Eugene Soltes | Harvard | Managing the Gray Area - The Fine Line Between Puffery & Lying | Part 1

CMO Confidential

A CMO Confidential Interview with Dr. Eugene Soltes, Harvard Business School Professor and author of "Why They Do It - Inside the Mind of the White Collar Criminal". Eugene discusses how most crimes start out as small, often unnoticed decisions made by strategic people, how nearly everyone has a chance to step over the line, why many companies (Air BnB, Uber, AI) take regulatory risk, and how culture drives poor individual choices. Key topics include: when puffery gets murky; why it's dangerous to "convince yourself;" why it doesn't matter "who signed off;" and the "fraud triangle." Listen in to hear why humility and counterpoints are critical, what he learned about risk assessment from the Free Solo climber, the "difference between being an arms dealer and a transportation company," and how there are "a million ways to pay a bribe."

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📄 Show Description

Wonder what separates creative risk from criminal risk?

In this provocative episode of CMO Confidential, five-time CMO Mike Linton sits down with Harvard Business School Professor and author of Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White Collar Criminal, Dr. Eugene Soltes. Together, they explore the murky line between strategic marketing and ethical missteps — and why most white-collar crimes don’t start with bad intentions.

From regulatory arbitrage in tech and AI to the blurred boundaries of puffery vs. fraud, Eugene unpacks how culture, pressure, and self-justification fuel decisions that ruin reputations, careers, and companies.

Key insights include:

• Why “almost anyone” can cross the line

• How Uber, Airbnb, and AI firms leverage legal gray zones

• The danger of “convincing yourself”

• When codes of ethics become puff pieces

• The fraud triangle in corporate behavior

• Lessons from arms dealers and social media companies

• Why humility and counterpoints matter in marketing decisions

This is a masterclass in risk, ethics, and the reputational cliff CMOs stand on every day.

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00:00 - Introduction & Sponsor Message

01:47 - Meet Dr. Eugene Soltes: Why He Wrote to White Collar Criminals

05:21 - Why White Collar Crime Happens: The Gray Area Between Ethics & Illegality

09:40 - The "Borderline" Class at Harvard and Who Falls into the Gray Zone

13:36 - Regulatory Arbitrage: Uber, Airbnb, and AI’s Legal Loopholes

18:45 - The Copyright Dilemma in Generative AI

21:30 - Puffery vs. Fraud: The Murky Messaging Middle

25:10 - When Ethics Codes Are Just Marketing

27:25 - Pharma Case Study: When Optimism Becomes Deception

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