Day: March 7, 2023

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31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

One Month to More Effective Compliance for Business Ventures – JV Due Diligence

When you bring two entities together to operate jointly, there are several difficult issues to analyze. For the U.S. company operating under the FCPA, there must be an adequate business justification for a JV with a specific partner, all in writing and approved by an appropriate level of the organization. This is where the due diligence process comes into play. The due diligence process should be built on principles similar to those involving third parties. The procedure should be robust, documented, and address all potential risks. A company should use its due diligence review of the JV partner to properly assess and uncover corruption risks. Using this due diligence and its evaluation, you can move to contractual clauses, certifications, representations, and warranties from a JV partner or insist on other remedial measures to minimize risk exposure.

A U.S. business looking to engage a JV partner must consider the people who make up its JV partner. As you will have to mesh what may be two very different cultures and understandings of compliance, it is important to assess how your potential JV partner will take these obligations before rather than after you ink the JV agreement.

Three key takeaways:

  1. JV’s due diligence must focus on the unique risks.
  2. Ask for a detailed list of information from your potential JV partner.
  3. Be sure to do the onsite investigation of your potential JV partner.
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SBR - Authors' Podcast

Keith Read – An Unconventional Compliance Officer

Welcome to the Sunday Book Review, the Authors Podcast! On this episode, Tom welcomes special guest Keith Read, former Chief Compliance Officer at British Telecom and author of The Unconventional Compliance Officer. Keith discusses how effective measures can be taken to improve compliance within a given company, even when it comes to hard issues like GDPR, conflicts of interest, and more. He emphasizes the importance of utilizing data in compliance and reminds companies to look at the outcomes and not just inputs. He claims his book to be a wealth of resources for better understanding compliance and explains that it can be found on multiple digital marketplaces. Join Tom Fox as he dives deep into the world of compliance with Keith Read and his groundbreaking book.

Key Highlights Include

  • The Benefits of Applying Behavioral Psychology in Business [00:03:53]
  • Accessibility of Customer Hotlines [00:07:32]
  • EU Anti-Retaliation Policy for GDPR [00:11:15]
  • Shifting Focus from Inputs to Outcomes [00:15:12]
  • Exploring Positive Conflicts of Interest in the 21st Century [00:18:52]
  • Role of Data & Compliance in Modern Business Practices [00:22:49]
  • The Benefits of Data Analysis for Companies [00:26:32]

Notable Quotes

  1. “We had 99 percent of people trained on anti-corruption compliance.”
  2. “What I spend a lot of time doing is how can you turn that push into pull?”
  3. “Everybody sees conflicts of interest as negative. I mean, maybe that’s an overstatement, but if somebody suddenly sends you an email to say, we won’t report your, you know, any conflict of interest and so on. It’s, again, it’s another example of compliance push.”
  4. “What I call is the corporate shield. It was the exercises. It’s more than it’s the exercise I developed. Which was to say, you know, you could do a very quick and dirty analysis of how risk has changed.”

Resources

The Unconventional Compliance Officer

Keith Read on LinkedIn

Categories
Data Driven Compliance

Matt Kelly on Building Out a Data Analytics Program

Welcome to Data Driven Compliance, the newest edition of the Compliance Podcast Network. In this podcast, we will discuss how to use data to improve and enhance the effectiveness of your compliance program, creating greater business efficiency, all leading to more return on investment for your compliance regime. Join host Tom Fox as he explores how data will drive your compliance program to the next level. This podcast is sponsored by Kona AI.

In this episode, I visit with Matt Kelly as we consider investigates the importance of data analytics, the compelling central conflict between the abstract importance of analytics and the lack of guidelines on how to actually do it, which forces innovative thinking to build a strong business case to get the data your compliance program needs.

Key Highlights

1. How can compliance officers build a good data analytics program.

2. What are the challenges around data analytics?

3. How can data analytics be used to guide policy changes and provide guidance for internal investigations?

 Notable Quotes 

1.     “They don’t say anything about data analytics. So it is really interesting that we talk about how important it is, but there aren’t too many guidelines on what you should do.

2.     “You really need to define what risks you want to monitor. Then after that, you need to start thinking through what is the data that would inform me about this risk?.”

3.     “You need to be able to see the small individual transaction that’s an outlier and the large all transactions moving in a trend.”

4.     “Sometimes there are ways to get that data that aren’t necessarily obvious right away, but once you think of them, it could be easier to capture that data. You just need to keep on thinking about it.”

Resources:

Radical Compliance

Connect with Tom Fox on LinkedIn

Check out Kona AI

Categories
The ESG Report

Luke Jacobs on Uncovering the Business Benefits of ESG Compliance

The ESG Report podcast is hosted by Tom Fox. In this episode, Tom is joined by Luke Jacobs, an expert in environmental and safety compliance and one of the founders of Encamp. Jacobs is a rising star in the Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) and ESG industry. In this episode, they discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with EHS and ESG compliance. Luke explains how Encamp provides technology solutions to help companies understand and comply with complex environmental regulations. Looking ahead, Luke outlines their plans to expand the platform to encompass global coverage over the next seven years. Tune into the ESG Report to learn more about the latest trends in EHS and ESG compliance.

