The Client Who Fell Through the Cracks (A and B)

The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics Case Series Susan was faced with a dilemma: her boss, a portfolio manager, had asked her to find a "better" benchmark for a client whose investments had underperformed his original benchmark. The firm's investment decisions had led to the lagging return, and Susan felt her boss' order was preying upon a lack of investment knowledge on the part of the client, an older man. Yet as a new member of her team, she was concerned her career would suffer if she raised the issue. In this case students develop a strategy for dealing with the dilemma after considering what's at stake for each party and what rationalizations and arguments Susan might employ. This is the first of a two-part case study.