The CEO's Private Investigation - Essay Example

The CEO’s Private Investigation Introduction Cheryl Tobin is the new CEO of Hammond Aerospace replacing the previous CEO due to a tragic end to his life. The previous CEO was well liked by his colleagues and peers and had developed a good reputation of landing deals. He was larger than life to his employees and was considered to be a good person. Cheryl was coming into the company from their rival Boeing and she had heard some rumors while at Boeing about their being some shady dealings while the previous CEO, Jim Rawlings had been in office. Based on the rumors, Cheryl began to ask her assistant if she knew of anything that has transpired before she came on board. The assistant was hesitant at first but finally let Cheryl know that she had suspicions about a file that Mr. Rawlings did not let her file for him. She was surprised because he had not done this before and trusted her with all of his files except for this one. Cheryl felt as if this was enough to go on and she wanted to find out if there truly was something shady going on within the company. She went to her rival for the job first and asked him some questions but he did not admit nor deny anything. He indicated that it would be a lot of trouble to find out and maybe she should let it go. Cheryl was not satisfied with this response and went to speak with the general counsel of the company. The general counsel basically told her that if she did pursue it and there was nothing to pursue she would look bad. He also said that if she did not pursue it and something was wrong she would look bad. The only way she would look good was if she pursued the issue and there was actually something to find. But the way that she even thought something was going on was based on rumors. The Issue The issue here is whether or not Cheryl Todd should pursue the rumor that something might have been shady within the company. On the one hand, she is going on a rumor and not fact. She herself is not privy to any information that would suggest something is or was going on while Jim Rawlings was the CEO. Hank Bodine, her rival for the position, indicated that if she pursued this, she would come across as someone that would be trying to sabotage the company from within. Although this is not Cheryl’s intentions, she would have a hard time proving that she was not trying to jeopardize the company or Jim Rawlings’ name if she launched an investigation and nothing came of it. Cheryl is faced with the dilemma of trying to find out if something was going on or remaining silent. One major problem is that it is her first day as the new CEO and it seems to some that she is set on making the company look bad and not trying to move the company forward. Another underlying issue is that the staff has gotten use to the things that the previous CEO had done and does not seem to embrace change that well. This is evident by the comment given to Cheryl from her assistant, Jackie Terrell when she said ‘traditionally, executive team meetings are held on Tuesday mornings, Ms. Tobin’ (Brandon, Comey, Finder, Klein, Kubasik, & Teuber Jr, 2007). Jackie Terrell also showed that she made it her business to be at the office at least an hour before the CEO and that she would continue in this tradition. Jackie’s responses to Cheryl before she asked her about any wrongdoings showed that the company had been use to being run by Jim Rawlings and were use to his way of doing things. Cheryl should probably take from this beginning behavior that if she probed too deeply into any wrongdoings that she may not receive the cooperation that she would hope for. The staff’s loyalty lies with Jim Rawlings even though he is deceased, they would still follow his lead. Possible Solutions Cheryl can do one of 5 things: 1. Do nothing. 2. Launch an all out investigation. 3. Quietly collect evidence before calling in investigators to look into the matter. 4. Ask the staff outright if something is going on. 5. Confide into the Chairman of the Board about her concerns and seek advice from him. If she does nothing and nothing is found then she would not suffer any consequences. If she does nothing and it is found later on that something was going on, she would look incompetent to her colleagues and the business world because they would assume that she should have seen or known something. If she launches an all out investigation and nothing turns up, she might come across as being someone who was trying to ruin the company. If she launches an all out investigation and something does turn up, she will show her staff that she will not accept any wrongdoing from anyone. It might also show that she was trying to ruin Jim Rawlings’ reputation. If she quietly launches an investigation, she would seem to be secretive and others might wonder what she herself has to hide. Also doing things secretly is what she was concerned about with Jim Rawlings and she would be showing the same premise albeit in a different light, but others will see it as being hypocritical. If she asks the staff outright about what she thinks is going on they will say that she believed the rumors because it made the company and Jim look bad and not because there was anything truly wrong. She would look like the bad guy. She would also come across as being accusatory. If she confided into the Chairman of the Board, he might think that he made the wrong decision in bringing her in because she is trying to ruin the company’s reputation. If they have a good relationship however, he will give her some advice on what and what not to do. Another alternative would be to hire a private investigator but doing this would mean that the investigator would be within the company asking questions and looking at files that should be privileged information. This may seem as if Cheryl can’t be trusted. She would lose any cooperation from her colleagues. What will Cheryl do? It seems the best way to handle this situation is to confide in the Chairman of the Board that she believes there is some truth to the rumors that she heard and she wants to conduct an investigation. She should outline how this investigation will be handled and it would have to be handled by her since she would be privy to all important documents both presently and those from the prior years. The only things that she would not be privy to are those documents that might be at Jim’s home and in his family’s personal possessions. If she starts looking through the financials and sees where money has been transferred to an offshore bank or that money is not accounted for then she can dig a bit deeper to figure out if it has anything to do with the rumors of if it is a separate issue. Cheryl at this point has to decide on what is more important to her: proving that a rumor is true or leading the company. She can accomplish both if handled correctly. She could go to the Chairman and express her concerns but indicate to him that she would only pursue the issue if she felt that something was genuinely out of place. She should also encourage him by indicating that he chose her for a reason and she was not going to let him down by overlooking something that could possibly ruin the company. If she did pursue the investigation she would need to have good cause to move forward with it. She would need to have more than just a rumor to go on. Cheryl needs to get all of her ducks in a row if she goes after this rumor with the vigor that she used to obtain the CEO position. She would be facing a long battle to keep her job if she did not approach this correctly. References Brandon, H., Comey, J., Finder, J., Klein, E., Kubasik, C., & Teuber Jr, W. J. (2007). The CEOs Private Investigation. Harvard Business Review , 47-60. Read More