Renee’s Rule™: Check references.

May 6, 2012

As you probably know by now, the CEO of Yahoo, Scott Thompson, misrepresented his educational achievements on his resume.

Verifying the accuracy of educational claims is easy.  Really easy.  Evidently, however, no member of the Board of Directors asked whether any one had verified all of the statements on Thompson’s resume.

How could this happen?  Apparently, board members “assumed” that basic due diligence had been done when, in fact, it  had not.

Why does this happen?  My personal theory is that many CEO’s and board members have never been intimately involved in or had responsibility for the details of running a business.  They focus too much on the big picture and not enough on the details that can spell the difference between success and failure.

If you have time, I’d love to know your theory!