A Forensic Accountant on How Companies Can Avoid Fraud and Scandal

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From Theranos to Enron, we can't get enough of corporate scandals. We also can't get enough of the intriguing people who perpetrate them. But instigators of fraud are not all Disneyesque villains chasing money and power at any cost, says DePaul University accounting professor Kelly Richmond Pope. She studies white-collar crime and finds that besides intentional perpetrators, there are also accidental and righteous ones. And she shares real stories of these long-overlooked employees and explains exactly which behaviors and incentives should raise red flags for managers and leaders. Pope is the author of the new book Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Are you trying to bring your leadership skills to the next level?
0:04.0	I want to suggest HBR's new podcast feed, HBR Unleadership.
0:09.0	HBR editors like me hand select the best leadership case studies and conversations
0:15.0	from across HBR's podcast videos and beyond.
0:18.0	Listen for free to HBR Unleadership, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:24.0	New episodes every Wednesday.
0:30.0	Welcome to the HBR IDA cast from Harvard Business Review.
0:41.0	I'm Kurt Nickish.
0:42.0	A lot of things may change over time, but whether it's a classic novel or a true crime podcast,
0:54.0	we seem to be totally enthralled with how good things go bad.
0:58.0	And the people that drive those disasters.
1:01.0	In the business world, there's a seemingly never-ending supply of these kinds of scandals.
1:06.0	But it's easy to cast these characters in Disney-esque terms,
1:10.0	clear villains obsessed with money and power, willing to do anything to get ahead.
1:15.0	Today's guest says that a whole lot of corporate scandals actually arise from
1:20.0	more unassuming places in people and less nefarious intentions.
1:25.0	And she says that for managers and leaders to wise up and prevent more of these issues,
1:30.0	they need to look around different corners and have a flag up for different kinds of behaviors.
1:35.0	Kelly Richmond Pope is a professor at DePaul University,
1:38.0	and she's the author of Full Me Once, Scams, Stories and Secrets
1:42.0	from the trillion dollar fraud industry.
1:44.0	Hi, Kelly.
	...

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