Pay attention to business

The day before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized the assets of Washington Mutual, the nation's largest savings and loan, WaMu offered some insight into the largest bank failure in history.

It would come in the form of the company's last press release before the total collapse of its business.

As the financial world was speculating about the imminent demise of WaMu, what were the company's officials boasting about to the public?

The last official act of public relations for WaMu was to announce it had once again been recognized as one of the top employers and lenders for Hispanics and sexual deviants.

"Diversity is an integral part of cultivating a welcoming, innovative and dynamic workplace here at WaMu," explained Steve Rotella, president and chief operating officer. "We are proud to be recognized for the opportunities and benefits we offer to all of our employees, including the specific efforts we have made to engage Hispanics and the GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender] community. We are committed to diversity at WaMu and pledge to listen to our customers and work closely with our employees to continue to make progress."

Within 24 hours, WaMu, the largest savings and loan in the country, became the biggest bank failure in history.

Exactly how big was WaMu when it fell?

One of the very biggest financial institutions in the world, WaMu had assets of $309.73 billion. The company had been around since 1889. WaMu and its subsidiaries controlled some 2,300 banking outlets across the country.

One day it was there, bragging about siding with the agenda of same-sex marriage and special privileges based on sexual proclivities, and the next day it was gone.

What does that press release have to do with the failure of the company?

It strongly suggests WaMu officials, like so many big corporate execs, could no longer see the forest for the trees. They forgot what they were in business to do – give customers a return on their investments, keep their money safe and secure and be financially responsible. They were not supposed to be in the business of social activism and promoting special privileges for people based on their sexual practices. They were not supposed to be in the business of giving customer money away to radical groups like the Human Rights Campaign, described by WaMu as "the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) civil rights organization."

I'm happy to say my company began closing its accounts with WaMu shortly before the failure. The handwriting was already on the wall. WaMu was insolvent. Just about everyone who follows the banking industry knew it. Nevertheless, the president of the company was still sending out press releases boasting about his commitment to practices that had nothing to do with banking – practices catering to a tiny minority of the population and offending vast segments of the population.

How does this make sense?

What is happening in corporate America?

Is there an active effort from within it to undermine the very principles of free enterprise and good stewardship?

Has corporate America adopted the values of Hollywood and academia?

Do these guys want to commit business suicide?

I don't know the answers to these questions. But I'm not surprised that WaMu was out of business 24 hours after announcing it was catering to sexual deviants at the expense of most of its customers and actively sending profits to corrupt cultural causes.

In another time, it would be called a judgment.

WaMu is hardly alone in the corporate and financial world in not paying attention to business.

It lost sight of its mission.

The company began to think its purpose was to be a change agent, rather than to make change for customers.

There's a lesson in here for businesses big and small across America.