Innovation In Compliance With Tom Fox

Jared Connors and Daniel Zamora join Tom Fox in the final episode of the Supply Chain and ESG – What You Need to Know series, to discuss how market expectations have evolved with regards to due diligence in the responsible sourcing field. Due diligence used to be a data collection exercise where you get transparency into your supply chain, but now it's all about what you do with that information after you collect data - how a company can move from being reactive to being proactive. The first step to making this move is collecting data more efficiently; this allows you to have the resources in place to perform risk management within your supply chain. You need to know who’s on your supply chain, and you need to have a specific program in place to identify the risks of smelters. Under the Biden administration, there has been a major focus on critical minerals when it comes to sanctions and regulations. Critical minerals are not specifically tied to the Dodd-Frank Act, but this focus has emphasized to stakehol

In part 4 of the Supply Chain and ESG - What You Need to Know series,Tom Fox is joined by Devin O’Herron and Jared Connors of Assent to discuss Scope 3 emissions reporting as the key to disclosure success. They talk about the importance of accounting for Scope 3 in your emissions strategy. There are three scope levels within the emissions reporting strategy: Scope 1 refers to things like your vehicle or things you’re doing around your facility; Scope 2 is the purchased heat or electricity powering your facility; and Scope 3 is all those variables outside your four walls. The most important aspect of Scope 3 is purchased goods. This has a large impact on organizations that may not necessarily take in raw materials and directly manufacture those raw materials into a finished good. The supply chain is a very significant factor to consider when coming up with the emissions strategy as a company. A recent study found that Scope 3 emissions are typically 11 times larger than an organization's Scope 1 and 2 emissi

In part 3 of the Supply Chain and ESG - What You Need to Know series, Cally Edgren and Devin O’Herron join Tom Fox to discuss product compliance and sustainability. They explore how the two worlds are starting to intersect. This series is sponsored by Assent Compliance. Making sure products meet regulatory requirements is what product compliance is all about. In recent years, the requirements have been changing. There used to be a focus on safety features like mechanical and electrical safety, but things changed with the RoHS Directive in 2002. That directive was meant to make sure electronic waste from third-world countries was safe. It was one of the first times a regulatory rule had more to do with sustainability than traditional product safety. Manufacturers need to understand that their customers are no longer just concerned with what they hold in their hands at the end of the process - they want to make sure that their suppliers are using responsible processes. The two worlds of operations compliance

Tom Fox welcomes Travis Miller and Jamie Wallisch to part 2 of the Supply Chain and ESG - What You Need to Know podcast series, sponsored by Assent. In this episode, they talk about the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), and how it impacts the way companies do business across the supply chain. The UFLPA is a United States federal law that stops companies from importing products made with forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China, or any other part of China with forced labor by workers or other minorities. This law is important because it makes sure that companies are aware of what is happening and take steps to stop it. The UFLPA makes companies use processes that already exist in their business. To follow the UFLPA, your company would need to have a compliance program in place. Jamie also explains how regulators could assess companies' compliance programs using the UFLPA.  For ESG to succeed, ESG is important for companies to do well. Each company out there affects more than just the people who

James Calder and Jared Connors are today’s guests on this premier episode of the 5-part series, Supply Chain and ESG - What You Need to Know. This series is sponsored by Assent. In this conversation, they chat with Tom Fox about how ESG impacts a company's performance presently and in the future. Before the pandemic, many companies were very dependent on global supply chains. But now that the pandemic has started, companies need to be more resilient and focus on environmental resilience. This means that they need to be careful about where they get their supplies from because there is a risk of disruptions. Additionally, companies that can't demonstrate that their products don't violate human rights are at a disadvantage. Without evidence that they are adhering to labor laws, they could lose business to their competitors, Jared tells Tom.  ESG can help companies save money and be more efficient. "When you think about that in the context of labor… if you're helping the well-being of these organizations or the

Simon Severino studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and later became a business coach at a global consultancy. Two decades of experience led him to found his own consulting firm, through which he now advises business leaders about market strategy via his Strategy SprintsTM Method. He and Tom Fox explore his signature methodology and how it translates into creating value in the compliance space. The Problem of Strategy Simon tells Tom that the problem was how to create strategy. There are tools to analyze the market and figure out how to enter it. However, the tools to build an organized, aligned team that gets feedback quickly were missing. Since the executive team is removed from the market, they don't have closed loops. "For the last 15 years, I've been obsessed with just building that [tool],” Simon comments. “How can an executive team have an agile way of doing things so it feels like a sports team? That's what I've been building. That's now the Strategy SprintsTM Method and the Strategy Sprint

George Serafeim is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and author of the book, Profits + Purpose, How Business Can Uplift The World. His contribution to the compliance space is enviable, including advising many compliance professionals. He and Tom Fox discuss his new book and explore how it benefits businesses and compliance professionals.    A Strong Sense of Purpose Tom asks George why he wrote the book, Profits + Purpose. George says that he noticed a trend that students, when he asked them why they chose to study business, often replied: “because of money”. In reality, however, most people venture into business because they have an interesting idea about a cool product they're passionate about. “Most people that go into business have a strong sense of purpose,” he tells Tom; “it is something I’ve seen in my students over time that has ended up doing incredible things.” Purpose-driven business leaders often create incredible and profitable organizations. It’s important to be p

