In Case You Missed It…Virtually Out And About

I often forget that not everyone who reads my posts also follows me every day on Twitter.  I often Tweet breaking news, my reviews, and intermittent musing on the days (and often the evening’s) events. If you have not tried Twitter, I strongly encourage it, especially if you’re in transition.  It takes a bit at first to get your rhythm, but when you do, it’s worth every minute.  If you decide to give it a Twirl, let me know so I can help you get introduced to others with similar interests.

I was fortunate to be mentioned kindly in two different blogs recently.

The first is the blog of Professor Dave Albrecht.  You may have seen his guest post here or my mentions of his constant stream of interesting  posts on his blog, The Summa.  But today, as part of an ongoing conversation with an accounting student, he mentioned me and this blog as daily required reading.  It means so much to me to have the academics, especially one so smart and world-wise as Professor Dave, include me in his world.  Take a look.  I am sure you will enjoy his discussion.

The second mention was totally unexpected. Arik Hanson, a public relations professional based in Minneapolis, mentioned me as one of the most intriguing women he knows in… Public Relations. I have never met Arik in person.  We know each other from Twitter, have mutual friends here in Chicago and New York, and have spoken on the phone.  I knew he had an appreciation for what I was doing and for the challenge of doing it in the professional services arena.  But to be included in his list was one of the nicest things that has happened to me so far this year, actually for a long time.

If it weren’t for Twitter and this site I would not now have as friends – not just business contacts but friends – at least a dozen people that I met first online.  I count them as mentors, buddies, and trusted confidants in many cases.  They are people I can’t imagine ever having met any other way, since our worlds had never collided before, even though in some cases we have lived and worked in the same city for years.  Allan Schoenberg of the CME Group, a PR and corporate communications professional and professor at both DePaul and Loyola, is probably the best example of people I can’t imagine living without now who, not that long ago, lived in a parallel universe  – until Twitter.  Some contacts  may have occurred eventually, but the social media tools accelerate these meetings and enhance pre-live-meetings with a level of comfort and knowledge that allows professional relationships to develop much faster and deeper, in my opinion, than ever before.

Even if I am not posting on this site, I am always working in the background.  One technique that helps bring new readers to the site is commenting on others’ sites.  This past week, I left a comment on two sites that I consider must reads every day.

I left a comment on the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog on a post discussing prosecutorial misconduct charges in stock option backdating cases. The right comment, at the right time, on the right subject brings thousands of new visitors to the site.  It’s a tool that should not be abused. But, done well, many of those new visitors stick, some contact me and become sources, and some may even become clients.

I also left a comment, the first one, on a post at the Naked Capitalism.com site about AIG’s secret stash of bonds that were used to collateralize part of their bailout.  It’s an interesting post for accounting/audit professionals because it asks the question of how in the world this could be true and I ask how in the world PwC could have allowed it.  Take a look and stay tuned for a long post I’m working on to update you on several different sources’ opinions about this unholy trinity – AIG/PwC/Goldman Sachs.

I added a big quote to Going Concern.com’s Satyam Anniversary post.

What do we know about the scandal one year later – its causes and how to prevent similar frauds in the future? Not much. The experts we should look to for answers, Satyam’s auditors Price Waterhouse India, are accused of being complicit and are still in jail. Who’s guarding the guardians? We’ll have to wait for the shareholders’ lawsuits and the SEC here in the US to hear what really happened, who all benefitted, and who is ultimately responsible.

Finally, attorney Francis Pileggi who specializes in cases before the Delaware Chancery Court, updated his post about the Deloitte inside trader case with a link to mine. He called my analysis “insightful.”