Accounting firms are often asked to present “proposals” to companies’ boards of directors. These proposals are comprehensive booklets, accompanied by oral presentations, telling about the firm’s personnel, technology, special qualifications, and expertise in hope of convincing the board to award the work to the firm.
Dena has a new job as staff assistant to Michael, chairman of the board of Granof Grain Company. The company has a policy of engaging new auditors every seven years. The board will hear oral proposals from 12 accounting firms. This is the second day of the three-day meeting. Dena’s job is to help evaluate the proposals. Yesterday, the proposal by Anderson, Olds & Watershed was clearly the best.
Then Dena sees Michael’s staff chief, a brash go-getter, slip a copy of the AOW written proposal into an envelope. He tells Dena to take it to a friend who works for Hunt and Hunt, a PA firm scheduled to make its presentation tomorrow. He says, “I told him we’d let him glance at the best proposal.” Michael is absent from the meeting and will not return for two hours.
What should Dena do? What should PA Hunt do if he receives the AOW proposal, assuming he has time to modify the Hunt and Hunt proposal before tomorrow’s presentation?