Categories
The Ethics Movement

Aaron Narva – Who Owns the Risk? What Social Pressure and an Integrated View of Risk Mean for the Compliance Officer


CONVERGE is in its 5th year of bringing together the world’s leading companies for 2 days of dynamic speakers, thought-provoking breakout sessions, and opportunities to connect with like-minded professionals. This year the conference has gone virtual. You will leave the conference with new resources and best practices allowing you to continue the hard work of driving ethics to the center of your business. In today’s episode I visit with Aaron Narva. We visit about his panel at Converge20 on Who Owns the Risk? What Social Pressure and an Integrated View of Risk Mean for the Compliance Officer. 
The corporate ethics and compliance landscape continues to expand. In addition to omnipresent regulatory pressure, companies are increasingly beholden to environmental and social considerations coming from Boards of Directors and Customers.
Due diligence programs must now encompass an expanded scope of risk; from environmental to labor to diversity and reputational issues – and do so across a widening spectrum of business relationships; from customers all the way to vendors and suppliers. Expanding the scope and purpose of due diligence programs is one thing, but who manages the additional risks once they are identified and understood? For more registration and information on Converge20, click here.

Categories
Accountability: The Heart of Compliance

Accountability and Policing in America


We have been getting accountability all wrong in the compliance profession. It’s not a set of tasks – it’s a way of thinking and it has to come from the heart as well as the head. On Accountability: The Heart of Compliance Tom Fox and Sam Silverstein dig into what accountability means to the corporate compliance function and business organizations and most significantly, how to make it an integral part of your culture. In this episode Sam and myself discuss one of the most difficult issues in America today, policing. We consider it from the accountability perspective. Some of the highlights include:

  1. Can you hold everyone accountable?
  2. What is the failure in leadership?
  3. What is the commitment to “It’s All of Us” and why does it start there?
  4. Why is the policing crisis in America an accountability crisis?
  5. Why are problems now being tackled by local police departments across the country are not law enforcement issues. They are cultural issues.
  6. Where did the Warrior Mentality/Shoot to Kill mindset come from?
  7. How do they differ from the Guardian Mindset?
  8. How do you turn things around on a law enforcement team that is having problems?

For more information on Sam Silverstein and his work on accountability, click here.
See Sam’s blog posts:
The George Floyd Moment: An Accountability Revolution
Policing in America: The Accountability Crisis
This Is Not a Law Enforcement Issue – It’s an Organizational Culture Issue
The Solution to the Accountability Crisis in Law Enforcement

Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

The Miller & Chevalier Latin American Corruption Survey-Part 5, 12-Year Retrospective


Welcome to a special five-part podcast series where I take a deep dive into the Miller & Chevalier Chartered Latin American Corruption Survey. Over this five-part series I will visit with firm lawyers James Tillen, Matt Ellis, Alexandra Almonte and Greg Bates. Miller & Chevalier and 14 partner firms have tracked perspectives on anti-corruption issues in the region since 2008. It is the most comprehensive survey on the perception of corruption in Latin America.
This year, 54 percent of survey respondents said corruption is a significant obstacle to doing business – up 10 percent since 2012 – while only 45 percent of respondents believe offenders are likely to be prosecuted, down from 66 percent in 2008. Despite Latin America’s anti-corruption progress over the last decade this new survey data reveals corruption risk to be at an all-time high across the region.
In this Episode 5, I am joined by James Tillen and Matt Ellis to take a retrospective look back over the 12 years of Miller & Chevalier’s Latin American Corruption Survey. Some of the highlights include:

  • How have the perceptions of corruption changed in the region over the past 10 years?
  • What have been the changes in anti-corruption laws in the region over the past 10 years?
  • What has been the progression of views on corruption related risks to specific countries over the past 10 years?
  • Miller has 14 partner firms from the region involved in the Survey and we discuss their crucial role in obtaining actionable data.

For more information on the Miller & Chevalier Chartered 2020 Latin American Corruption Survey, click here. The Survey is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Categories
Creativity and Compliance

The Importance of Storytelling to Communicate Compliance


Where does creativity fit into compliance? In more places than you think. Problem-solving, accountability, communication, and connection – they all take creativity. Join Tom Fox and Ronnie Feldman on Creativity and Compliance, part of the Compliance Podcast Network. In this show, we discuss Ronnie’s new offering Tales from the Hotline. We discuss its genesis and creation, how it is different than any other type of training and how you can use it going forward.
Some of the highlights include:

