Millicent Murray was a long-time board member. She had a long legal career and had served as General Counsel for two different fortune 500 firms. Now semi-retired she did pro-bono work and served on the hospital board.
When the CEO arrived at work at 7:30am Millicent was waiting outside her office with two cups of coffee. The CEO stopped short and said, “Do we have a meeting scheduled?”
Millie responded, “No, but given the circumstances it’s time we had a little talk “
The CEO invited her in, took the coffee and closed the door to the office.
Millie said “I’ve been pleased with your work over the past few years, and I don’t want to see you hurt by the situation. The Board feels this is a grave situation. You need to act quickly and visibly.
The CEO gulped and said, “I’m directing the team to address the breach and to improve security and…”
Millie interrupted, “Stop. At the end of this crisis either you’re going to go, the CIO goes, or you both go. I’ve seen this sort of crisis many times and I suggest you bring in a knight in shining armor and tag someone to take the blame.”
There it was. The CEO’s plan to put the blame on the Director of Security wasn’t going to cut it with the Board. The right person to blame hadn’t been found.
Next up –Details do matter
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