Daniel Ramsey, CEO and Co-Founder of MyOutDesk, a virtual assistant company that helps small to medium-sized businesses get leverage, is this week’s guest. He joins Tom Fox to discuss the untapped resources of virtual assistance.
Starting the Business
Tom asks Dan to recount why he founded MyOutDesk. Dan responds that he started a successful real estate practice, but soon realized that he needed more leverage in order to grow his business. However, it was hard to find detail-oriented people who could fill in his roles, so he hired a few virtual assistants to do the paperwork and was amazed at their capabilities. From there, Dan says, he asked them if they had connections to other virtual assistants and he started MyOutDesk, which now has about 1200 employees in the Philippines.
Blending and Cost Effectiveness
Dan believes in a blended work chart, where a portion of a company’s employees are US-based, and everyone else is across the globe, and that companies are going to move toward this. It’s not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’, Dan says. Everyone in your pipeline that is doing the work of running an existing system or process can and will someday be outsourced, which cuts down on costs significantly. According to Dan, one of his employees costs one-quarter of the cost of a US-based person to employ, meaning that there is an incentive for businesses to have a virtual workforce.
Vetting and Ongoing Monitoring
Dan offers advice to business owners about the vetting process of hiring an outsourcing provider. MyOutDesk does an FBI grade background check on all their employees, as well as a medical check to ensure they don’t have any debilitating illnesses that could hinder their productivity. He adds that business owners should ensure their potential outsourcing providers have wide-scale experience and are licensed to operate in the countries where they provide their services. For ongoing monitoring of their virtual assistants and using the captured data for continuous improvement, they should invest in some task management or accountability platforms, which are inexpensive to implement and are an easy way to ‘juice’ the relationship between employer and virtual assistant.
Talent On-Demand
MyOutDesk’s solution is talent on-demand: when a client comes to them, the company does a thorough consultation about the client’s specific needs, and by the next day, the client would have someone ready to work with them. This is beneficial to entrepreneurs, small to medium-sized businesses, or any compliance officer running a large operation.
Resources
Daniel Ramsey on LinkedIn
MyOutDesk.com
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In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- Another bank, more fraudulent accounts. (NYT)
- Wells Fargo board member resigns. (NYT)
- CFPB proposes whistleblower program. (WSJ)
- Companies fighting sick pay leave during coronavirus. (Washington Post)
Next we consider the crucial capabilities which a compliance function must have to implement an AI solution. Over the next several pieces, I will use the article Using AI to Enhance Business Operations by Monideepa Tarafdar, Cynthia M. Beath as an introduction into the how the corporate compliance function can use an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program to not only enhance the compliance function but also business operations.
Generating value from AI programs is not easy for compliance professionals as there can be multiple roadblocks to successful design and implementation. The problem is, many companies which desired to benefit from AI programs failed to do so have failed to develop the necessary organizational capabilities. The authors identified five capabilities that companies need to splice into their organization’s DNA to create an effective AI program, have adapted for the compliance function.
Three key takeaways:
- What is the power of an AI application?
- What are the foundations of AI application competence?
- What are some of the roadblocks to AI competence?
In this Episode, I visit with Tony Charles, Chief Client Officer at Steele Compliance Solutions, Inc. In this podcast we discuss the firm’s recent article 3rd Party Due Diligence: Creating a Credible and Defensible Program. We use it as an entrée into the topic of 3rd party due diligence.
Some of the highlights include:
· What was the genesis behind the article 3rd Party Due Diligence: Creating a Credible and Defensible Program?
· Where should a company begin due diligence?
· What are the levels of due diligence?
· What is investigative tiering?
· What is an investigative framework?
· What are the critical components of automated due diligence program?
For a copy of the article 3rd Party Due Diligence: Creating a Credible and Defensible Program, click here.
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- More Boeing fines. (NYT)
- Congressional Report finds Boeing had a ‘culture of concealment’. (WSJ)
- What’s a few drinks at a strip club (and billing it to the government?) (WSJ)
- Court finds Amazon likely to win suit on Pentagon contract. (Washington Post)
In today’s edition of Sunday Book Review:
- Smacked: A Story of White-Collar Ambition, Addiction and Tragedy by Eileen Zimmerman
- Reflections of My Nonexistence by Rebecca Solnit
- Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction by David Enrich
- Scratched: A Memoir of Perfectionism by Elizabeth Tallent
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In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- What Spanish Flu can teach businesses today about coronavirus. (FT)
- SXSW cancelled. (NYT)
- How will coronavirus impact ABC? (WSJ)
- Will Trump Administration ban all Chinese investments in US. (Washington Post)
Today, I want to consider the article Strategy For and With AI by David Kiron and Michael Schrage. The authors premise is, “A company’s strategy is defined by its key performance indicators. Artificial intelligence can help determine which outcomes to measure, how to measure them, and how to prioritize them.”
