I find there’s a lot to be learned just by reading and watching the news. For instance, have you heard or read about the sinking of the luxury yacht, Bayesian, off the coast of Sicily? This is a rich people’s story that went viral internationally. You can’t go to a news site without seeing several articles about it.
I never heard of Mike Lynch before this, but he’s an Irish-born, British tech mogul who sold his company, Autonomy, to Hewlett Packard for the staggering sum of $11.7 billion in 2011. HP apparently wrote off $8.8 billion shortly after claiming he had inflated the price, and they sued.
Explaining it to his daughter, Lynch reportedly claimed, “Daddy sold them a plant. They didn’t feed or water it. It died and they think it’s my fault.” So, he claims he sold them a good company at a fair price, and they screwed it up. HP thinks he sold them a bogus company and they got taken.
The case went on for 12 years. Lynch and his vice president of finance, co-defendants, were recently found not guilty, avoiding what was probably 25-year jail sentences if convicted.
So, Lynch invited his key supporters for a celebratory cruise in the Mediterranean aboard his 184-foot luxury sailing yacht, Bayesian. They had a captain and a crew of 10, including a chef. What could be better? I’ll bet the cruise was an awful lot of fun for the 12 partiers until the morning of Aug. 19 when they apparently got a direct hit by a waterspout (a tornado on the water) at 4:30 a.m.
The various stories claim the yacht sank in two minutes (now 15 minutes), making everyone wonder how a boat like that could sink at all, let alone so quickly.
I’m a sailor, so I was naturally interested and followed the numerous stories closely. Early stories claimed the boat was under sail and others claimed it was anchored. Some stories claimed it was a $20 million yacht while others claimed $40 million. Those two numbers aren’t even close.
What I found particularly astounding was that Giovanni Consentino, CEO of Italian Sea Group, owner of Perini Navi, the builder of the vessel, said, “The boat is unsinkable,” while it was at the bottom of the Mediterranean! Doubtless, he was trying to protect Perini’s excellent reputation for building safe, high-quality, luxury yachts, but he probably could have chosen his words a little more carefully.
Interestingly, Mike Lynch’s vice president of finance, his co-defendant, also died in a separate incident. He was jogging and got hit by a car and died. These two guys, apparently overjoyed at being exonerated, lived only a short time after their new leases on life. Some call this divine justice feeling they had beat the rap with great lawyers. I have no idea whether that’s true.
The Italians, of course, have started an inquiry and a criminal investigation. Bayesian was a British-flagged yacht, and the British have started their own investigation. I hope these investigations and possible prosecutions are based on the real facts, not the various conflicting stories.
There were numerous other conflicts in the many stories, so I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. We hear so much about “fake news,” and here we have numerous examples of loose journalism that can’t all be true, and no one seems upset.
What about you? I’ll bet you have to make numerous decisions in your job, especially if you’re running a company. It’s kind of hard to make the right decisions without accurate information, yet this toleration for inaccurate information seems to be spreading everywhere.
Our employees and colleagues who aren’t bothered by it are probably not making the effort to ensure the information they provide us is accurate. I’ve done a fair amount of troubleshooting. The biggest challenge is often politely avoiding the people who think they know what’s going on and finding the ones who really do. Putting the puzzle together with inaccurate information just doesn’t work.
Somehow, we’ve got to get passionate about getting the right information accurately. That can only be done by managers who will accept no less.
Ronald J. Bourque is a consultant and speaker from Salem. He has had engagements throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. He can be reached at RonBourque@myfairpoint.net.
