@Risk

Doug Cornelius writes a blog called “Compliance Building,” and he has done a fantastic job of summarizing sessions from this week’s Global Ethics Summit 2010, hosted by Dow Jones and Ethisphere.

In today’s increasingly complex and often unpredictable business environment, corporations are taking a long, hard look at their compliance practices. After all, effective compliance is a fundamental component of any supplier risk management program.  It reduces the likelihood of an offense.  And in some cases, it also can mitigate penalties (and negative perception) if noncompliance does occur. The conference was designed to help companies learn about current trends and best practices so that they can conduct business both successfully and ethically.

One of my favorite posts from Cornelius’ collection from the conference is “Doing More with Less: Compliance During Tough Economic Times” because as he says, “Let’s face it: compliance is usually seen as a cost center.”

Speakers in this session pointed out the risks of shortchanging compliance when budgets are tight. Interestingly, one of the keys to success mentioned here is to collaborate to maximize resources — and in order to do that, you have to look not only internally, but externally, as well. In short, it’s critical to know the standards used by your competitors. “Complying with regulations are important but meeting the level of your industry is even more important when the practice exceeds regulatory standards,” Cornelius reports.

The “What’s Next?” post is also filled with useful information, including answers to questions about federal sentencing guidelines, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, compliance in mergers and acquisitions and concerns regarding social networking sites.

Many thanks to Doug for covering the conference so thoroughly. Be sure to check out his website for valuable insights about how to integrate compliance issues into your comprehensive supplier risk management strategy.