Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

Ty Francis on LRN Acquisition of Compliance Learning Solutions

Welcome to the award-winning FCPA Compliance Report, the longest running podcast in compliance. In this special episode, I visit with Ty Francis, the Chief Advisory Officer at LRN. We discuss the just-announced LRN acquisition of the Compliance Learning business unit from Thomson Reuters. The acquisition will further establish LRN’s position as the largest global provider of E&C program management and learning solutions serving over 2,500 companies and tens of millions of learners. It will place LRN literally across every continent, including a larger strategic presence in Asia-Pacific markets. This acquisition also enhances LRN’s capabilities and expertise in the financial services marketplace and will help accelerate several of its vertical market product strategies. Some of the highlights include:

  • How this acquisition allows LNR to bring compliance training to where a customer’s employees are located.
  • How this acquisition will facilitate data-driven compliance.
  • Why a holistic, worldwide scope for compliance learning will be a business positive.
  • How this acquisition will meet the continued growth in the regulatory landscape on a global basis.

Resources

LRN

Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Assessing Corporate Culture with Ty Francis

 

Ty Francis is a renowned compliance leader and the Chief Advisory Officer at LRN; he leads the company’s worldwide ethics and compliance consulting, ESG, and community outreach strategy. Tom Fox welcomes him to this week’s episode of Innovation In Compliance to discuss LRN’s new report, Assessing Corporate Culture

 

 

The Genesis of the Assessing Corporate Culture Report

Tom asks Ty about the genesis of the LRN report. This is the second report LRN produced; the first one was about activating culture and ethics in the boardroom. Their previous research led the team at LRN to realize that most corporate boards did not understand the culture. Ty says, “Over the last 10 years, culture is so high on those lists, but when you look further into the survey and ask them what they’ve done to measure this culture, it’s nonexistent.” Therefore, LRN sought to discover the general opinion on culture and ethics compliance and provide a roadmap on how to activate these skills within a company. 

 

Roadmap for Building Corporate Culture

Tom highlights how the report can be used as a roadmap to building culture. Ty says that building corporate culture starts with defining ethical culture. Ethical culture is the codification of what an organization stands for and the systems that support those beliefs; the core architecture should be reinforced by leadership in how they model desired behavior. The second step in building culture is getting to know the most valuable members within your company, in each department. Culture is extremely important for building relationships within a company and allowing people to hear opinions from all sides. 

 

The Relationship Between ESG and Corporate Culture

The culture within a corporate setting has always been an ESG issue. The governance aspect of ESG is directly related to culture as it is something that companies should have been implementing for years. Ty remarks, “It shows the company’s values across the board and I think when you have a mismatch of what the company says it’s doing and what they are really doing, that can fragment any ability for a company to demonstrate that it is really a forward-thinking, future-expanding company.” The governance is to be upheld by the board, stewards, stakeholders, and managers. He lists five key considerations for boards: 

  • prioritizing culture on the board agenda, 
  • challenging the board’s culture, 
  • mentoring and monitoring, 
  • articulating the desired culture, and 
  • establishing clear communication.

 

Looking Ahead

Acknowledging the new legal and regulatory requirements, public pressure, and the evolution of thinking surrounding corporate culture, Tom asks Ty if he believes that boards will maintain the corporate culture into 2025 and beyond. Ty believes these pressures will force boards to manage and maintain the corporate culture. 

Resources

Ty Francis | LinkedIn | Twitter

LRN | LRN Report – Assessing Corporate Culture

 

Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

Ty Francis on Assessing Corporate Culture: A Practical Guide to Improving Board Oversight

In this episode of the FCPA Compliance Report, I am joined by Ty Francis, Chief Advisory Officer at LRN. We dive deeply into a recently released LNR/Tapestry Networks Report on Assessing Corporate Culture: A Practical Guide to Improving Board Oversight. Some of the highlights include:

  1. The genesis of this report.
  2. How does the Report serve as a roadmap to a clearer picture of the company’s ethical culture?
  3. How can the Report help determine how to improve culture throughout the enterprise?
  4. Who should a Board collaborate with, and how?
  5. How does the work LRN conducts help organizations foster more effective collaborative cultures?
  6. How do you prioritize culture on the board agenda?
  7. What is the challenge to the board’s culture?
  8. How does a Board measure and monitor?
  9. How does a Board articulate the desired culture?
  10.  How can a Board establish clear communication?

