luxury resort “included” in the package. But only senior leaders are invited - none of the people who will use the software day to day.
It doesn’t look like a bribe. But it shapes influence: who’s at the table? Who gets rewarded? Who gets left out?
And it teaches everyone watching that extras sometimes speak louder than value.
And what about the vendor?
It’s easy to focus on the company decision-makers. But vendors are watching, too.
They’re under pressure to win business, build relationships, and stand out in a crowded field. So, if offering perks or extra incentives help them get the contract, even if it’s not required, they notice.
They offer the tickets, the discounts, the retreats – not always as bribes, but as a strategy. And once they’ve given something, there’s often an expectation—spoken or not—that it will come back around:
- “We’ve always had a great relationship.”
- “We supported you—can you support us on this?”
- “Hope our history counts for something.”
That’s the quiet trade-off. And it rarely ends with one deal. It sets a pattern. A rhythm. A new norm.
Now, the next vendor feels pressure to do the same. The decision-maker feels obligated to maintain the relationship. And the company? It’s operating in a system where transparency loses ground.
What are the downstream effects?
Conflicts of interest don’t just undermine fairness—they distort objective business decisions.
When decisions are made based on perks, relationships, or personal benefit, the business itself pays the price:
- Costs creep upward because deals aren’t negotiated purely on value.
- Accountability blurs. Who’s responsible when a vendor underperforms but still gets renewed?
- Consumers feel it through increased pricing, compromised quality, or inefficiencies passed downstream.
- Other vendors adjust their approach, focusing less on performance and more on playing the game.
And the most dangerous part? Everyone starts to think it’s okay.
That it’s normal. That this is just “how business works.” That as long as no one is
blowing the whistle, the line doesn’t matter.
But once objectivity starts slipping, so does the entire system's integrity. Not because people are malicious, but because these seemingly small exceptions have slowly become the rule.
If you say ethics matter, prove it
If a company claims to value integrity, this is where it gets tested – not in the mission statement, but in the messy, quiet moments where it’s easier to just look the other way.
So, if you’re in a position of influence, legal, compliance, strategy, procurement, board leadership, your job is not just to spot misconduct. It’s to ask:
- Who benefits from this decision?
- Would we make the same call without the perk or relationship?
- Is this deal objectively fair, or is it just convenient?
Conflicts of interest don’t have to be explosive to be expensive. Sometimes they’re just the slow leak in the system like the thing that makes employees stop speaking up or offering innovative ideas. Or maybe they become the reason vendors start assuming they have to offer more than value. They become the dynamic that turns ethical gray areas into business as usual.
If you care about your performance, sustainability, and reputation, you have to care about conflicts of interest. And not just when they make headlines.