Their article had several insights for the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) or compliance practitioner who is looking to employ Artificial intelligence (AI) to help move their compliance program up a level. One of the first key insights is that it is not enough to simply have a strategy for AI. The authors stated, “Creating strategy with AI matters as much — or even more — in terms of exploring and exploiting strategic opportunity. This distinction is not semantic gamesmanship; it’s at the core of how algorithmic innovation truly works in organizations. Real-world success requires making these strategies both complementary and interdependent. Strategies for novel capabilities demand different managerial skills and emphases than strategies with them.”
This makes clear that AI does not supplant the compliance function or the compliance professional, AI complements what the compliance professional can do with the information available to them. Yet the authors believe that when it comes to machine learning, an appropriate compliance strategy is defined by the key performance indicators (KPIs) leaders choose to optimize. This means that a CCO who cannot clearly identify and justify their strategic KPI portfolios has no strategy.
The bottom line? AI plays a critical role in determining what and how compliance KPIs are measured and how best to optimize them. Optimizing carefully selected compliance KPIs becomes AI’s strategic purpose in the compliance function. Understanding the value of optimization is key to aligning and integrating strategies forand with AI and machine learning. KPIs create accountability for optimizing strategic aspirations, including compliance.
Three key takeaways:
- Use KPIs to define and measure your innovation strategy.
- AI should only supplement, not supplant a compliance professional.
- What are your compliance KPIs?
For more information on how an independent monitor can help improve your company’s ethics and compliance program, visit this month’s sponsor Affiliated Monitors at www.affiliatedmonitors.com.
With travel bans coming to the fore, Jay worries about Spring Break while Tom heads to DisneyWorld. They take a break to consider some of the top compliance articles and stories which caught their eye this week.
- The Cardinal Health FCPA enforcement action. Harry Cassin breaks the story on the FCPA Blog. Tom looks at business relationships in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Matt Kelly considers management’s role in Radical Compliance. Mike Volkov considers on Corruption Crime and Compliance. Jaclyn Jaeger considers on Compliance Week. (sub req’d)
- Is your compliance program effective? Mike Volkov explores on Corruption Crime and Compliance.
- The Astros sign stealing scandal and breach of fiduciary duty. Mike Peregrine in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
- CRO fined $450,000 individually for failures in compilance. Kristin Broughton in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
- Does conflict rob you of success? Linda Henman in CCI.
- Wow moments in compliance, Part 3. Geert Vermeulen continues his 5-part series in Risk and Compliance Platform Europe.
- Are you under pressure as a compliance professional. We suggest you read Julie DiMauro in the FCPA Blog (and then listen to both David Bowie and Queen)
- How can you manage digital disruption? Jim DeLoach considers in Part 1 of a two-part series on CCI.
- On the Compliance Podcast Network, Tom opens a new month by looking at the role of innovation in compliance on 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program.This week saw the following offerings: Monday-What is Innovation in Compliance; Tuesday-Welcome to ComTech; Wednesday-skills needed for innovation; Thursday-the advantage of data in compliance; Friday-strategies for and with AI in compliance. 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. This month’s sponsor is Affiliated Monitors, Inc.
- Join Tom in Houston on March 10 as Convercent is hosting a Roundtable, from 12-2 at Steak 48. Our featured speaker will be Philip Winterburn and featured guest is Terri Springer from HP. We will focus on key KPIs for compliance. Information and Registration here.
- Join Tom in NYC on Thursday, March 12 as Convercent is hosting an Innovation Forum from 3:30-7 PM at Santina. This event will allow you to network with like-minded individuals within the ethics and compliance space and hear from Thomas Fox and Philip Winterburn as well. For more information and registration click here.
- If not Houston or NYC, how about joining Tom in Philly? Join Baker Tilly and the Philadelphia Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors for the 2020 Fraud and Ethics Symposium. Information here and registration 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.
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- Even domestic bribery is illegal (sometimes). (WSJ)
- Will SCt. reward fraudsters? (Radical Compliance)
- Will US take over UAW like it did the Teamsters. (New York Times)
- Maxine Waters calls on Wells Fargo board members to resign and considers referral of former CEO Tim Sloan. (Washington Post)
