Corporate crime was the biggest story of the 1990s not because it was new, but because it had grown to such huge dimensions. The lives of hundreds of thousands of hard-working people got destroyed by the ethical lapse and corruption of a relative few at the top.
Don’t let it happen to you.
While there are scores of regulatory and statutory safeguards that have been put into place, the onus is on you to avoid corruption. From small scale matters to backdating options, the temptations are great all throughout the supply chain.
Put the necessary systems in place that will help everyone in your organization to understand the spirit and the law of corruption. Install a chief compliance officer with broad authority.
Think of your corporate leadership role as a public trust—even if you’re in a smaller organization or private company.
Go the extra mile in compliance and due diligence analysis such that at the end of your tenure, there will be no doubt about your ethical, moral or legal character.
(c) Adonis E. Hoffman, 2008
Showing posts with label Compliance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Compliance. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Seek External Guidance
It is not easy to allow outsiders into your corporate world and ask them to critically assess how well you are doing business. But that is exactly what you as a good leader must do to get the best results for your organization and its customers, shareholders and employees.
External validation goes a long way toward establishing a great corporate reputation, if it is conducted with transparency, integrity, and purposefulness. For example, compliance audits, corporate social responsibility assessments, diversity assessments and audits, in addition to the mandatory Sarbanes-Oxley reviews, are a few ways you can obtain the considered opinions of others.
When you engage outside consultants, do your best to go beyond the big three consulting firms. You just might find that smaller, niche, firms will do just as good a job and be easier to work with. More law firms are providing these types of assessments or “audits”.
After it’s all done, report to the public on your status, especially if the assessment is mostly positive. Convene a press conference and tell your shareholders, just how good you are, and allow surrogates from your outside advisory groups to give their assessments too.
(c) Adonis E. Hoffman, 2008.
External validation goes a long way toward establishing a great corporate reputation, if it is conducted with transparency, integrity, and purposefulness. For example, compliance audits, corporate social responsibility assessments, diversity assessments and audits, in addition to the mandatory Sarbanes-Oxley reviews, are a few ways you can obtain the considered opinions of others.
When you engage outside consultants, do your best to go beyond the big three consulting firms. You just might find that smaller, niche, firms will do just as good a job and be easier to work with. More law firms are providing these types of assessments or “audits”.
After it’s all done, report to the public on your status, especially if the assessment is mostly positive. Convene a press conference and tell your shareholders, just how good you are, and allow surrogates from your outside advisory groups to give their assessments too.
(c) Adonis E. Hoffman, 2008.
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