Tagged: ethical culture

2020: A Year of Ethical Challenges

If ever there was a year that challenged corporate leaders on their commitment to business ethics, 2020 was the year.  The number of difficult issues facing corporate leaders were challenging and ran the gamut – from health and safety concerns, to business continuity, and to economic disruptions and lay-offs or reductions in force.  Even outside the organization, social concerns, supply chain management and community needs...

Episode 171 — Promoting an Ethical Culture: Interview of Jeffrey Tilton

The Justice Department and regulatory agencies have emphasized the importance of corporate culture and ethics.  As companies approach this important issue, it is important to examine a variety of strategies to ensure that a corporate culture adheres to ethical standards. Jeffrey Tilton, CFE, a leader in the compliance field, has an interesting perspective on this issue.  In this Episode, Michael Volkov discusses the issue of...

Webinar: The Importance of an Ethical Culture

Webinar: The Importance of an Ethical Culture November 10, 2020, 12 Noon EST Sign up HERE. Business leaders, politicians, shareholders, the public and other stakeholders are demanding that companies adhere to and implement measures to promote and advance an ethical culture. In the face of egregious corporate scandals and aggressive government enforcement programs, companies have to devote resources and attention to their corporate cultures. Government...

Lessons Learned from the Goldman Sachs FCPA Enforcement Settlement (Part III of III)

Goldman Sachs has a new leadership role – unfortunately, it is for corruption.  It would be a serious mistake to characterize or describe the Goldman corruption scheme as the result of a few, bad actors.  Instead, Goldman suffered this scandal because of a culture and a weak set of controls crafted to promote business with little regard for compliance. The lessons learned from this massive...

Antitrust Compliance Programs: Ethical Culture and Monitoring (Part II of III)

Like all compliance programs, a company lives or dies based on its ethical culture.  A company with a poor culture that operates in a concentrated competitive market has significantly higher antitrust risks than companies with a strong ethical culture.  This basic and well understood premise has to be considered in designing an antitrust compliance program.  If senior management does not walk the walk, antitrust risks...

Ethics and Compliance Trends and Predictions for 2020

2019 was a big year for ethics and compliance.  In fact, it is easy to argue that since the adoption of the compliance provisions in the US Sentencing Guidelines in 1991, compliance had its biggest year. The federal government issued three important documents in 2019 – DOJ issued the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs from the Criminal Division (here) and from the Antitrust Division (here),...

Turning a Turbulent Social and Political Environment into Positive Ethical Culture Strategies

Corporate cultures do not operate in a silo or free from external influences.  Yet again, another profound grasp of the obvious.  Employees, managers and senior leadership all bring their own experiences, perspectives, attitudes and influences.  Of course, our political and social environment is a consistent and steady influence on corporate culture and behavior. Given the current social climate, the divisive nature of our politics, particularly...

Bringing the Board to the Ethical Culture Table (Part II of III)

I guarantee you if you ask your corporate board to define “ethical culture” and “compliance,” and their actual day-to-day responsibilities in this area, you will quickly realize most board members have no clue.  This is not a controversial statement because corporate board members, for the most part, are clinging to old ways when it comes to board responsibilities – focus on the financials, monitor your...

When Company Supervisors and Managers Engage in Misconduct

We all know the phrase – “A fish rots from its head.”  A perfectly accurate statement as to how corporate culture can suffer from leadership failures or C-Suite misconduct.  But there is much more to corporate culture than just what happens in the C-Suite.  Day-to-day events throughout the company can infect a corporate culture as well.  A well-oiled machine means that corporate leadership establishes ethical...