Things can and often do go wrong in business.
Most of the time these issues are readily understood and dealt with through good management and governance, but occasionally something comes along which knocks you off balance and you don’t feel that you have the tools you need or available to you to understand and deal with what you are facing.
Perhaps you recognise that either you, or your organisation as a whole, isn’t in a good position to take an unbiased view of the situation you face, or it’s potential consequences.
Maybe you know what you need to do, but you understand that you will face legal challenges if you don’t go about it in the right way, and you can’t see how to go about it in the right way with the resources and tools at your disposal.
Or maybe there are opposing forces who seem equally persuasive or blameworthy and you just need help determining which side to support.
These are all circumstances for which brining in an appropriately experienced independent investigator can help.
Sometimes you may have a non-executive director on your Board who fits the bill, provided of course they aren’t implicated themselves. Although not truly external, a robust non-executive director will understand their role and duties and should be able to act with independence (even if it doesn’t make them many friends along the way).
Other sources of quasi-external assistance can be found among your lawyers and accountants, but these can find it hard to act independently (if you engage them for other services) and will often be reluctant to take on such a responsibility. Your retained HR consultants are more likely to be willing to assist for specific types of investigation (i.e. staff-related), although they are also unlikely to be viewed as independent.
More often than not, the source of a truly external and independent investigator will come in the form of a Consultant or a Lawyer who is engaged with the sole purpose of conducting that investigation for you. That doesn’t mean that they can’t have conducted other investigations for you in the past, or that they can’t conduct more in the future, but that their relationship is one of independence.
Some examples of circumstances in which an external investigation can be beneficial include:
- A serious complaint has been made against a Director.
- A disciplinary case against your Chief Executive.
- A dispute among Board members.
- Something has gone wrong, and you need to understand who is ultimately responsible.
- Circumstances where there aren’t enough senior leaders to conduct an objective investigation.
Of course, more often than not, it will be preferable to keep things in house if you do have someone in house or attached to your team who has the capability and experience to conduct a sensitive investigation. But it’s important to know that there are other people out there who can help too and to know when to use them.