In this podcast, I am joined by AMI Managing Director Donald K. Stern. In this episode, we look at some case studies. Case studies are something every lawyer and compliance practitioner responds to because it presents real facts and events that the corporate compliance discipline can learn from and, hopefully, incorporate these lessons learned into their organizations.
Stern believes, “it does lend some support. The organization under investigation not only has the right instincts, motivations and goals but it intends to fix the problem.” He believes they do “not expect you to assess every conceivable possibility and turn over every possible rock to interview every employee that might be involved. They want you to take a more risk based focused view on where you see the problems. The best way to do that is not by looking to people internally whose livelihood depends upon getting a paycheck every other week or every month from the company, but the people who were outside the company and who have some measure of independence.”
It is about the data and the metrics you use to reach your conclusions. This is because prosecutors are becoming much more sophisticated in their understanding of what constitutes a best practices compliance program. Stern noted that in areas as diverse as the FCPA or health care fraud not just the federal government, but state governments and now increasingly local governments, are really asking the right questions. They want to know, “what makes a good compliance program and what assurances do we have that if we give you a break in this case that you’re actually going to end up at the end?” The government wants corporations to be good corporate citizens and third-party independent monitors can help provide that assurance.
Day: November 3, 2020
The Compliance Life details the journey to and in the role of a Chief Compliance Officer. How does one come to sit in the CCO chair? What are some of the skills a CCO needs to success navigate the compliance waters in any company? What are some of the top challenges CCOs have faced and how did they meet them? These questions and many others will be explored in this new podcast series. Over four episodes each month on The Compliance Life, I visit with one current or former CCO to explore their journey to the CCO chair. This month, my guest is Katie Smith who is the Vice President for Ethics at Assurance. She previously served as Assistant Vice President and Chief Ethics Officer for USAA and Executive Vice President and Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer at Convercent.
Katie is passionate about compliance, having worked in the field for 20 years, building high-performing teams and increasing employee engagement by up to 300%. She has proven expertise in building and promoting talent, creating a trust-based culture, anti-corruption, code of conduct, conflict of interest, marketing internal programs, training and awareness, investigation excellence, data privacy and process efficiency. She is a much sought after public speaker and contributor featured in Wall Street Journal, Time, Fortune, NBC and Compliance Week. Katie’s commitment to the compliance profession is well as she currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Ethics and Compliance Initiative (ECI).
In this first episode, we consider Katie’s journey to the CCO role. She talks about how her Liberal Arts degree, not a JD, facilitated her success in compliance. She details her initial corporate work in HR and moving over to the compliance field and her journey to the CCO chair.
Tom Fox welcomes Andrea Bonime-Blanc to this week’s show. Andrea is the author of Gloom to Boom: How Leaders Transform Risk into Resilience and Value, and a foremost name in compliance. She recently joined the Board of Advisors of Crisp. Andrea and Tom talk about her new role, and the increasing importance of ESG.
Risk Intelligence as a Service
Andrea explains that Crisp provides risk intelligence as a service: their “series of algorithms search the open Internet and the dark web and a variety of other sources for potential risks affecting their clients,” she says. “It’s basically a way of giving an early warning system to the client on risks that may affect the brand.” She adds that having a transversal approach towards emerging risk is vital.
Compliance Should Be On Every Board
Tom comments that Andrea has written extensively about the need to have compliance professionals in the boardroom. She responds that it’s even more critical today: “Risks are an everyday occurrence, and we have a convergence of big strategic risks this year like we’ve never seen before…” A compliance professional brings a unique perspective regarding risk, regulatory and compliance issues that helps to create a holistic long term strategy for an organization, especially in today’s complex, interconnected world.
The Importance of Inclusion
Andrea and Tom discuss why inclusion may be even more important than diversity. “I think people are starting to realize there’s some root causes here that need to change,” Andrea remarks. “And they’re realizing that these are things that need to happen within their organizations in order to not just make their organizations reflect society more than they have, but to actually create competitive advantage. And that’s really the bright side of this whole thing is, you’re not just doing it to be a good citizen, you’re doing it because it’s good business as well.”
Moving Towards Coordinated ESG
Environmental, social, governance and technology issues are non-financial but can have a major financial and reputational impact on any organization, Andrea comments. As such, they need to be handled strategically to bring the most benefit to the company. The good news is that if you manage these issues well, you create better products and services. “Value is always the other side of the coin of risk,” Andrea comments.
Resourcs
GEC Risk Advisory
CrispThinking.com
Gloom to Boom: How Leaders Transform Risk into Resilience and Value
Categories
The Courage to Change
Change is hard. Especially when we have been indoctrinated for years to believe certain things that often are just not true. It takes courage to change, but if we want to change the world we have to change.
Are you the kind of person who wants to keep doing traditional #internalaudit likes its been done for 100 years, or are you ready for change to become more relevant and add more value to your organization and have a more fulfilled career? The choice is yours. Keep riding in a horse and buggy, or upgrade to an automobile?
In this #jammingwithjason #internalauditpodcast we jump into how to break free of the past and have the courage to be the change we want to see if our profession and the world.
Listen in at: http://www.jasonmefford.com/jammingwithjason/
If you are the kind of person who is ready for change and want to increase your emotional intelligence, use psychology and influence so you develop and improve relationships, and become a better leader, the Briefing Leadership Program is exactly right for you. Join at: https://jasonmefford.mykajabi.com/caebriefing