  • Why use storytelling in Compliance Training and Communication?
    • It’s so flexible it can be used to address so many different difficult hard-to-get-at subjects. It’s great for engaging employees about ethics & compliance & we used it to create a series that talks about different risk areas, retaliation, the hotline and the importance of speaking up.
    • Good stories are filled with
      • Interesting characters;
      • heroes and villains, protagonists and antagonists;
      • There’s typically a conflict;
      • There is often suspense;
      • You can weave in lots of interesting imagery, twists and turns.
        • You can jump back and forth in time
        • You can drop in asides and metaphors
      • Ethics and compliance community has tons of stories about all the interesting ways their employees have screwed up. On the one hand it is kind of tragic, but also wildly entertaining.
    • Is there any behavioral science behind this as a learning technique?
      • Harvard Business Review Article
        • Builds familiarity and trust and opens up the person to learning;
        • Emotional connects – so they’re easier to remember;
        • Allows for lots of nuance- it allows you to share all the interesting; details, excuses, and nuances of the issue;
        • Efficient – it’s an economical way to convey complex ideas.
      • Engage learners of different types
        • Visual Learners – mental pictures that are created;
        • Auditory Learners – focus on listening to the narrators voice;
        • Kinesthetic Learners – focus on the emotion and feelings from the story.
      • E&C professionals have all these stories, they can/should be sharing them?
        • I’ve found that the companies that share Real Stories have the most engagement. It’s always the most popular thing because people love the gossip. They love to know what’s really going on. It’s intriguing.
          • Use real stories from the news to teach – Phil Mickelson, Whistleblower, Corruption;
          • Use stories from your own company, but change the details;
          • Tales – we’re using real stories from lots of different companies and sharing those.
        • There are some companies that have started sharing statistics of all the bad shit that has gone down in their company. They don’t hide it. They list in the aggregate how many cases of fraud, corruption, etc. and what was done about it.
      • What are some examples?
        • Story about Discrimination involving a woman’s hair;
        • Story about a Transgender employee who was being mistreated;
        • Story about a group of sales execs that took a prospect on Safari;
        • Stories about conflicts, privacy, corruption, fraud, etc.
        • Last but not least, this style is less expensive to make and covers more ground than scenario based videos.

Resources:
Ronnie Feldman (LinkedIn)
Learnings & Entertainments (LinkedIn)
Ronnie Feldman (Twitter)
Learnings & Entertainments (Website)
60-Second Communication & Awareness Shorts – A variety of short, customizable, quick-hitter “commercials” including songs & jingles, video shorts, newsletter graphics & Gifs, and more. Promote integrity, compliance, the Code, the helpline and the E&C team as helpful advisors and coaches.
Workplace Tonight Show! Micro-learning – a library of 1-10-minute trainings and communications wrapped in the style of a late-night variety show, that explains corporate risk topics and why employees should care.
Custom Live & Digital Programing – We’ll develop programming that fits your culture and balances the seriousness of the subject matter with a more engaging delivery.
Tales from the Hotline – check out some samples.

Categories
This Week in FCPA

Episode 224 – the White Supremacist edition


As President Trump fumbles through the worst performance ever in a Presidential debate, the NBA Finals and MLB Playoffs are here. Tom and Jay are back to look at top compliance articles and stories which caught their eye this week.

  1.  Sara Kropf admitted to American College of Trial Lawyers. On how she became a lawyer in Grand Jury Target.
  2. Calling a bribe a facilitation payment doesn’t make it legal. Dick Cassin explains in the FCPA Blog.
  3. Tom takes a deep dive into the Sargeant Marine FCPA enforcement action. Part 1-Intro, Part 2-the Enforcement Action, Part 3-the Penalty, Part 4-the Individual Guilty Pleas, and Part 5-Lessons Learned.
  4. Compliance risk around collaboration tools. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance. Tom and Matt take a deep dive in Compliance into the Weeds.
  5. Can VW change its culture? Mengqi Sun and Jack Hagel in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
  6. Is your company (and you as well) ready for the future. Jim DeLoach on how to do so in CCI.
  7. NYC Bar releases recommendation on CCO liability in regulated industries. NYU Compliance and Enforcement Blog.
  8. Jonathan Marks asks “Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes”? In his Board and Fraud blog.
  9. This month on The Compliance Life, I am joined by DeAnna Nwankwo. In this week’s Part 4, DeAnna talks about standing your ground when you have to do so as a CCO.
  10. On the Compliance Podcast Network, on 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program, we conclude this month focuses on internal controls. This week saw the following offerings: Monday– Aseessing internal controls; Tuesday– Gap Analysis; Wednesday– Culture as an internal control. Join us in October for Business Ventures. Note 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program now has its own iTunes channel. If you want to binge out and listen to only these episodes, click here.
  11. Join Jay and Tom at Converge20. Convercent’s top compliance conference is going virtual this year. Check at the agenda and register here.

Tom Fox is the Compliance Evangelist and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.

Categories
Daily Compliance News

October 2, 2020-the Con Man edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • BitMex in big trouble. (NYT)
  • USOC can be removed under bill. (WSJ)
  • Should employers tell co-workers of a Covid-19 positive employee? (WaPo)
  • What is Trevor Milton-a serial failed entreprenuer. (WSJ)