Will Robinson is a former investment banker, who now serves as the CEO at Encapture, a 20-year-old document management services company that pivoted into a SaaS product company in 2019. Tom Fox welcomes him to this week’s show to discuss how Encapture helps its customers attain data integrity through intelligent document processing. Intelligent Document Processing Encapture is a software company with a unique process called “intelligent document processing”. Will explains that this process makes it easy for organizations of varying sizes to collect incoming documents as a part of a business process. “Encapture’s machine learning can read the document and discern what type of document it is, then the system can extract data out of these documents and utilize the data for a variety of purposes,” he says. It can transfer data to another system as well as compare data across multiple documents. “We can automate a bunch of reporting on the compliance front,” he adds.  Compliance and Intelligent Document Processi

Ty Francis is a renowned compliance leader and the Chief Advisory Officer at LRN; he leads the company’s worldwide ethics and compliance consulting, ESG, and community outreach strategy. Tom Fox welcomes him to this week’s episode of Innovation In Compliance to discuss LRN’s new report, Assessing Corporate Culture.  The Genesis of the Assessing Corporate Culture Report Tom asks Ty about the genesis of the LRN report. This is the second report LRN produced; the first one was about activating culture and ethics in the boardroom. Their previous research led the team at LRN to realize that most corporate boards did not understand the culture. Ty says, “Over the last 10 years, culture is so high on those lists, but when you look further into the survey and ask them what they’ve done to measure this culture, it's nonexistent.” Therefore, LRN sought to discover the general opinion on culture and ethics compliance and provide a roadmap on how to activate these skills within a company.  Roadmap for Building Corporat

Tom Fox asks Stephen Shapiro what makes him so passionate about innovation. He replies, “It is the key for economic growth for companies, for individuals and society.” Twenty-five years ago, Stephen launched a successful innovation practice at Accenture that focused on value creation and growth. He left Accenture in 2001, but his ongoing work is still all about innovation. Tom Fox welcomes him to this week’s show to discuss his patented FAST innovation process.  FAST Innovation Tom asks Stephen to describe his FAST innovation approach. Processes need to be repeatable and predictable, Stephen says. FAST stands for Focus, Ask, Shift and Test. People usually think of the mass production of ideas and suggestions when they think about innovation. However, true innovation requires you to determine where to focus your limited energy and resources on what is most important. Then, ask more goal-specific questions that would enable you to deliver better solutions. Finally, test these solutions to bring them to market.

Simon Winchester is the Vice President of Advanced Technologies at Jumio Corporation. His responsibilities entail building the go-to-market strategies for newly acquired technologies within Jumio and then driving the adoption on a global scale. One of the company’s most recent additions is its AML (anti-money laundering) solutions. Tom Fox welcomes him to this week’s show to talk about current world events and the company’s AML solution.  Money Laundering in 2022 Tom asks Simon if money laundering schemes have become more ubiquitous since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Simon replies that the recent events certainly had an impact. He says that money laundering is “criminals taking illicitly-gained funds and then turning them into legitimate cash or assets which are ideally free of suspicion.” At the core of this criminal process are three themes: placement, layering, and integration. Due to the digital environment we live in today, more people from all demographics are comfortable with digital banking, and

Accenture provides top-notch services in strategy & consulting, and operations for its clients. Samantha Regan is Managing Director and Global Lead for the Regulatory Remediation & Compliance Transformation group within Accenture’s Finance & Risk practice. Tom Fox welcomes her to this week’s show to talk about the Accenture Compliance Risk Study Report.  Accenture’s Compliance Risk Study Tom asks Samantha about the origin of the report. Samantha responds that each year, the team at Accenture gets together to observe and record what’s happening in the world of compliance. They seek to discover the key issues and concerns for compliance officers across various organizations. Developing a framework, conducting a survey and collating the data are the next steps. This is followed by “synthesizing those results and looking for the insights from the information that’s been provided and then developing the report off the back of that,” Samantha tells Tom.  Primary Compliance Risks In 2022  Tom asks Samantha to disc

Erica Salmon Byrne is the President of Ethisphere and Chair of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance. Ethisphere is a company that believes that companies that focus on building a sustainable business will outperform their peers that do not. Tom Fox welcomes her to this week’s show to talk about Ethisphere’s innovative new service called The Sphere.  What is The Sphere? Tom asks Erica to describe The Sphere and why she is so excited about the launch. For more than 15 years, Ethisphere has been collecting data on the programmatic practices of the world’s most ethical companies through their questionnaire, called the Ethics Quotient, Erica explains. They realized a demand for solid benchmarking within the compliance space, and decided to democratize their data access. This was the birth of The Sphere – a subscription-based service that allows you to select the topic you are interested in getting data on and gain access to a multitude of resources.  Peer Data: A Powerful Tool Tom asks Erica what makes peer d

