International Due Diligence: The Original Reputation Management

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International Due Diligence: The Original Reputation Management

You probably know how important a positive reputation is for business and your career. But, surprisingly, few individuals and companies know how important reputation management can be, or the management of available information that can be found on you or your company in the public domain and Internet. Having published or available negative information about you or your company can be costly, whether it is true or not. It can cost you a job, or cost you millions of dollars in the case of a business. In some cases, bad news alone can bring a company down into bankruptcy. The business of reputation management seems new, but it’s something investigators have offered for years in the form of due diligence.

Reputation management refers to all the practices employed by corporations and individuals aimed at improving the public perception of the person or entity. Some people consider reputation management as the art of covering corporations’ behinds when they mess up badly. But the truth is, it has more to do with doing things right the first time. It’s about identifying risks before bad things happen.

Managing your reputation can be about cleaning up a mess or covering an ugly stain on your record, but most business leaders know it’s about making sure that costly mistakes never happen. That’s right. Reputation management is about prevention and due diligence, and keeping your image and reputation clean and avoiding the costly pitfalls that result from bad hires, business deals and bad investments.

No company or person wants to get caught in a media storm or scandal pertaining to illegal activity or scam. Hiring a CFO or CEO who is a fraud, criminal or not who he or she claims to be can kill your reputation, and verifying these new hires is part of what private investigation firms specialize in. Comprehensive international due diligence investigations protect your reputation and company’s future before things turn bad. Verifying potential investments, new employment candidates and business partnerships is all about doing business with people you can trust. Investigators obtain evidence so clients can make an informed decision.

International private investigators are experts on the ground where you need them.

Thinking of opening a call center in India or the Philippines? Hiring an IT professional from Russia or the Ukraine? Seriously considering investment opportunities in Hong Kong or China? Or, perhaps you’re thinking of working with a new supplier for Africa or Europe? If you don’t speak the language, and you don’t have a team on the ground locally, you had better be safe and consult a professional.

With competent managers, companies can control what happens internally. Controlling what happens on the outside can be difficult to say the least. How do you know the subject is who they claim to be, and you’re not getting involved with a fraud? What happens when their past becomes your past, and their reputation yours? This is what international due diligence is all about; it is the original reputation management.

Clients use private investigation companies to protect their reputation by:

Verifying potential investments and business partners to avoid fraud and scams.
Performing background checks on new job candidates, and only hiring the best.
Identifying risk factors previously unknown or found by internal review processes.
Making informed decisions with accurate information and supporting evidence.
Investigating external factors that may threaten your company’s reputation or future.

In the corporate world, a professional private investigators perform background checks and due diligence to verify the ownership, identity, legal registration, operations, reputation and known representative. It is a form of risk management to help your company build and keep your positive reputation.

The bottom line is, with good information, you can make good decisions. Clear evidence enables you to better see and assess risks, and at the end of the day, look like a better company, because you actually are better! So, do your due diligence, the original and best form of reputation management.