What an incredibly sad and unfortunate situation.
Well known economist, Thabi Leoka’s meteoric fall from grace was pretty much self-inflicted. It’s the old adage of ~ don’t tell a lie, you will be caught out. However, this whole situation could have been prevented, and misconceptions cleared up years ago, had all the entities involved done their due diligence. The question surrounding the authenticity of her PhD should have been picked up and addressed years ago. The matter would have been cleared up very quickly, without tarnishing anyone’s reputation.
I have a few questions while Leoka scrambles around to get the necessary proof of her qualification in place; although, getting proof of your PhD, should surely not be too difficult to obtain?
Firstly, why has it taken the numerous boards so many years to only start questioning her qualifications now? Secondly, surely submitting a certified copy of your qualifications is a stock standard requirement for any position, especially for a board member for a listed company?
This does put a massive question mark on all these major entities’ governance structures and ultimately their reputation. This leads to another question; what other due diligence processes are not being followed? All the entities, that appointed Leoka, without the necessary qualification vetting or reference checks, need to be hauled over the coals.
I have come to learn, that not all positions require vetting, as in the instance with the Economic Advisory Council. Which, in my opinion, is problematic. Anybody being appointed into any role of an organisation, is representing that entity. You need to know who will be representing you, in fact, regardless of the position, you need to make sure that you have the right team on board, one who has your entity’s best interest at heart. Your team impacts your organisation’s reputation. Which ultimately impacts whether people want to do business with you or not. If it’s easy enough to lie about qualifications, what else is being lied about?
Values, such as truth, authenticity and transparency, form the cornerstone when it comes to building a solid foundation of a business that people want to do business with. However, starting off a relationship with a lie is like building a house on sand; it’s not impossible to build something beautiful, but it will need a lot of work and investment to rectify the unstable foundation that it was built on. You will however always worry about its sturdiness. If things start off with a lie, you are diminishing the respect for the other party. It’s not impossible to rectify but will take time to build a solid connection.
Aside from tarnishing one’s own reputation and that of the organisation you are affiliated with, it also makes a mockery of those who have actually put in the hard work to ethically obtain their qualifications and positions at work.
In summary: Regardless of the size or type of organisation, take the time to properly vet candidates and do your due diligence in order to safeguard your reputation in the long run.
How can you do that?
Make sure your governance structures are in place and up to date and that everyone in the organisation follows the same approach. Keeping everyone accountable to comply with these processes, procedures and policies are crucial.
Ask for certified copies of qualifications and take the time to follow up on references.
Ensure that each individual on your team resonates with the company’s values.
I suppose there is one good thing that has come from this miserable situation: the fact that the spotlight has been shone on entities that are not doing their due diligence when it comes to appointing people onto boards and in specific positions. This now hopefully encourages all entities to review and implement stricter governance processes across all spheres of their organisations to build ethical entities that people want to do business with.
by Regine le Roux, Managing Director, Reputation Matters