Controlling Vulnerable

Chapter 6

It was Monday afternoon, Lara's two weeks were up, and she came into the conference room armed with her laptop to show Joe the results of her first two weeks' work at Callex. She connected the laptop to the big screen and opened the presentation. Joe came in carrying two coffees and passed her one, "So Lara, let's see what you you've got." Lara nodded and began. She explained she'd come up with a number of categories or buckets of risks and had then looked at what controls currently existed to stop things going wrong. She'd also pulled some financial information showing how much money Callex had lost in the last two years for avoidable errors in each bucket. As she expected there were a number of really simple controls which could be put in place quickly, and some more automated solutions which would require investment.

When she'd finished running through her proposal for a framework to manage the risks and a plan for implementation of the controls, Joe sat back with a sense of confidence in how this would go swirling inside. Outwardly he just nodded, "This is great Lara. It's not only going to settle the investor nerves, it's going to add cash straight to the bottom line. How do you want to play it from here?" Lara chewed her pen, "Well I can re-purpose some of this for the investor meeting, but I think it would be really powerful if we could showcase implementation of some of this low hanging fruit along with a plan to complete the rest." Joe smiled, "Sounds like a plan. What do you need from me?" His companion wrinkled her nose, "Well not everyone is on board. I need you to let me present this in the next SLT meeting and then back me up." Joe had the inexplicable urge to reach out and touch her face, but shaking the thought away he said, "I'll back you one hundred per cent and if you hit any resistance you can't handle just let me know." Lara nodded and disconnected the laptop. As she got up to leave Joe squeezed her shoulder, "Hey, you did good, thanks. I'll get Linda to set us a couple of hours up ahead of the investor meeting to review the materials and run through who'll present what."

Returning to her desk Lara was glowing, realising this was a company where she could really make a difference. On the Wednesday she headed into the senior leadership team meeting and re-ran her presentation. Scott looked sceptical but didn't immediately say anything because Joe instantly followed up with his support. Dean laughed when he finished and said, "Lara brought me her certificates to prove her qualifications. She pointed out we don't have a leaver's playbook, and as a result we've lost three top spec laptops in the last year. We've started working on putting that right already. Scott, we need to get with you around the IT side of that, cutting off access and restricting external e mails and such." Scott scowled and said in a patronising voice, "Lara honey, can I ask how much money Callex have lost from, I don't know, let's say the internal fraud category?" Lara remained calm and said, "No losses from internal fraud or some of the other categories, but just because we haven't lost money there in the past, doesn't mean it can't happen in the future. The value at risk is huge." Scott snorted in derision, "So you want to tie us up in procedures that'll stop us doing what we're good at for theoretical losses we, and that wasn't you by the way sweetcheeks because you've only just arrived, have never had." Joe's face darkened at Scott's tone and he interjected before a flushed Lara could respond, "Hey, Scotty, didn't you hear how much money we've haemorrhaged over the last two years from stuff these controls could stop? Whatever the investors think, this is a no brainer. I've signed off on phase one of Lara's plans and I need everyone to co-operate."

When the meeting ended Scott hung back and Joe said, "Let's go grab a coffee." Scott nodded and once they were alone in the elevator he said, "Once you get the investor meeting over you can't really be serious about putting these controls in man." Joe looked nonchalant, "I'm deadly serious. It makes sense, protects this business." Scott scoffed as they walked to the coffee shop where Colin wordlessly began making their drinks, "Joe this limey girl knows nothing about our business, you've gotta reign her in for Christ's sake." Colin listened with his back to the two men and wondered how this conversation would go. He handed the drinks over and Joe flashed his card on the reader muttering, "Thanks Colin" before walking out and saying, "Listen Scott, you have every right to disagree, but this is my decision. I trust Lara, but more importantly I trust my own gut, and it's telling me this is exactly what our backers need to hear. In the meantime you need to get on board and let Lara do her job." He stopped walking to look directly at Scott before they headed back into the building, "And Scott, be careful how you speak to Lara. You were out of line today." Scott was furious and Joe knew it so he moved quickly into the building and they parted in reception without another word. Linda looked carefully as Joe passed her desk and had an inkling as to what went down.