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„I believe the guy has honest intentions and will find a way to swing the account around.”
For the next day an audit of the business and of the IT system was planned. Fred had decided to take his wife Helen out of the line of fire, probably because he feared she would at the decisive moment confuse „debits“ and „credits“ and replace her with a Chinese accountant whom he had presented as the coming star in the world of analysis of figures. Later we found out that he was hired for the occasion from a Sydney firm of Chartered accountants. I was given the task of examining the functionality and correctness of the IT system, because I knew something about the subject. I had prepared myself for this. I had a plan. In the morning I put on a dark blue striped suit and a flashy red silk tie and choose a pocket-handkerchief likewise in red. Applied color psychology: Red signifies a pioneering spirit and leadership qualities, promoting ambition and determination. I gleamed with „City authority“. I was led into a separate room where an IBM AS 400 machine was set up on which the US business was processed. Carol, a young unattractive American with brunette hair and glasses, served the computer. I asked many precise questions and had all of the functions shown to me. Finally I declared that a proper professional evaluation of the software simply could not be achieved without looking into the actual functionality of the program and I held out to her a 3.5 inch diskette and said:
„Just copy the code onto this diskette, nobody will know about it, and this evening I’ll give a positive report on the system and the outstanding, professional demonstration – by you, Carol.“
She looked at me in distress and I gave her a penetrating and challenging look. She was not a woman of great resistance – I spoke in the arrogant and snobbish way that was proper to the English and so hated by the Americans. I was an emissary from Lloyd’s and she was only a little IT operator - what should she do? She looked around seeking help, but nobody was there. Then she took the diskette and copied the program onto it and gave the diskette to me unobtrusively, which then I had disappeared into my jacket pocket. A fundamental theft of intellectual property!
„But you didn’t get that from me"
She said anxiously.
“Of course not, » I said. «Nobody will learn about it - that’s a promise. If you don’t trust the word of a Lloyd’s broker, who else could you trust”?
That statement convinced her. I had recognized for quite a while the incalculable commercial value of the program.
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