Scandals Lowering BofA's Higher Standards? Nah.: For corporate America, it's a case study in governance and agility. It is less about ethics than about safeguarding Bank of America's reputation.

Ken Lewis is a decisive man. I've read his internal memos; suffice it to say he doesn't mince his words. So the question is, what does Lewis do to preserve Bank of America's image-anchored by a "Higher Standards" tagline-while simultaneously putting out scandal-riddled fires?

Deal with the problem at hand straight away and get on with business.

Lewis, chief executive of the nation's number three bank, obviously understands that denials always lead to dragged out, uglier scenarios. Dealing with sticky situations with this kind of precision-an X-acto knife comes to mind-enables Lewis to curb the public fingerpointing that follows in the wake of a scandal. …