How the business investigator uncovers the truth of interest to you

“There is nothing like first-hand evidence...my mind is entirely made up upon the case, but still we may as well learn all that is to be learned.”

Sherlock Homles to Dr Watson, ‘A Study in Scarlet’ (1887)

The business investigator’s job is bringing the truth of interest to the client. The quality of intelligence depends on how meticulous the sourcing of information is.

The first-hand evidence, also called primary sources, often provides details omitted from secondary sources, leading to unexpected findings.

From what sources to gather information would be varied by the subject’s nature, and therefore an investigator can be as good as his/her capability of sourcing information. As a matter of fact, I believe, an investigator’s sourcing of information can be unlimited, but the investigator’s sourcing capability matters.

In business investigation, primary research includes interviewing human sources, collecting data onsite, and/or searching public records like court records, company filings, criminal records, and more, in accordance with the client’s interest and the subject’s nature. 

Secondary sources provide second-hand information, which would be a result of processing of primary information. Secondary research involves public and private databases, open source intelligence, journalistic reports, and other secondary sources. 

The source lists can continue indefinitely.

Whether a source is primary or secondary, verification is essential. Primary human sources may have a “limited viewpoint or a vested interest”, Vanessa Edwards, an award-winning investigative journalist, points out. 

The truthfulness of information is a matter of verification, not who/what the source is.

Meanwhile, the classifications of primary and secondary are not absolute, but relative to the subject of the investigation. For example, when the investigation is about a company’s products, customers’ evaluation of the products would be classified as secondary. When the investigation is about the company’s reputation rather than the company itself, customers’ views on the products would be classified as primary. 

In the end, how to use the sources properly to discover the truth of interest to the client is what the investigation is about.

By William Seungmock Oh, Managing Director of The Inquiry