Finding the truth in a rumour
The Brief
Our client had heard a rumour about an associate company dealing with a competitor thereby breaking their contract agreements. We were asked to investigate the rumour to find out whether it was true or false.
The Result
We found that the rumour was in fact false, and also the origin for the rumour. This was important, as we could only prove the rumour was false beyond doubt by showing how the rumour arose in the first place.
How we obtained the information
As the rumour was recent and related to a private conversation heard at a meeting, we could not use secondary source information except to find potential contact names. In this case we started by interviewing the relevant companies.
- We interviewed the marketing director in the associate company, and personnel in other related companies and, among other questions, asked about issues that would involve our client's contract agreements.
- On analysis of the interview transcripts we realised that the marketing director kept naming another company in examples. We then called this company to ask similar questions, and found out what the associate company was actually doing, that had led to the rumour starting.
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