Organizational values

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Aristotle said “well begun is half done.” About 2,300 years later, Mary Poppins shared the same advice with her young charges, Jane and Michael. The adage generally is understood to mean that a thoughtful and disciplined start puts a project in a good position for success. With apologies to Aristotle (and Mary), the members of Sheppard Mullin’s Organizational Integrity Group use the same adage as a warning. In our experience, well begun is only half the battle. This month’s OIG Shorts discusses the importance of the activities that take place toward the end of — or after — an internal investigation or other response to an organizational crises.Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: The Importance of Post-Investigation Activities

Let’s say you’re a publicly traded manufacturer of a popular medical device, which you sell commercially as well as to a number of VA hospitals. You receive an anonymous internal hotline complaint alleging that certain unauthorized, reverse-engineered components were used in the manufacturing process and that certain quality tests were skipped in the interest of “efficiency.” You triage the complaint, do your preliminary diligence, determine the complaint isn’t frivolous, and launch a privileged internal investigation.Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: Don’t Just Let the Dominoes Fall; Understand the Paths They Might Take

Too often people argue as though they are in front of a judge, or some other cosmic arbiter of correctness, rather than asking ourselves what might move our opponent. In this edition of OIG Shorts, the Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP Organizational Integrity Group explains that to increase our chances of moving our opponent, we need to recalibrate our goals, rethink our strategy, and reframe the discussion.Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: The Science of Persuasion

So, nearly 2 years ago your organization applied for and received COVID-relief funds. The decision was not an easy one. On the one hand, government largesse invariably comes with strings and uncertainties, i.e., risk. On the other hand, your organization faced an unprecedented triple threat crisis: financial, operational, and health. Consumer spending plummeted and its consequences rippled through the economy threatening to trigger a global financial meltdown. You could not possibly have forecast how the global pandemic would affect your organization.Continue Reading A Short Guide To Responding To Employee Concerns About Your Organization’s Actions And Its Mission, Vision, And Values

This article was originally published on IP Watchdog.

An employee comes to you with a recipe for your competitor’s “secret sauce.” You know she worked for your competitor before coming to work for you.  How do you respond? It’s an important question, because it may go to the core integrity of your organization and because exploring this trade secret conundrum may offer some decision-making principles that businesses can apply when addressing other difficult decisions that they are being called to make in these stressful COVID-19 times. 
Continue Reading To Disclose Or Not To Disclose: Responding to Trade Secrets Misappropriation by an Employee?