Resources

Ty Francis on LinkedIn

LRN

Assessing Corporate Culture: A Practical Guide to Improving Board Oversight

Tapestry Networks

Categories
The ESG Report

Corporate Culture and ESG with Ty Francis

 

Tom Fox welcomes renowned compliance leader, Ty Francis, to the ESG Report! Ty is the Chief Advisory Officer at LRN; he leads the company’s worldwide ethics and compliance consulting, ESG, and community outreach strategy. In this week’s episode, Ty and Tom discuss LRN’s new report, Assessing Corporate Culture, and how it relates to ESG. 

 

 

The Genesis of the Assessing Corporate Culture Report

Tom asks Ty about the genesis of the LRN report. This is the second report LRN produced; the first one was about activating culture and ethics in the boardroom. Their previous research led the team at LRN to realize that most corporate boards did not understand culture. Ty says, “Over the last 10 years culture is so high on those lists, but when you look further into the survey and ask them what they’ve done to measure this culture, it’s nonexistent.” Therefore, LRN sought to discover the general opinion on culture and ethics compliance and provide a roadmap on how to activate these skills within a company. 

 

Roadmap for Building Corporate Culture

Tom highlights how the report can be used as a roadmap to build culture. Ty says that building corporate culture starts with defining ethical culture. Ethical culture is the codification of what an organization stands for and the systems that support those beliefs; the core architecture should be reinforced by leadership in how they model desired behavior. The second step in building culture is getting to know the most valuable members within your company, in each department. Culture is extremely important for building relationships within a company and allowing people to hear opinions from all sides. 

 

The Relationship Between ESG and Corporate Culture

The culture within a corporate setting has always been an ESG issue. The governance aspect of ESG is directly related to culture as it is something that companies should have been implementing for years. Ty remarks, “It shows the company’s values across the board, and I think when you have a mismatch of what the company says it’s doing and what they are really doing, that can fragment any ability for a company to demonstrate that it is really a forward-thinking, future-expanding company.” The governance is to be upheld by the board, stewards, stakeholders, and managers. He lists five key considerations for boards: 

  • prioritizing culture on the board agenda, 
  • challenging the board’s culture, 
  • mentoring and monitoring, 
  • articulating the desired culture, and 
  • establishing clear communication.

 

Looking Ahead

Acknowledging the new legal and regulatory requirements, public pressure and the evolution of thinking surrounding corporate culture, Tom asks Ty if he believes that boards will maintain the corporate culture into 2025 and beyond. Ty believes these pressures will force boards to manage and maintain the corporate culture. 

 

Resources

Ty Francis | LinkedIn | Twitter

LRN | LRN Report – Assessing Corporate Culture | LinkedIn | Twitter | LRN Report – Benchmark of Ethical Culture |

 

Categories
The Compliance Life

Susan Divers – Move to Thought Leadership at LRN

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 Susan Divers, currently Director of Thought Leadership at LRN.

In this concluding episode, Susan discusses her failed retirement from AECOM and how LRN found her. She took from AECOM an interest in what works in an effective compliance and ethics program. She discussed the values that LRN espouses for compliance and ethics programs and how that dovetails with her experiences as a CECO. She discussed company’s which put their values into action during the pandemic. We concluded with Susan looking down the road at the role of the CCO and corporate compliance function and the intersection of compliance and ESG.

Resources

 Susan Divers LinkedIn Profile

LRN

Categories
The Compliance Life

Susan Divers – College & Early Professional Career


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 Susan Divers, currently Director of Thought Leadership at LRN.
Susan graduated from George Washington University at night while working at the State Department during the day. Her legal career began Office of the Legal Advisor at the State Department and continued in London with two large law firms.  I moved back to Washington, entered private practice, working first with Bob Strauss at Akin Gump and then moving over Sonnenshien’s DC office where she became a partner.
Resources
Susan Divers LinkedIn Profile
LRN

Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

Susan Divers on the LRN Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report


In this episode of the FCPA Compliance Report, I am joined Susan Divers, Director of Thought Leadership at LRN. We discuss recently released LRN Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report. Highlights in include:

  • What is the LRN Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report?
  • What does it measure?
  • How is it generated?
  • Why is culture so critical?
  • What are the values in values?
  • What is LRN’s High Performance Premium?
  • What are the roles of managers and leaders?
  • What are the keys to effective training?
  • What will the new normal for compliance programs look like going forward?
  • The issue of culture and values down the road into 2025 and beyond.

