In 2006, Joya Williams was the executive assistant to Coca Cola’s global head of marketing.  Because of her position, she had access to lots of secret information about Coke—new flavors they were coming out with, new packaging ideas, documents with Coca Cola recipe information in them, and so on. 

But Joya was unhappy with how her job was going, so she decided to steal some of the secret information and try to sell it to Pepsi—Coke’s biggest competitor.  She wrote a letter to Pepsi with an “exclusive offer” to sell them the secret information.  Knowing some of the secrets of their biggest rival could have been worth millions of dollars to Pepsi.

But instead of buying the secrets, Pepsi executives did something different.  They immediately sent her letter directly to Coca Cola and let them know they had a leaker working for them.  Coke then worked with the FBI to catch Ms. Williams, who went to jail for 8 years.

Trust me when I tell you that you all will have opportunities in life to take shortcuts.  You’ll probably have the opportunity to cheat on a test or a paper here at CCA, although I certainly hope nobody sends you a letter offering to help you do it.  And you might have the chance to do it without ever getting caught.  But being upright in conduct means doing the right thing anyway—because it is the right thing…the upright thing to do.  When your time comes, what will you do, even if nobody is looking?

Have a wonderful day.