In the first of a two-part interview, Richard Fenning, CEO, Control Risks, addresses the Control Risks 2015/2016 Survey International Business Attitudes To Corruption (available here). In this Front-Line interview, Mr. Fenning addresses:
The challenges that compliance teams face in addressing the multitude of regulations across jurisdictions.
The importance of “tone from the middle” and the necessity of demonstrating to front-line teams that “good news can wait but bad news has to travel fast” when encountering corruption risk.
How compliance personnel need to understand that “local pressures and a corporate culture that has difficulties listening” can make for a dangerous compliance combination.
The importance of eliminating the “disconnect between training and adequate practice” in preparing field personnel for the challenges that they will face in their work, and how that is not a “one size fits all” dilemma.
How those in forward positioned remote offices, often thinly supervised, might think that their conduct “does not seem so bad” in the context local cultures. Thus, the need for a speak up culture, as more than a whistleblower hotline, has never been more critical.
The need to understand local corruption risk up front, before entering a market, and that some markets might warrant walking away. In other words, “you can’t have it every which way.”
The complexities of local markets and how in some, you can do business in certain sectors, but not in others; however, even in such markets, you will need to “worry about tomorrow even if it is going well today.”
Mr. Fenning’s view comes not from the Control Risks home office in London, but from his extensive travel and practice in the field, where he leads thirty global offices and focuses upon assisting multinationals in managing operational and strategic risk, even in the most volatile regions. It is a fascinating interview, less than 20 minutes, with multiple lessons and recommendations for today’s commercial, audit and compliance teams.