Resources
Susan Divers
LRN Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report

Categories
Corruption, Crime and Compliance

Episode 225 – Interview of Susan Divers, LRN Senior Advisor


Susan Divers, LRN Senior Advisor, reviews LRN’s 2022 Ethics and Compliance Program Effectiveness Report. LRN conducts an annual Ethics, and Compliance Program Effectiveness Report (“LRN Report”) th (https://pages.lrn.com/2022-pei-report)at is a must-read for business leaders, managers, investors, compliance professionals, and other stakeholders. LRN’s annual report has addressed key issues surrounding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on companies and ethics and compliance programs.

Categories
This Week in FCPA

Episode 289 – the Brady Retires edition

 
As the GOAT of pro football, Tom Brady retires, Brian Flores sues the NFL and the Bengals/Rams make the Super Bowl, Tom and Jay are back look at some of the week’s top compliance and ethics stories this week in the Brady Retires edition. 
Stories

  1. DOJ issues first Opinion Release of 2022. DOJ website. Tom in FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Bill Steinman in the FCPA Blog.
  2. Do BODs have unrealistic expectations on compliance? Dick Cassin explores in the FCPA Blog.
  3. KPMG mislead FRC through forged docs. Risk and Compliance Platform Europe.
  4. LRN releases 2022 Program Effectiveness Report. Download report here. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance.
  5. A ‘how-to’ on remediating. The HeadSpin enforcement action. Tom in FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Aaron Nicodemus in Compliance Week. (sub req’d)
  6. Learning to scale up ethically. Hemant Taneja in CCI.
  7. Why compliance should lead ESG. Carrie Penman in Ethics and Compliance Matters.
  8. The Boardroom agenda in 2022. Deloitte in Harvard Law School forum on Corporate Governance.
  9. Changes in antitrust enforcement and its impact on compliance. Mike Volkov, Matt Kelly and Tom in Compliance into the Weeds. Mike Volkov with a 3-part blog series in Corruption Crime and Compliance.
  10. Unclear values can lead to unethical behavior. Brett Beasley in Center for Ethical Leadership.

 Podcasts and More

  1. In February on The Compliance Life, I visit with Ellen Smith, a former Director of Trade Compliance who recently started her own consulting firm. In Part 1, she discussed her academic background and early professional career.
  2. Aly McDevitt with a multipart series in Compliance Week on the end-to-end story of a ransomware attack. Here more about the series on this month’s edition of From the Editor’s Desk, with Tom and Dave Lefort. A subscription is required but Compliance Week is running a membership special of $199 for the year. Use Promo Code RNSM199. For information and details click here.
  3. CCI releases new e-book from Tom “FCPA 2021 Year in Review”. Available free from CCI.
  4. Trial of the Century-the Enron Trial. This week, Tom premiered a 5-part podcast series on the Enron Trial with Loren Steffy, who covered the trial for the Houston Chronicle. In Part 1, run up to the trial. In Part 2, the trial begins. In Part 3, the star witnesses and key testimony. In Part 4, the Verdict comes in. In Part 5, what did it all mean. It is be available on the Compliance Podcast Network, Megaphone, iTunes, Spotify and all other top podcast platforms.
  5. Looking for a quick daily bite of trade compliance? Check out the Compliance Kitchen with Silvia Surman, who gives a short 3-5 minute update on one trade compliance topic each day. On the Compliance Podcast Network.

Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.

Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

Susan Divers on LRN’s 2020 Compliance Program Effectiveness Report


In the Episode, I visit with Susan Divers, Senior Executive at LRN. Susan is one of the leaders of the LNR team which annually produces the Program Effectiveness Report. The 2020 version has been released. We review its key findings and insights as well as the LRN Program Effectiveness Index. Finally, we conclude with a key theme of the Report and discuss why it is such an insight for the compliance professional.
Some of the highlights include:

  • What is the 2020 Program Effectiveness Report?
  • Why does LRN release this report annually?
  • This year’s report has even more importance and urgency but we had ethical failures which caused loss of life over the past year as well?
  • What were the overview of key insights?
  • What are some of the key reasons ethical scandals occur?
  • What is the Program Effectiveness Index (PEI) and what does it tell us this year?
  • What are the 5 elements of an ethical culture?
  • One of the key themes I took away from this year’s Report is the interconnectedness of compliance program elements.

Download and read the 2020 Program Effectiveness Report here. For more information on LRN, click here.LRN