Last night I heard the tale of yet another old school company who thinks that they can act barbaric behind the scenes while keeping up a beatific guise for their public stakeholders. Oh, old school, what are you thinking?

The days of coverups, payoffs, employee abuse, fraud, and general corporate misbehaviour may not be over, but their swan song is getting louder by the moment. Our little global village has a powerful tool with which to spread information, voice opinions, and reveal evidence. Think big names are immune? Tell that to Toyota, the Catholic Church, Nestle, and Tiger Woods. All dealing with PR nightmares of their own making, they are learning the brutal lesson of forced corporate transparency and public accountability.

What force has wrought this corporate hell? Well, it's technology of course. Anyone with a cell phone can capture that lurid glimpse of police brutality. Keyloggers and other monitoring software can reveal an untold number of computing secrets. The real gem in the whistleblower crown however, is the good old Interwebs. How will it trip up down and dirty companies? Let me count the ways....

1. Youtube, Vimeo, Viddler - upload 'em if you got 'em
2. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, Ning - social networking, rage venting fun
3. Forums, Blogs, & Chat Rooms (Oh My!) - nothing goes viral like dirt
4. RateMyEmployer/MyDoctor/Yelp - You could spend your 15 minutes of fame...aflame
5. Review Sites (pick one, any one) - Your reputation will precede you - again and again

On the Internet, a whisper can gain momentum that turns it into a deafening roar. If the big names were taken down by such ubiquitous tools, what makes smaller companies who think they are above the laws of corporate decency believe that they will get away with their transgressions?

Um, delusion and a pathetically small, egocentric world view.

Better start walking the talk, old school, before you find yourself in a ****storm that you are absolutely not equipped to handle.