Are Background Checks necessary for Senior Management/Executives?

HR professionals in HR sites and forums often raise this question. The answer will be very clear once you go through the following examples.
Have a look at these eminent personalities:

Scott Thompson – The brand new CEO of Yahoo has to go through a major ordeal of late. Though Yahoo had hired Mr. Thompson to bring forth some profitable change to the fortunes of the company, a small misrepresentation (a false computer science degree) in the credentials of the CEO’s resume has caused a lot of misery to the company. The integrity of the company and the CEO is put to scrutiny because of this small error. Many including me might argue that Mr. Thomson has a very successful track record and is a highly qualified executive – What is the big deal? The big deal is that a lot of others, who are equally qualified or better, have valid degrees and are good too, are left behind and lose a chance of their lifetime. Secondly, this could have been avoided if proper checks such as education verifications had been carried out at the earlier stages.

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