Output 12

Having gone thru the 12th seminar, the case study of my choice is the one relating Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Within such a case study, we can identify several different stakeholders. First and foremost, we have Elizabeth herself and her firm at the centre of the controversy. Her interests lie within the success of the company, along with her own personal monetary gain that she stood to earn from such a situation. Aside from that, we have the different shareholders and investors within the firm, who were misled by her claims of the research and therefore being duped to invest money into an otherwise worthless project. Their interests were once again materially motivated, being returns from their injected and invested capital into the firm. We next also have the various employees of the firm, who may or may not have played a role in the entire fraud case, but at the same time would have contributed to it one way or the other. These employees interest lie within their jobs and pay, as doing well would mean that they may get a promotion and thus a pay raise. Next, we have the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who were the ones charging Elizabeth with the case. Their interests lie within ensuring that the companies within the US do not conduct any fraud and to keep the economy fraud free as much as possible. Aside from that, we next have the media who actively reported on the case, whose interests lie within actively reporting on the latest updates and hence gathering an audience and thus earning revenue out of it.

 

Looking from the perspectives of the different stakeholders, we can see the stark contrast in stories being told. This specifically boils down to Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos, and potentially her employees against the rest of the stakeholders being presented. In their perspectives, their research was fruitful, having facts and results that justify the company’s high valuation, making them guilt free. On the other hand, the other stakeholders would of course have felt that they were being duped, and thus try to prove how Elizabeth and her company was all just a fraud.

 

In general, I note that PR and journalism were the most prevalent in this case. The PR statements release by Theranos were at work throughout the entire duration, followed by the journalism work done by the SEC and various media outlets.