How to get on 'most ethical companies' list: Fire lots of employees

Groups that create lists of the "best" and "worst " companies get to use their own criteria, which is obviously reasonable since they compile the lists. There are "the best companies to work for," "the most innovative companies," the "best run companies," and "the most green companies."

The newest list is "the most ethical companies" from The Ethisphere Institute. It seems like a good idea. The Institute came up with some nifty benchmarks like "corporate citizenship," "corporate governance" and "legal, regulatory, and reputation" track record. The yardsticks appear reasonable enough. But some companies that made the list probably should have been left off.