BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

During last week's inauguration, Lucy Baines Johnson was interviewed about what it's like growing up in the White House. Her recommendation for the Obama daughters was simple: Don't do anything you wouldn't want to read about on the front page of the Washington Post.

As former Merrill Lynch Chairman and CEO John Thain is finding out - as he publically confronts a Bank of America shareholder lawsuit, a subpoena from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and powerful adversaries that are lined up outside the door - this sage advice is just as applicable to today' s corporate leaders as it is to Presidential children.

After all, in the TARP era, a CEO trying to evade the media spotlight is like a Presidential son or daughter trying to ditch a Secret Service escort; it' s simply not going to happen.

Not long after we found out that Bank of America had lost $15 billion on sour Merrill assets in the fourth quarter of 2008, reports surfaced that Mr. Thain had spent $1.2 million on office renovations and new furniture less than a year before selling a cash-strapped Merrill to Bank of America last September.

With that news coming fresh on the heels of reports that Merrill executives were awarded lavish bonuses just before the deal was finalized, it' s no surprise that The New York Times' Floyd Norris wrote that Mr. Thain has become a symbol of "how Wall Streeters have come to see themselves as entitled to pay that would seem excessive even if their companies were not failing."

Because he failed to address these matters before the media did it for him - and because he engaged in such opulent behavior in the first place - Mr. Thain' s attempts to salvage his plummeting reputation are falling on deaf ears.

Now, Mr. Thain' s pronouncement that he will personally reimburse Bank of America for the renovation and furniture costs incurred has only emboldened adversaries like Bank of America Chairman and CEO Ken Lewis - who is leveraging every misstep to ensure he comes out on top in a war of words that could have a significant impact on the legal issues that are now on the table. Not to mention helping Lewis keep his own job.

In the days ahead, any corporate leader caught trying to resist the impending era of transparency and accountability is in for a similar ordeal. Like a teenager adjusting to life in the White House, it' s time to get used to the fact that the whole world is watching.