Perhaps the day will come when you, as a driver, will also be called by a journalist with a few prickly questions. Because hardly a day goes by before a journalistic investigation into alleged or alleged irregularities at companies or in the non-profit sector leads to publicity. And this often has far-reaching consequences.
I regularly speak at supervisory training courses. Finally, I will deal with a case study. Let's take the fictional company TAM TAM as an example. You are chairman of the TAM TAM Supervisory Board. Just before you want to start a relaxing weekend, you will receive a call from an investigative journalist. It appears that he has been investigating malpractices within TAM TAM for months. According to him, the company sells customer data to the major oil companies. This is not only prohibited by law, but also in violation of TAM TAM's agreements with its customers. It will be published tomorrow; the question is whether you have a response.
Dingdong, all alarm bells are ringing.
I ask my students the question: “What are you going to do?”
Well. What will you do?
I would like to share a few comments and insights with you.
First of all, that the Supervisory Board and the Board of Directors can prepare for these kinds of situations. For example, the Supervisory Board can simulate a case like this in a role-playing game and/or organize a special meeting with this item on the agenda.
The findings from such a meeting can then serve as a basis for a roadmap with approaches and agreements. What are the tasks, roles and responsibilities of management and supervisors? Who is a spokesperson? Is there a core team, who is in it? The publicity can be about the management or Supervisory Board itself: who is then in the lead and how does mutual communication work?
In my experience, it is important to immediately involve someone from the organization who has a lot of knowledge of formal processes, documents, agreements, obligations, etc. This is often the secretary or someone in charge of legal matters. Especially when it comes to more public organizations such as stock exchange funds, hospitals and broadcasters. Especially then, it is important not to make mistakes in the first phase of turmoil.
Some time ago, I was at a meeting of commissioners that dealt with this topic. The meeting was organized by a major accounting firm. They had asked for an experienced introduction to this topic. It was a bit painful in that setting, but his advice was not to call in the organization's accountant too quickly. This is because accountants have legal obligations in these types of cases, in particular an obligation to report. Then a completely different and extra aggravating dynamic can arise.
All things that management and supervisors can anticipate. It is more difficult to prepare properly for the effect that a crisis caused by persistent (social) media attacks will have on you as a person has. That can be difficult, I know that from my own experience. It is important to be there for your management as a supervisor and also as an employer. And not just with an app or a call. But also with a conversation at the kitchen table, a people-to-person conversation about vulnerability and resilience. Directors and supervisors are also people.
