Blowing whistles

Nelson Piquet recently blew the whistle on Renault's manipulation of the Formula One Grand Prix race last year at Singapore. The jury is still out on what penalty Renault would finally be forced to pay for the misdeeds of two of its senior-most executives (and possibly others). Fortunately, the incident did not have any effect on the race at the same venue held on Sunday 27 September, 2009. 

Where does Piquet stand in this episode? He became a whistle blower after he was given a 'raw deal' by the Renault management. Was his act out of penance; was it done to right a wrong; was it out of revenge? Whatever be the motive, would whistleblowers ever be appreciated for their deeds; would they ever be respected in their (professional) communities? OR, is it better to simply walk out and start all over again, rather than be tagged as a whistleblower and suffer for being one? 

Every organisation has its own little secrets - good, bad or ugly. It is sometimes a matter of opinion or perspective, too. Who would welcome or respect a whistleblower among their midst, whatever his motive? Would Piquet ever be welcomed back to racing again?

28-Sept-2009

Gary Kirsten's misplaced indignation

The Telegraph, Calcutta, India issue dated 26 June 2009 carries an interesting news item (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090926/jsp/sports/story_11543481.jsp) on Gary Kirsten, the Team India coach,. He has been in the news of late for his co-authored document which, among others, is said to encourage the Indian cricket team members to have more sex prior to a match for better performance (on the field).

It states that Gary Kirsten "had absolutely no role in authoring a rather controversial document"...Kirsten is siad to have read out a statement claiming that he was deeply hurt by " the many allegations that I encouraged the Indian players to engage in sexual activity before a match...I would like to state that I have never… and, I repeat, never encouraged or told the team or any player to engage in any form of sexual activity. These allegations are absolutely not true and completely against my religious and moral beliefs. The leaked article was compiled by Mr. Paddy Upton and provided information for the players on the relationship between sexual activity and sports performance. I never wrote the article and read it for the first time two days ago. It has never been and never will be part of team strategy....."

If (and it is a big 'if') what he claims is true, then the obvious questions is, who added his name to the report? How was it done without his permission? Is he so naive as to permit himself as a co-author without reading it or having any idea whatsoever about what it contained? If he is "deeply hurt", he should speak to his partner Paddy Upton, not to the media, shouldn't he!

Auditing: Satyam and its aftermath

Set a thief to catch a thief...?
The Economic Times of 9 March 2009 published an item titled "More than one auditor likely to be must for cos". The ICAI - the body that controls auditors and audit functions in India - seems to be considering this option to avoid the mistakes by PriceWatehouse Coopers now involved in the Satyam financial scam.
In my opinion, this is another way to cover up for the mistakes made by the audit firm and its audit team, and also to ensure more business for its members (chartered accountants). Whoever said that where one of the big four audit firm is not good enough, another would be?
The inefficiency of the ICAI has been highlighted in an article titled "Ad-ding to the investor's woes" by Rajrishi Singhal in the same issue of the Economic Times. The author says that ICAI "has shrugged off any culpability for the Satam scam....no one at ICAI stood up and declared that there's probably something intrinsically wrong with, or missing in, the ICAI rules, regulations and guidelines....instead of acting as the regulator, the ICAI is once again capitulating to the demands of the its clients and is planning to relax the accounting rules."

The Zurich Axioms - an Interesting Book

By sheer chance I came upon a book titled "The Zurich Axioms" by Max Gunthur. What is it on? Investment (the author would prefer the term 'speculation'), risk management, how to get rich, making money in the stock market - call it whatever you wish. The author Gunthur propounds some radical, controversial, occasionally (apparently) contradictory hypothesis on speculation and risk management.

You don't have to agree with all the 'axioms' in the book. But it is worth a good read, without doubt. When read in the context of the global financial crisis, and the loss of value of invested assets (stock or mutual funds), some of the comments hit home - and HARD.

I only wish I had come across the book earlier. Could have saved me some heartaches, and some money!

Go search the internet. The book is out there.