When you’re the CEO and founder of your company, you may need a private investigator (PI) to investigate your own company. As a CEO or business owner, you might assume that no one inside or outside of your organization could possibly be involved in any illegal activities. However, this assumption can lead to devastating consequences if you don’t take the necessary precautions to protect yourself and your business from fraud.
Then there is the profile side of things. Understanding the perception of your company from many different angles provides valuable insight into future decision-making. This is especially important if you are new to the business and taking on the leadership mantle.
What is Corporate Intelligence Investigations?
Corporate intelligence is a form of investigation that can be used in the business world to protect an organization from threats. A corporate intelligence investigation is an attempt to understand what your competitors are doing and react accordingly.
A corporate intelligence report will provide you with information about your competitor’s plans, operations, strategies, strengths, weaknesses and more. You may also receive recommendations on how best to move forward with your own company, given this new information.
What Will a PI Uncover?
When you hire a private investigator, they will have access to all of the information that is available to the public, shareholders, and potential investors. You may want to expand that list to gain more insights into what they can uncover. This will allow a PI to provide data on:
Vendors
It’s a good idea to speak with vendors who have been servicing your organization. They will have more of an understanding of what has been going on in the past and can provide you with insight into how the company has been run. The best part about asking vendors for information is that they have plenty to say because it’s their job to know about their customer’s businesses.
Key Employees
As you’re probably aware, a key employee is any person who has access to sensitive information. This can include things like client lists and financial records. If someone were to steal this information, they could harm your company or even its clients by using the information to make decisions about what products or services to use, how much of them to buy, etc.
Key employees also set the tone for the rest of the company culture. Knowing more about these players allows you to better guide the direction of your company’s future.
Public Profile
A public profile is a document that contains all of your company’s outward-facing information. It’s used to identify everything a potential investor would want to know or a news reporter may write about when conducting a review of your business.
Major Assets & Investments
A PI may uncover more information about the various holdings of a company that are known by a new CEO or business owner. Having this information upfront means more efficient management of resources and protects you from unwanted exposure to outside threats which may seek these assets for their own advantage.
Other Competitors in the Market
Determining the serious competitors in your specific niche from a private investigator who has no incentive or bias to hide data is critical to success. It paints a picture of the current chess board you will be using to build market reach and grow profits.
Company Culture
Company culture is an essential part of any successful business. You might have heard that the right company culture can make or break a business, and studies show that it’s true. Having a strong company culture can improve hiring decisions and make workers happier in their jobs. If your employees don’t feel good about their work, they’re going to be less productive, and less willing to go above and beyond for their employer—and customers will take notice.
Major Services or Product Development
You want a clear understanding of how the outside world views your business based on what are the primary products or services associated with your brand. You may think your product A is what defines your publicity when it is really products C, D, and E because of their reliability.
Significant Contracts & Clients
You want to know who your primary clients are, what their contracts are, and how they work. You want to know what benefits they provide you. The more information you have on these things, the better. If a client is offering you contracts that don’t make sense compared to others or if they’re asking for something that seems unreasonable, it’s worth looking into further.
Social Media Presence
Social media presence is crucial because it provides the digital footprint of your online culture. You may think your business is highly ethical and a leader in the local community, but your social media shows a more “bro culture” not accepted by some consumers.
In today’s highly combative world, having a solid grip on how you are perceived, including what your brand stands for online will play a significant role in the types of consumers you attract.
Legal Challenges, Lawsuits, or Court Cases
It’s important to understand the legal challenges, lawsuits, or cases that may be pending. The last thing you want is for your team to become distracted by external litigation and lose focus on their work.
It’s not uncommon for a PI firm to discover an employee or executive who is withholding information from the rest of their coworkers due to fear of litigation. Most of the time, the rumor mill is more than enough to generate insights into any pending legal challenges that could prevent you from hitting significant KPIs for the year.
Investigating Your Own Company Offers Valuable Insight
It can help you improve your business and make better decisions, which is something that any CEO or manager should be interested in. The best-case scenario is to hire a private investigator to investigate your own company. This allows you to see things from a different perspective, which provides new ideas and opportunities for growth within the company.
You might find that there are problems that need fixing or that certain employees aren’t pulling their weight or have become complacent with their role at work. Either way, an investigation may provide answers that would otherwise go unnoticed by someone too close to the situation.
The goal is to have a well-written report that offers a unique perspective on your profile. When you are part of a team, you may get sucked into the current culture (i.e., drinking the Kool-Aid) and lose the advantage of an unbiased opinion.
That is where our expert team at Privin Network can help. The main takeaway here is that it’s never a bad idea to know more about your own company. Being able to make informed decisions about key players and operations means that you can better protect yourself from any potential harm in the future.
This applies not just to businesses but also to personal lives as well—if you want peace of mind, check out our corporate intelligence investigations and speak with our professional support staff. We can arrange an inquiry best suited to your unique needs.
