Switching gears, she looked up a number and then dialed it.
“Hi, this is Lauren Sanders.” She listened as Hakim’s secretary told her that he was on a call.
“That’s fine. I was wondering if he was available for a meeting early this afternoon.”
By the time her department heads arrived in her office with Kayla, Lauren had arranged a meeting with Hakim. She felt confident that she would be able to get her company’s financials back on track, and now she needed to shore up morale among her staff.
Kayla raised her eyebrows in a silent question as Lauren walked around to the other side of her desk and Lauren gave her a small nod.
“Thanks everyone for coming in on short notice. I won’t keep you long. I know you’ve all heard a version of what happened, and I want to make sure that you have heard the correct version. Bob Reynolds embezzled money from us, and has apparently disappeared. We know how it happened and are taking steps to fix the system so it can’t happen again.
“I didn’t see it coming; I don’t think any of us did. I plan on taking a look at our hiring practices, mostly in how we check references, but I want you all to know that you have my confidence. I believe this action was an aberration. We have a strong team and I trust each and every one of you.”
She looked closely at her head of human resources. “I take responsibility for what happened; I made the final decision to hire him. I’d like to do a review in the next week to see what we can do to prevent a bad hire from happening again, but it’s not your fault.”
Lauren turned to her public relations lead. “Do you have a draft statement for me?”
The woman nodded and said, “It’s in your email inbox right now. Let me know what changes you’d like to make.”
“Thank you. I want to be clear—it’s likely we’re going to get questions from the media and from our clients as word starts to get out. When Bob is charged, word will definitely get out. I want to say from the beginning here, the most important thing we can do is be transparent. When we discovered the problem, we jumped on it and we fixed it. We are so strong as a company that we can handle anything.”
The head of human resources spoke up. “Are we, though? How are we going to get through the next week?”
Lauren nodded. “I have a meeting this afternoon that I believe will result in a new investor. It’s probably not a deal I would have made if we hadn’t had this crisis, but I believe it will ultimately be a good deal for the company. I’ll let you all know as soon as I know more.”
She looked around the room. “Any other questions?”
They shook their heads, then Lauren said, “One more thing then before I let you go. I want to thank Kayla for her quick action and calm response over the weekend. She’s the one who noticed the issue in the first place and with my approval, ran down the problem. This situation could have been much worse if she hadn’t acted.”
That got a murmur of approval directed at Kayla as Lauren walked over and shook her vice president’s hand.
Lauren turned back to her team. “Okay, everyone. We’ll be sending out a note company-wide soon, too. Come to me directly if you have any questions. Thank you all.”
With that, Lauren’s team left her office and Lauren collapsed in her chair, hoping that her next meeting would be less painful.
Chapter 16
Lauren
Lauren remembered first walking into this building just over a week before, not knowing what she would find at the other end of the journey. Today, she wasn’t any less nervous, only more certain about what she was doing there.
Hakim would help her, she knew it. She just didn’t know what price she was going to pay for asking for his help, nor what would happen when her mother inevitably found out. But this was a business meeting. Lauren had the right and the responsibility to protect her company, to keep it operating by whatever means necessary. And if that meant cooperating with her mother’s rival, then that’s what she would do.
At least he was willing to meet with her. Lauren had asked his secretary to check with Hakim first instead of calling her back with a time, and had convinced her that the request for a meeting was time critical. Kayla had managed to keep things out of the news so far, but industry gossip being what it was, Lauren wouldn’t be surprised if he’d heard something already.
Because Lauren had shared her concerns about the books with Hakim, he was already aware of the background. He’d been so helpful then, and Lauren knew that even if he couldn’t or wouldn’t give her the money she needed now, he would have some solid advice on how to fix things.