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A Case Study Ethical Implications of takeovers: A Financial Manager’s Story * In 2001, Lisa Michaels was promoted to her dream job, Finance Manager at Home and Personal Care Products, a global corporation based in the UK. As a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Lisa was a trusted employee known for her attention to detail. In this new role, she would be responsible for integrating the financial and accounting functions related to all mergers and acquisitions. As an ethical person, Lisa soon found herself unprepared for the different corporate cultures she would soon encounter. Often, the acquired firm’s approach to compliance with financial rules and regulations was not up to what Lisa believed was ethical and appropriate. Employees were often concerned about losing their jobs and workplace ethics are especially vulnerable during such strategic transitions. In accounting, the most important task is to ensure that corporate assets are secure. Over the course of one year, Lisa was faced with a significant acquisition with a total cost of $10 billion. Her company acquired a prestige fragrance company. The biggest challenge was to ensure that the acquired company came together with the parent organization in an ethically appropriate manner. It was important for Lisa to be certain that there was no unethical behavior on the part of the project and management team responsible for the acquisition and integration of these companies. Lisa needed also to ensure that the newly acquired assets were secure. In addition, she had to ensure that the acquired companies were not employing inappropriate accounting practices in order to inflate their sales or earnings. Therefore, Lisa met the Controller, Jeffrey Anderson. She came prepared for the meeting with the parent company accounting manual and a plan for valuation of the company’s assets. These documents, however, were of little interest to Mr. Anderson. While he was polite and professional, his management style was clearly…