In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
Join Convercent’s Philip Winterburn and Tom Fox, the Compliance Evangelist for another episode of The Ethics Movement. In this episode, we explore how whistleblowing is having another moment in the spotlight thanks to coronavirus. So how do you prepare for the complaints that are almost certain to come? Philip and Tom break down the concept of organizational justice and the tactical approach to a whistleblower game plan.
Russ Berland, CCO at Aventiv Technologies, chats with Tom Fox about how his team is managing the current COVID-19 crisis, and his role as CCO in particular.
Crisis Management In The COVID-19 Crisis
Tom comments that crisis management should always be at the forefront for every CCO. He asks Russ to share how Aventiv is managing the current crisis. Russ is proud of his company’s proactive and successful response to the crisis. He manages the company’s enterprise risk management system, part of which is their risk register. A pandemic is one of the events on that register. As soon as the CDC announced that COVID-19 could become an issue for businesses, their team created a formal risk management plan that included “a list of all the people who are going to be part of the response team and all the actions they could take and what the elements were that would trigger the plan. That was written, circulated, approved and was ready to go several days before we needed it,” Russ says. The operational team now uses this oversight and governance document to execute the company’s response. Russ comments that this shows that risk and compliance “can look and see what’s coming, can prepare a way of dealing with it and then start the process.”
The CCO’s Role
Russ says that as CCO, he has two additional roles during this crisis. The first is to see the risks that might come up because of the crisis. The second is to make sure that other risks unrelated to the crisis, are also being addressed. “Crisis management is just risk management,” Russ says. “You just do it in a different time frame.”
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Aventiv Technologies
Consider again the use of big data, this time to facilitate continuous improvement. Alistair Croll, in an eBook entitled “Planning for Big Data” published by O’Reilly Radar, informs this discussion of continuous improvement in a best practices compliance program. Croll believes that big data will allow continuous improvement through the “feedback economy.” This is a step beyond the information economy because you are using the information that you have generated and collected as a source of information to guide you going forward. Information itself is not the greatest advantage but using that information to prevent, detect and remediate in a compliance program going forward is.
The three prongs of any best practices compliance program are prevent, detect and remedy. Whether you consider the OODA loop or the big data supply chain feedback, this process, coupled with the data that is available to you should facilitate a more agile and directed compliance program. The feedback components allow you to make adjustments literally on the fly. If that does not meet the definition of continuous improvement, I do not know what does.
Three key takeaways:
- Use big data to continuously improve your compliance program.
- The OODA loop is an excellent way to think about using data to continuously improvement.
- Always remember the human element.
Welcome to the newest addition to the Compliance Podcast Network, Compliance and Coronavirus. As the Voice of Compliance, I wanted to start a podcast which will help to bring both clarity and sanity to the compliance practitioner and compliance profession during this worldwide health and healthcare crisis. In this episode, I am joined by Fizza Khan, founder and CEO at Silver Regulatory Associates. We consider issues relating to financial institutions and the financial services industry during the time of the coronavirus health crisis.
Check out the Silver Regulator Associates website here.
This podcast is sponsored by SAI Global. To learn how you can protect your business operations and workforce during these uncertain times, visit saiglobal.com/risk for free resources, expert guidance, and industry-leading technology.
Tom Fox chats with John Shegerian, an entrepreneur who is passionate about serving up second chances. They talk about what motivates him, and how his company ERI helps organizations protect their data while protecting the environment.
Serving Second Chances
After the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, John co-founded Homeboy Tortillas with Father Greg Boyle as an outreach program to employ gang-impacted youths. He recalls father Greg’s tagline, “Nothing stops a bullet faster than a job.” Their way of doing business became a phenomenon in post-riot Los Angeles, and eventually, thousands of young people were employed in many different industries, which changed their lives positively. John says, “I only wanted to do businesses that made the world a better place, that made an impact… it always had to have a bottom-line way beyond just profit… All the companies that I’m involved with, I always looked for people that are part of what has been historically marginalized parts of society… Our core mission is recycling electronics at ERI, but recycling lives is what we really do in giving people a second chance.”