Key Highlights

·       Managing Environmental Regulations for Businesses [00:03:57]

·       The Overlap Between EHS and ESG [00:07:40]

·        Regulatory Impact of Chemical Plant Explosions [00:11:13]

·       The Business Opportunities of Complying with RCRA and EPCRA [00:14:55]

·       Making Environmental Regulation Compliance More Efficient and Sustainable [00:18:25]

·       Compliance with US Regulations: A Look Ahead at the Next 7 Years[00:22:25]

Notable Quotes

1.     ” I think importantly to think about how we actually help our customers really is to understand the complexity of the problem that they face.”

2.     “It’s really a report that’s trying to make sure that anyone in the community knows what could actually pose a hazard in an emergency disaster response scenario from locations that are, you know, in their in their general area.”

3.     “I’d say particularly as far as implementing a systematic solution that allows for businesses to actually have an ongoing process, allows for long term business continuity and risk mitigation on required compliance events, and then ultimately having to pay the cost of potentially stoppage time at locations and really, you know, all of the negative press that could come about from having some sort of known violation.”

4.     “And then as far as ESG, I do think organizations that have goals that are tied to broader sustainability, waste minimization, increasing their ESG metrics  have the opportunity to mine into some of their environmental data to find opportunities to actually decrease their waste increase their recycling or their process efficiency so they actually can save money literally on not buying new product.”

Resources

Luke Jacobs on LinkedIn

Encamp

Categories
Innovation in Compliance

The Secret Power of Meditation with Kara Goodwin

“Most successful executives are well aware of meditation and the secret power of it, and that it has a competitive advantage because it can change the way they’re thinking, access more levels of creativity and intuition,” says Kara Goodwin, a meditation expert and Tom Fox’s guest on the latest episode of Innovation In Compliance. Kara and Tom discuss the transformative power of meditation, the benefits it offers to individuals and companies, and how it can help people find balance and purpose in their lives. She also talks about how meditation can change your brain, reduce anxiety and depression, and unlock your creativity and intuition.

Kara Goodwin is a certified meditation teacher, and the host of The Meditation Conversation Podcast. With a corporate background in IT and sales, Kara’s journey into meditation began when she moved to Italy and discovered the transformative power of this practice. Since then, she has been helping people develop their meditation practice through coaching, retreats, and online courses. Through her work, she seeks to help individuals and organizations find balance, purpose, and fulfillment in their personal and professional lives. 

 

You’ll hear Kara and Tom discuss:

  • Meditation means something different to every person, but to Kara it’s existing in a state that’s beyond – beyond thoughts, beyond the body, beyond time and beyond space. Meditation is getting to a state of higher consciousness, where the cycle of daily thoughts does not exist. 
  • Developing a meditation practice changes the brain and the nervous system. It can also translate to a person’s state outside of meditation where they can have a higher perspective about things. It allows them to slow down and not get caught up in the minutiae of the day. 
  • Being able to tell when you’re off balance is simply taking mental stock of yourself. “It’s just what’s showing up for you in your world… It’s becoming aware of how we feel and really even having a perspective that has a distance between what we feel and noticing what we feel,” Kara says.
  • You can’t solve problems when you’re operating in the same mindset they were created in. “When we’re in problem oriented consciousness we’re not necessarily going to find the solution for that problem in the same level of consciousness where the problem is,” Kara remarks. “It’s by raising ourselves into a higher level of consciousness that we can have access to more creative solutions, more holistic solutions, more win scenarios.” 
  • Meditation is becoming an important component of mental health for businesses and companies. Kara uses the example of the NFL using meditation tactics to keep themselves calm in the high stress environment they deal with. In addition, employers caring for their employees can also do more to create better working conditions. Caring for their employees in more holistic ways and seeing them as fully formed human beings, will impact the quality of their work. 
  • Meditation helps nurture whole brain thinking. Nurturing whole brain thinking and allowing yourself space allows for higher consciousness, which promotes productivity and activity. 

 

KEY QUOTES

“When we’re in problem oriented consciousness we’re not necessarily going to find the solution for that problem in the same level of consciousness where the problem is.” –  Kara Goodwin 

 

“[Meditation] is really getting into that state of a higher mind where we’re not so focused on the little ins and outs and details of the day and the cycles of our thoughts.” – Kara Goodwin

 

“Most successful executives are well aware of meditation and the secret power of it, and that it has a competitive advantage because it can change the way they’re thinking, access more levels of creativity and intuition.” – Kara Goodwin

 

Resources

Kara Goodwin | Twitter | Instagram 

The Meditation Conversation Podcast

Categories
Daily Compliance News

March 7, 2023 – The Aim Higher Edition

Welcome to the Daily Compliance News. Each day, Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, brings you compliance-related stories to start your day. Sit back, enjoy a cup of morning coffee, and listen to the Daily Compliance News. All from the Compliance Podcast Network. Each day we consider four stories from the business world, compliance, ethics, risk management, leadership, or general interest for the compliance professional.

Stories we are following in today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Why international anti-corruption enforcement needs to up their game. (FT)
  • Corruption is trouble in paradise. (The Guardian)
  • The bribery is ‘not fraud’ defense. (Reuters)
  • Zoom President fired ‘without cause.’ (BBC)