David Simon is a Partner at Foley & Lardner in the firm’s litigation department and a member of their Government Enforcement/Compliance/White Collar Defense Practice Group, Antitrust Practice Group, and Health Industry Team. He specializes in investigations, corporate governance, and government enforcement defense law. He and Tom Fox discuss David’s article “The G in ESG” and the role of compliance in ESG, specifically in the governance aspect of compliance.
The Meta Contract, Governance & Company Culture
An organization’s meta contract represents what the company is truly about to the public. David tells Tom the meta contract is what the company does, who the company is, and what the company isn’t. Governance comes into play by keeping the company on the right track and making sure that it operates in the way it said it would. Culture informs the way an organization adheres to its meta contract, and it starts from the corporate level. Who you hire, who you promote, policies, and internal protocols and procedures all play key parts in this.
Being Authentic
“One of the things that I see that I’m a little skeptical of is every organization trying to fit itself into the same ESG vision or model,” David remarks. Every organization is different so there’s no one-size-fits-all ESG model. A company’s meta contract sets the expectations on how they present themselves to the world. True value lies in “being authentic and maintaining integrity over how you’re presenting your organization, and what your values are, and who your stakeholders are, and how you rank them in terms of priority,” David remarks.
ESG and Compliance
One of the great things about ESG is it allows compliance to broaden its thinking. A lot of times compliance is only focused on regulatory compliance, but David tells Tom that needs to change. “Compliance professionals need to think more broadly than just the laws and the regulatory framework, to more about what their organizational meta contract is, and they need to take steps to protect their organizations from violating it because it can be disastrous when they do,” David says.
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