In our Compliance Horizon report we examine how issues ranging from uncertainty surrounding geopolitical events to the need for increased efficiency are affecting today’s compliance teams.
A Risk Advisory client was in negotiations to acquire a rival healthcare business, which relied on a third party sales agent model. Concerned by potential successor liability risks, our client tasked us to investigate its rival’s agents to help its integrity due diligence endeavours.
On the back of that brief, we reconstructed the background and track record of each agent, relying on a range of data sources, as well as insights from our own human intelligence network. We looked specifically at how and where the agents made use of political relationships, gifts and hospitality, to see whether corrupt practices were part of their modus operandi. Ten had a track record of making sales to state-run healthcare bodies with the aid of high-level political connections. In four cases, we heard credible claims of bribery from contacts of ours who had witnessed first-hand the sales agents at work.
An aircraft manufacturer tendering to supply to an Asian airline approached Risk Advisory with several questions relating to the process: which competitors would be bidding in parallel? What were their relative attractions to the buyer? Did the buyer have any pre-existing preferences? Were there any cultural and non-fiscal steps our client could take to enhance its position?
Our research, interviews and intelligence-gathering afforded our client a detailed topography of the competition. This helped our client to evaluate its relative strengths and weaknesses, and to highlight key features of the bid process that it could legitimately exploit to its advantage.
Intelligence delivered ingeniously
Helping key decision makers, make the right commercial decisions