Running head: WE GOOGLED YOU 1

We Googled You Case Analysis

Diego Lozano

City University of Seattle

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Abstract

Hathaway Jones is a well-known goods retailer who is trying to hire young people, because their

innovative minds, all of these to become the pioneering company in the field as it was years ago.

One day a woman named Mimi wanted to be part of the new opening store in China but she had

a questionable past that can put the company in a very bad position. Mimi grew up in China,

speaks Mandarin fluently and a local dialect, she is a well-prepared woman whose education

includes an MBA from one of the best universities in the country and she re-launched two

important brands in the United States. Virginia Flanders who is the VP of Human Resources

found some peculiar things in the past of Mimi that could affect the opening of the new store in

Shanghai just by googling Mimi´s name. The problem here is should they hire Mimi for China´s

operations? Fred thinks that if he only hires people that are clean on google he would be missing

some talented people that take risks.

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We Googled You Case Analysis

Who knew that appearing in Google can be the difference between getting hired or

rejected? Nowadays googling people before hiring them is a must. Hathaway Jones a well-

known goods retailer needed to hire young people because of their innovative minds. The

company was trying to open a new store in China and Mimi was the excellent candidate to do it

because their knowledge of the Chinese culture, until one day the VP of human Resources found

out a questionable past of Mimi by googling it, so should they hire Mimi?

Hathaway Jones was passing a difficult time and China´s growing economy provides

huge opportunities in the luxurious market so Fred the CEO of the company was considering

hiring new prospects with fresh minds, younger people. Mimi a well-qualified Woman who grew

up in China and speaks fluent Chinese as well as a local dialect was the perfect option because

she is a very prepared woman with a MBA from Stanford University and experience in re-

launching two big brands. Virginia Flanders the VP of human resources in the company found

some articles about Mimi´s past that involved her in protests against the World Trade

organization, what raised the red flag was that there is an image of her protesting China´s

treatment of a dissident journal outside the Chinese Consulate.

Should They Hire Her?

Some people were asked about their positions about the situation. Jeffrey A. Joerres chief

executive office of Manpower, one of the largest employment companies in the world gave

several reasons why he would not hire her, he stated that “online content is public information

and is fair game for employers to ask about it”. Michael Fertik who is the CEO of

ReputationDefender, a company that dedicates to find and eliminate bad things from their clients
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on the internet stated as well that hiring Mimi will bring bad reputation and problems to the

company. One of the opportunities seeing is reviving the company´s image by introducing the

brand in an emerging market as China. The luxurious cloth market demands a lot of creativity

and Mimi has the tools to make it happen.

Solution

The options for the solution are: 1.- Taking Mimi for China´s operations, 2.- Do not take

Mimi, 3.- Do more interviews and based on the answers take a call, 4.- Hire Mimi for American

operation but keeping her as a part of the Strategic Team of the Chinese operations. The best

option is hiring Mimi for American Operation but keeping her as part of the Strategic Team of

Chinese operation this will allow maintain a good image of Hathaway Jones in China. This will

give Hathaway Jones a talented, quality and creative employer. I think Fred should hire Mimi if

he thinks that is the best option but he need to have a conversation with her as soon as possible

about how to handle potential challenges posed by employee’s online practices and Mimi needs

to express what are her thoughts on China today reflecting on how she has fine-tuned her

perspective over the years. However Fred still needs to find someone to put in China.
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References

Coutu, D. (2007, June). We Googled You. Retrieved October 25, 2018, from

https://hbr.org/2007/06/we-googled-you-2