Business Investigations & Crisis Management

The term "Crisis Management" has been used to describe just about everything from handling the devastating result of a disaster like 9/11 to sorting out an overflowing septic tank. In business, the term can refer to handling the results of a fire to the resumption of business activities after a hurricane. However it is used, there is one consistent factor that is always related to "Crisis Management" and that is basically fixing something that has gone wrong for some reason.

This page deals with the basic meaning of crisis management from a business investigations point of view. When the term is used here, we are referring to the general concept of fixing something that has gone wrong. When a professional business investigation is used to determining the exact reason something went wrong, crisis management is not then the daunting task it has been in the past.

Let's face it, most senior executives and owners of companies are competent people. They usually know what to do about a situation, once they know why the situation exists. The problem we face most often is that a company has many parts and owners and executives rely on information that is usually passed on to them in a somewhat "cooked" fashion. By this we mean that they do not usually get straight, untarnished facts to work with.

When something goes wrong in the manufacturing division, we are sometimes told "accounting messed up and therefore" and accounting says "no way! It was..." well, you get the idea. The bottom line is that if an executive received straight, uncooked information that showed him the actual reason some portion or indeed his entire company is not functioning well, especially in a crisis situation where speed and accuracy is very important, he could usually handle just about any crisis with ease. OK, so let's look at how a business investigation comes into play with regards to crisis management, of a company, or a portion of a company.

First, a company is a very complex thing. It can seem like we can never really fully understand it and indeed this idea, of a company being something that cannot be understood, has been given a great deal of validity by consultants, crisis management specialists and others who benefits from it being just so.

The basics of a company: The fact of the matter is that despite the complexities of a company, is can be compartmented into uniformly understandable divisions and sections as follows:

• An executive division of some sort: comprised of the executives who manage and run the place. This would include legal, defense and public relations matters.
• Personnel: an area that looks after the hiring, training and ethics of the personnel
• Sales and marketing: the area that creates the demands for and sells the company's product(s) and/or service(s).
• Finance: that area that looks after income, disbursements, payroll, supplies and company records, audits etc.
• Production: the area that produces the actual products and/or services the company offers.
• Quality control: ensure the products and services are of adequate quality and the organization itself is corrected when and if it goes off the rails.
• Distribution: that area that finds new clients and business for the company to keep the whole thing going.

And, believe it or not, the above is the entirety of a company. All the complexities of a company, from a hot dog stand to IBM, can be slotted into one or another of these divisions. Here's a challenge for you. I bet that you cannot find a single aspect of any business that does not easily fit into one of these 7 major divisions as described above. If you find one, call me I'd like to talk to you!

The assumptions: Given that the above is true. Let's make a few assumptions with regard to a company.

• It is possible to fully understand a company.
• When something goes wrong in a company, it is possible to find the primary reason it went wrong.
• If the primary reason "something has gone wrong" is found, it is possible for the owner and or senior executive of the company, to work out how to fix it rapidly, effectively and economically.
• If the assumptions above are true, it is possible for a crisis to be managed with far less stress, time and expense.

The business investigation method: The business investigation method has as its objective, the finding of the basic reason (the "why" of it all, if you will) that a company or a portion of a company is not functioning well, so that it can be fixed. The way this is accomplished is with the following steps:

1. Step: Establishing exactly what the company or portion of the company is supposed to be producing. Then work out what the ideal picture for that company or portion is. This is a very important step as it establishes what should be there. This is used throughout the remainder of the business investigation as a benchmark, so that the departures from it can be easily seen. This is not as easy as stated. It requires very exact investigation to come up with the exact right ideal picture for a company or a portion of a company.
   
   
2. Step: Having established the above, one then investigates, by a very specific investigation method, to determine what the greatest departure is from the ideal picture, in the company or portion of the company. This greatest departure will be the situation in the company or portion at the specific time of the investigation.
   
   
3. Step: Once the above is completely identified and verified as the greatest departure, without question, further detailed and specific investigations are undertaken to get to the basic reason (the why) that the company or portion of the company is not functioning well.
   
   
4. Step: All information collected and investigated is fully verified and crosschecked. This step is very vital. Without it, the whole investigation could prove useless. Why? The investigation method must be very exact or the results will not be correct. The situation will be off, or the ideal picture will not be quite right and the basic reason could turn out to be just a more basic situation. In short, the investigation must be verified.
   
   
5. Step: A detailed report, outlining the above, with the specific path the investigation took, is then prepared for the client. This is done in such a way that the owner and senior executives of the company can clearly see what the greatest departure from the ideal is and exactly why that departure occurred. This way, they can easily decide on a course of action to take. Their action plan will be specific and highly effective if and this is one very big if , the investigation was done accurately.

All this is pretty logical, so what's different? Ah! The difference is in the investigation method used. The method is based on a very sophisticated system of logic that makes it impossible for "cooked" information to escape notice. Things like false information and added or dropped out time; that complicates things, are easily spotted and used in the investigation.

When the importance of information is altered to appear more or less important, than they actually are, this is easily seen. Omitted information, just the fact that it is omitted, is also a vital investigation signpost. Things done in the wrong sequence, information from incorrect sources, and contrary facts, all are used in this investigation method.

Using this method of investigation, one comes up with the correct basic reason something is not functioning well, every time and without fail! And the real reason always makes it possible to handle any given situation very quickly and effectively. Having the basics of a company charted, as attached, makes the investigation action quicker and thus saves money.

Finally, doing business investigations in this way is made additionally effective by the fact that with this investigation technique, an investigator investigating a company or a portion of a company for a period of one day, gathers knowledge equivalent to 3 months of actual working experience in that area. In other words, this method of investigation makes investigators very knowledgeable in an area very quickly, which further speeds up the time and accuracy of any investigation.

Summary:

Business owners and executives know their business. If they have accurate, "uncooked" information rapidly, they can handle most any non-optimum situation in their company, or portion of their company, is less time and with less stress.

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