Recycling Electronics
Tom comments that recycling is becoming more important in today’s technologically-based world. He asks John to describe the business of ERI. John says that ERI recycles old or discarded electronics. He calls it the dark little secret of the technological revolution since nobody considered what would happen to our old electronics: they just made great technology that made our lives better. As a result, old electronics were dumped in landfills and it became – and still remains – the fastest growing solid waste stream in the world. Chemicals such as arsenic, beryllium and mercury leach into the ecosystem when electronics are dumped. This is very bad for people, for plants, for animals, and for the water supply, John says. “There’s no reason to throw the stuff in the landfills because you could keep it above ground. You could recycle them responsibly and everything can go for beneficial reuse,” John argues. “You could be zero waste.”
Protecting Data
John’s message to governments and corporations is that recycling their old electronics is good for their business, good for their privacy, and good for the environment. He explains how he helps companies assess their e-waste recycling risks. In today’s context of the Coronavirus, it’s more critical than ever to protect your data, John says. Bad actors seize opportunities like this crisis to take advantage. “If they got your old hardware they could pull your hard drives or other data containing materials, reverse engineer the information and have a heyday with regards to monetizing any data that’s contained in old hardware,” John points out.
A Giveaway For Listeners
John is giving a free copy of his book, 101 Tips From The Marketing Masters, to the first 10 listeners who reach out via email to book@themarketingmasters.com. He is also running a $0.99 promo on the Kindle edition on Amazon.
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ERI
Email for a free copy of John’s book: book@themarketingmasters.com
Buy on Amazon
Keeping track of current events for continuous improvements a part of the mandates found in the 2019 Guidance. The DOJ clearly expects companies to update its risk assessment, policies, procedures and practices in light of changing circumstances. This means that if a third-party changes characteristics, so that it becomes subject to FCPA scrutiny, a company must be able to evaluate and react appropriately to such change.
For the compliance practitioner, the Hitachi SEC enforcement action provides a valuable reminder that the FCPA covers more than foreign government officials and officials of state-owned enterprises. Political parties are also covered so that if part of your corporate social responsibility includes payments to political party front groups, your company could get into FCPA hot water. Yet it also means you will need to keep abreast of just who your counter-parties are during the entire course of your commercial relationship. This means that keeping up with current events is a must and can facilitate continuous improvement.
Three key takeaways:
- The Hitachi FCPA enforcement action demonstrates the need to keep track of current events for continuous improvement.
- Many product and services providers in the compliance space provide ongoing monitoring for PEPs and SDNs.
- Make sure your partners are still who they say they are!
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- Will beef be next? (WaPo)
- Companies seek COVID-19 tests for employees. (WSJ)
- Google wants to muzzle auditor. (WSJ)
- Deepwater Horizon blew up 10 years ago. (Houston Chronicle)
In the Episode, I visit with Pat Harned, President of the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI). We discuss ECI’s upcoming virtual conference IMPACT 2020. As the first major compliance annual conference to go virtual, ECI faced unique challenges to bring the top speakers and thought leaders to this event. Find out how they did so as Harned and Tom Fox discuss some of the highlights of this most unique event.
Some of the highlights include:
- Keynotes speeches include Sally Yates, Anita Hill, David Rock and Jan Schwartz.
- Earn up to 15 CEUs – Participate in, view and earn CEUs for every session, even those happening concurrently!
- On-Demand Access – Watch and participate in exceptional keynotes and benchmarking sessions live as well as on-demand through the event library for up to one year.
- Assess Your Program – Register for the event and you will be provided access to ECI’s High-Quality Program (HQP) Assessment. Take the survey and gauge the maturity of your E&C program prior to the event. This assessment is valued at $500 for individual users but is included in IMPACT registration!
- Get Valuable Benchmarks – Throughout the conference we will be sharing metrics from the HQP and compare your results with your peers.
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It’s not too late to register for IMPACT 2020. Conference information and registration available here. For more information on ECI, click here.