Getting a Start in the Commercial Investigations Industry

Investigations is a burgeoning industry reliant on mature and diverse practitioners

Photo by Author

When I first applied for a job in commercial investigations (let’s call it CI) some 15 years ago, I had only just heard of this line of work. I was jobless in Shanghai after completing an extended period of education aimed at facilitating a big career change. I had no real plan at that point.

I had left police work in California a few years before and left the States to enter an intense Mandarin language training program at a university in Beijing. I then went back to the USA for a graduate program where I continued my studies in Mandarin, along with MBA coursework. The tale-end of my China-focused MBA studies involved an internship with a Big Four accountancy in Shanghai, where I imagined myself somehow transforming into a boss-level consultant. In actuality, I struggled trying to gain the acceptance of elite accountant-types and was floundering. I was clueless and desperate when by chance I met people in the risk consulting industry in China and they knew exactly what to do with someone like me, who had law enforcement experience from the USA, some business education and decent Mandarin capabilities.

For the next five years I worked in the Shanghai office of one of the largest global corporate risk consulting outfits. I performed and managed investigation work in China for five years on behalf of the firm’s multinational clients, most of which were Fortune 500 companies. The work was exciting and challenging. My Chinese capability improved greatly, as I was required to conduct research in Chinese and converse in Mandarin with colleagues in the office. Eventually, I became comfortable conducting interviews in Chinese. The bulk of my cases involved due diligence, anti-counterfeiting and internal fraud work (more on these terms later).

After five years in risk consulting, I moved to an in-house position with a client firm — a large global manufacturer — where I managed an Asia regional and then global investigative function. I managed a team of investigators located in China, Malaysia, USA and Mexico, handling complex cases across the globe, primarily looking at complex fraud and theft incidents. After seven years working on the ‘industry’ side, I was made redundant and found myself back in consulting again, still based in Shanghai and working on a mix of internal fraud and due diligence cases at a startup outfit.

So by way of a few random meetings, I found myself spending some 14 years in global commercial investigations, working out of Shanghai, traveling the world and generally having a blast.

I worked with interesting, talented people and made a decent living. Over the years, I’ve seen the investigations industry become better defined as a profession, more competitive and populated by an increasingly highly-skilled and diverse talent base. Unlike other professional career paths, CI is a unique option, in that there is no predetermined skill-set, degree or credential necessary to get you in the door. There is no ‘CI University’. They never even mentioned the field on Career Day.

So what is work in CI typically like? Depending on the location and industry, typical casework tends to fall into the below categories:

• Anti-corruption — investigation of bribery cases that could violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), UK Bribery Act or other anti-bribery laws;
• Brand protection — large scale loss of physical property, theft of prototypes, breaches of physical or logical IP, product/component level counterfeiting;
• Due diligence — legal, repetitional, financial checks into potential clients, suppliers, investment prospects or acquisition targets;
• Internal fraud — embezzlement, theft by employee or channel partners, conflicts of interest, procurement fraud/kickbacks.

CI cases require cross-functional teams working in concert to achieve a common investigative goal. For example, a prototype mobile phone goes missing from a factory. Analysts conduct research and discover market sales movement of the unit. Field investigators discreetly acquire the phone via purchase and then interview the seller, who is a relative of a factory employee. A forensic investigator images the company hard drive used by the employee and discovers evidence of a plot to steal the phone. A case manager keeps all the action moving according to plan and updates key stakeholders on findings in real time…

Who gets into this line of work? As I mentioned, there is no definitive skillset required, but I have noticed some typical common backgrounds among CI practitioners, which breakdown as follows:

• Accounting — audit background and extensive corporate experience with a wide range of multinationals. Although distinct from lead-based investigative work, an audit toolkit can be a big value-add;
• Anti-money laundering (AML) — enforcement of procedures that inhibit illicit transfers of funds in the financial industry;
• Human Resources (HR) — by the nature of their work, HR folks tend to get dragged into complicated risk issues involving employee malfeasance, disciplinary processes and labor actions, etc;
• Information technology (IT) — perhaps the most sought-after skillset, as IT security enjoys growing demand and practitioners are among the most highly specialized in the field;
• Journalism — experience working with human sources, verifying information and writing up findings for a specific audience;
• Law enforcement — I suppose I fit in here. Although unlike many ex-cops I had no relevant fraud investigation experience coming in. A typical investigation for me back in the day was “car crashed until pole at 2:15am, driver took off but license plate fell off at scene (holy crap a clue!), run plate and go to address, find driver drinking a cold one on porch all bruised up and wasted, suspect in custody”. End of report. Anyway, here I am.
• Legal — often with IP, copyright and trademark focus.
• Loss prevention (LP) — retailers often require highly-developed teams focused on leakage issues such as freight loss and shoplifting. Some teams look at shipment hijacking and warehouse takeover robberies.
• Military — often with intelligence and/or linguistic specialization and significant overseas experience. Having second or third language expertise is a huge advantage that I’ll get in to later.

If you are just beginning your career, entering into one of the above related fields might be the way to go. I don’t know many cases of people starting their careers straight-off with a job in CI. Most practitioners that I have worked with have begun in one of the above areas and then made a switch as I did.

For those that are considering a move from a related field, or are otherwise qualified (again there is no set background), you might want to consider large consulting operations such as:

• The big global risk consultancies — such as Kroll, FTI, Controls Risks, etc. There are also many smaller boutique operations also operating on a global scale. These firms often hire entry-level analysts.
• A forensic operation with one of the Big Four accountancies — Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Audit or accounting experience may be a requirement.

There are a number of industry certification bodies that offer credentials that can help CI practitioners grow their careers, such as the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI) programs. In my opinion, these are opportunities for growth but not a requirement to get started in CI. I would look at these credentials once you start to become established in the industry, as achieving and maintaining them (especially the CFE) can be expensive and time-consuming. I hold both, for the record, and there are many other credential options out there as well.

In my opinion, the biggest differentiator that you can have as an investigations practitioner is a second language capability. This means being able to (hopefully) duplicate your skill set in a different region. I’d like to say it helps you stand out in the crowd, but truth is, half of your competition is already out there using two or more languages on a daily basis.

Overall, CI career entry barriers are relatively low and it can be exciting and rewarding work. You may not have considered whether your prior work experience has given you a head start on this path.

Should you have any questions about the CI profession, please feel free to write to me by email or find me on LinkedIn. I’m currently working as a Business Expert with OnTarget. I wish you the best of luck wherever your career path takes you.