In this CCI featured article, Tim Lupfer and Mike Fuchs of Deloitte Consulting share their advice on how to effectively managing human capital risk, including best practices for risk management training and ingraining risk management into the corporate culture.
Theresa Mack, Senior Manager at CCA Advisors, discusses how newly proposed SEC regulations, as well as the struggling economy, are highlighting the need for increasing disclosure as well as thorough background investigations of applicants and on-board employees.
In the latest CCI featured article, Sharie Brown, chair of FCPA and Corporate Compliance at DLA Piper, provides a list of “red flags” companies can instruct their employees to watch out for to manage compliance risk of overseas operations. Red flags are included for the areas of anti-bribery, export controls, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, and anti-boycott risks.
By Karina B. Sterman, Esq., Partner in the Litigation and Employment Law Departments of Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP.
Entrepreneurs, statisticians, and business analysts all recognize that, when harnessed and managed properly, cultural diversity in the workplace contributes to great creativity, productivity, and ultimately to the growth and prosperity of a company.
However, there is a tremendous divide between the theoretical belief in cultural diversity and the practical implementation of training and fostering a culturally diverse yet cohesive workforce. Training employees with different cultural attitudes is a challenging opportunity to be approached with sensitivity, open mindedness, and awareness.
Most modern workplaces today are melting pots of diverse social, economic, ethnic, religious, and other cultural backgrounds. An employee’s cultural background largely frames that employee’s perspective on authority, on gender roles, on hierarchy, on responsibility, on assertiveness, and other traits that deeply and fundamentally determine the success of a corporate culture.
So, the critical inquiry for every workplace must be, “Are cultural wars killing your corporate culture or is your corporate culture creating culture wars?”
By Ron Kral, Managing Director of Candela Solutions
Many organizations will be facing financial reporting control assessments and related external audit pressures for the very first time over the next two years. Yes, public companies have suffered millions of dollars in costs with limited benefits. Yes, there are regulatory inefficiencies and strained auditor relationships. Yes, I am talking about Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). No, it does not have to be a wasteful exercise resulting in minimal benefits. This article identifies newer applicable organizations and the cornerstones to streamlining control assessment leading to cost-efficient and effective results.
By Wendy Wysong, Partner at Clifford Chance US LLP
Cross-border internal investigations of U.S. export controls violations pose unique challenges for in-house counsel and compliance officials. The U.S. government’s heightened focus on export control enforcement in recent years, combined with the five-fold increase in potential fines, has spurred U.S. companies to include export controls in their internal compliance programs.
Moreover, non-U.S. multinationals have also begun to understand more fully the various compliance obligations that they have in this area. Both U.S. and non-U.S. companies recognize that a critically important element of an effective compliance program is a process by which potential export violations are self-identified and internally investigated. Not surprisingly, as this awareness has increased, so too has the identification of potential violations and the need for multi-jurisdictional investigations.
by Thomas Fox — FCPA Compliance and Risk Management Attorney and Consultant
The application of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) to gifts and business entertainment expenditures to foreign officials is an area open to vagueness. There are no clear guidelines in the FCPA itself or the legislative history. While prohibiting payment of any money or thing of value to foreign officials to obtain or retain business, the FCPA arguably permits incurring certain expenses on behalf of these same officials. The presentation of a gift or business entertainment expense, however, can constitute a violation of the FCPA if this is coupled with the corrupt intent to obtain or retain business.
By Joan Dubinsky and Alan Richter
This featured article is a special CCI presentation of an outstanding ethics and integrity tool produced by Joan Dubinsky and Alan Richter entitled Global Ethics and Integrity Benchmarks. Together, Joan Dubinsky and Alan Richter have put together a detailed, organized, insightful, and groundbreaking ethics and integrity tool designed to help organizations “assess and measure their progress in making a formal and transparent commitment to ethics and integrity in the workplace.”
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, a recent report by the Millstein Center cites Chairman-CEO splits as a corporate governance best practice that more U.S. companies should integrate into their corporate governance structure.
By William J. Clegg — Executive Director of Ethics & Compliance at Textron Inc.
An effective Ethics & Compliance (E&C) program demands clarity of thought and the ability to communicate E&C messages to a whole spectrum of audiences. Simple and effective language must be employed to be sure the message content is received and understood. It is difficult, if not impossible, to build an effective culture in the absence of ready understanding.
