Daniel was shown into the meeting room and observed the panel of five professors sitting there. As he moved to sit at the table facing the professors opening his briefcase, and not only pulling out his copy of this thesis, but the notes he made for the defence.
Before he sat down, he calmly said "Professor's, my name is Daniel Wu."
With that Daniel sat down and looked at the professors sitting across from him, before Professor Yu who was sitting in the middle of the panel, calmly said "Mr Wu, or should we say CEO Wu?"
Resisting the urge to close his eyes, Daniel said "Professors, here I am just another student to defend their graduation thesis, no more or no less. What I do outside the walls of the university is just something that I do outside."
"That is not true in the case of your thesis, is it Mr Wu? The premise of your thesis is based in the real-world application of legal and business concepts in dealing with corporate malfeasance."
Opening up the folder with his notes, Daniel, slightly smiled, before looking down and turning to the page he needed, before looking back to the panel "Professors, in my time here, all of you have taught me at sometime or another, and have passed on theoretical knowledge about various legal and business concepts, from the basics about accounting and reading business balance sheets, to corporate responsibilities, employment law, let alone many other things. I could sit here and list everything that I have been taught and debate each of those concepts with you. But the time that I have is to defend my thesis, not to go through and debate what I have been taught."
Pausing for a couple of seconds, Daniel looked at the panel, before saying "As I explored in my thesis, theory is the foundation for how things are done in the real world. Like every other student that has been before you or will be before you, not only did I undertake academic research, but I conducted interviews and examined the real-world situation. While I will concede my real-world position did make getting those interviews easier, the flip side of that was it made it more difficult to obtain the information that I required. The people I spoke to, were seriously concerned about the impacts on their business of the information that I was seeking and the way it would be disclosed."
"So, you skewed the data?"
"Absolutely not Professor Yu. After negotiations in addition to consenting to not using the information obtained from the interviews for business purposes unless either I had specific consent or the same information was found from independent verifiable means, in the thesis itself I had to agree that all company details would be shielded. But in the separate addendum that was submitted with my thesis is the relevant paperwork on who I interviewed, and all have confirmed that they are willing to verify the discussions and data, so you can complete authentication checks."
"But, Professors, my thesis stands on its own. For family companies that have grown to large corporations, there remains the ongoing real risk of corporate malfeasance and misuse of company assets and funds. There is a tendency to see the company for what it was, the small family business that supports the family needs and which can be drawn on at any time by a family member, not the company that is bigger and the obligations owed to the company, the staff and shareholders gets lost."
"My thesis contains multiple examples of that conflicting situation, the application of the theoretical knowledge to the real world, and how things should change. But it is a problem that will not go away. Just this morning I had to deal with that situation at the family company, where this conflict came into play. Without naming names, I had to deny reimbursement claims by an extended family member employed in a senior position in the company. While the amount was small, the purpose of the expense's only connection to the business was that it was this family member entertaining his mistress who also is a company employee."
Daniel observed the panel across from him and could see the shock on their faces. Taking the opportunity, Daniel added "But Professors, as my thesis explores understanding this conundrum and the application of theoretical knowledge for someone in business makes addressing the issue easier. However, as I concluded in the thesis, it comes down from the top, to not only reinforce what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, but also to ensure that appropriate training occurs."
"Now professors, what questions do you have for me?"
"Mr Wu," came another Professor, "All well and good for you to say what you have said, but to me your conclusions lack bite. Your recommendations, appear simply to have education. How does that apply to the real world."
"Professor," responded Daniel "Education is always the key. Without knowledge, things cannot change. That is why I have continued studying since the death of my parents. If you do not learn or consider things, you lack a foundation to change. As chapter 7 in my thesis focuses on, I used Wu Enterprises as the example, and compared managers without naming them, who were having ongoing education to those who were not. The difference was stark, not only in their performance but in minimising malfeasance."