Crimes of Strategic Passion, Part I

 

It was another dark and stormy night. I was sitting at my desk, looking at my name stenciled across the frosted glass-paned door, yrrebpsaR ylnatS, eyE etavirP, when the phone rang.

“Raspberry? Is this you?”

I immediately recognized the voice as Ivan Gettim, probably the only detective on the force who would voluntarily interact with me.

“Yeah, it’s me, Ivan. What’s up?”

“Get out here to the Stratmon Mansion – it’s way out here by Riverside, and the local police don’t know how to even approach a homicide.”

“There’s been a homicide?”

“Yeah, old man Stratmon himself. Just get out here.”

By the time I arrived at the Stratmon Mansion, Ivan had assembled Stratmon’s family, friends, and members of his giant corporation’s Board in the spacious library.

“Raspberry! Glad you’re here. The tape outline there shows where the body was found. There are no signs of a forced entry, and none of the witnesses heard or saw anything unusual.”

“How did he die?”

“We don’t know that yet, either. There were no marks on his body, and the initial toxicology scan has ruled out poison. But he did have a pen in his hand, and nearby, on his desk, he wrote ‘strategic mgmt.’ Why do you suppose he wrote that, rather than his killer’s name?”

“Probably because he didn’t know his killer’s name, but did know the likely motive. It does suggest, though, that the people in this room are innocent – otherwise, he would have named one of them.”

A short, thin fellow with round wire-rimmed eyeglasses and wearing suspenders and a bow tie spoke up.

“I don’t know who killed him, but I do know how you can find who did.”

“This is Tut Tutworth, the head of accounting” Ivan explained.

“Lay it on me.”

“According to our last profit-and-loss statement, old man Stratmon recently had a large windfall hit the general ledger, from selling some assets he had originally acquired at bargain-basement prices.”

“Yeah. So?”

“Sooo…” Tut started, clearly annoyed, “just find the previous owner of that set of assets, and you have your killer.”

Ivan and I exchanged confused glances.

“Why? Was the previous owner somehow coerced into selling to Stratmon?”

“Not as far as I know, but he had to be furious. Wouldn’t you be?”

Confused glances all around.

“I may not know exactly where to start looking, but I think I have a clue” stated the pretty woman sitting next to Tutworth.

“And you are…?”

“Piem O’Dagger, the head of the Project Management Office.”

“What’s your clue?”

“I managed Stratmon’s entire project and program portfolio, and there was only one client whose projects were consistently plagued with cost and schedule performance problems.”

“Yeah. So?”

“Just find out who the client’s PM counterpart is, and you have your killer!”

More confused looks all the way around.

“Are you saying that this customer would resort to killing his contractor’s owner rather than seek other remedies? Who is this client, anyway?”

“An industrial laundry and chicken-themed restaurant chain in Albuquerque, New Mexico.”

Knowing glances all around.

“Still, that’s more than a little drastic. We’ve heard from the asset manager, and the project management office director – is there anybody here from the strategic management sector?”

More confused glances all around.

“I’m the head of finance and accounting, and Piem here is the director of the project management office – you can’t get any more strategic than that!” Tutworth stormed.

“You guys don’t get it, do you?” I stated. “Strategic management, or alignment, isn’t just doing asset management or program/project management at a high level, or on large portfolios.”

“Do tell” Piem began, icily, “how you define strategic alignment, and intend to find the killer.”

“Alright. But first, I need to talk to one person, and that person’s identity is…”

…going to have to wait for next week, since I’m out of space! In Part 2, we’ll have a working definition of strategic alignment, how the other types of management properly interact with it, and, just maybe, the identity of the killer.