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is the thought leader and CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts, a boutique future-of-work consultancy that helps tech and insurance executives drive collaboration, innovation, and retention in hybrid work. Currently, he is focusing on normalizing hybrid and remote work, which he further discusses in his book, Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams. Tom Fox welcomes him to this week’s show to talk about Elon Musk’s misinformed views on remote work and why working from home is better for productivity levels.  Remote Work v. Working From the Office Tom asks Dr. Gleb what drove him to write the article entitled, Elon Musk’s back-to-the-office order will undermine Tesla’s future. It was his response to Musk’s announcement to abolish remote work on the grounds that it made his employees unproductive, Dr. Gleb tells Tom. He has been researching hybrid remote work since the beginning of the pandemic, and found that remote workers are much more productive. A study at Stanford determined that productivity imp

Jaclyn Schiff is the founder and CEO of PodReacher, a company that helps marketing teams transform their podcast into high-quality text content to increase impact. Tom Fox welcomes her to this week’s show to talk about her professional background, B2B marketing, and how PodReacher helps its clients.  PodReacher and B2B Marketing Tom asks Jaclyn how B2B content repurposing helps communications specialists and compliance officers. Marketers want to differentiate their product or service in the marketplace, Jaclyn responds. Podcasting is a growing B2B marketing trend because business leaders do not have time to personally create content that would captivate an audience. It became particularly popular during the pandemic as you can execute it remotely. Jaclyn states, “In any industry, a conversation is an easy way to get [your content] out there. Now taking that from the spoken word …and turning that into a good reader experience.” She explains that PodReacher turns audio into riveting content that people can us

Richard Blank is the founder, CEO, and head bilingual trainer at Costa Rica’s Call Center, a business process outsourcing (BPO) telemarketing company. They offer outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions of the highest quality. Tom Fox welcomes him to this week’s show to talk about Costa Rica’s Call Center, how they help their clients, why he opened a call center in Costa Rica, and how to lead a successful call center in a foreign country.  The Core of Costa Rica’s Call Center Tom asks Richard why he decided to open a call center in Costa Rica and how the term “Learning through the Proletariat” influenced his business model. Richard explains that as a CEO who works among people, you learn the importance of training and keeping your employees and customers. “One thing that I heard most sitting amongst people that are in a call center industry is that they feel expendable,” he tells Tom. To counteract this, he invests in his employees' careers by promoting them and teaching them English so that they have pr

Maryann Bullion is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Bitcoin IRA, the first 24/7 retirement solution that allows customers to invest in cryptocurrencies within their IRAs. At Bitcoin IRA, Maryann and her team handle a wide range of complex legal issues and run a comprehensive compliance program. Tom Fox welcomes her to this week’s episode to talk about Bitcoin IRA, how it helps its clients, and how her professional background prepared her for her current position.  Maryann’s Unique Professional Background  Fulfilling a childhood dream, Maryann joined the US Army in 2009, serving in the Judge Advocates General’s Corps (JAG Corps). She was a reservist in the military and worked full-time at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Tom asks her how her stint in the army influenced her career. She highlights one of her favorite training activities where they would run an obstacle course with their weapons and stop periodically to answer legal questions. “It sounds kind of funny but in

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on the New Traliant, sponsored by Traliant. Over this series, we will discuss what is new at the company and key issues that Traliant is helping to lead and define the online training industry in going forward. Over this five part series I will visit with John Arendes, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the company on what is new at New Traliant and what the Department of Justice (DOJ) has communicated to the compliance community regarding its expectations around online training and communications; Maggie Smith, Vice President of Human Resources at Traliant on the role of DEI in your corporate ESG program; and Scott Schneider, Head of Content Development at Traliant on your Code of Conduct and anti-corruption training. In this concluding Episode 5, I visit with Scott Schneider, VP of Innovation at Traliant, on the evolution anti-bribery/anti-corruption training. Why is bribery and corruption a tricky subject to train on? When is training effective? Assuming the m

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on the New Traliant, sponsored by Traliant. Over this series, we will discuss what is new at the company and key issues that Traliant is helping to lead and define the online training industry going forward. Over this five-part series, I will visit with John Arendes, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the company, on what is new at New Traliant and what the Department of Justice (DOJ) has communicated to the compliance community regarding its expectations around online training and communications; Maggie Smith, Vice President of Human Resources at Traliant on the role of DEI in your corporate ESG program; and Scott Schneider, Head of Content Development at Traliant on your Code of Conduct and anti-corruption training. In this Episode 4, I visit with Scott Schneider, Head of Content Development at Traliant, on the evolution and importance of the corporate Code of Conduct. Highlights include: Culture is the key driver, and your Code of Conduct is the foundation for a

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on the New Traliant, sponsored by Traliant. Over this series, we will discuss what is new at the company and key issues that Traliant is helping to lead and define the online training industry in going forward. Over this five part series I will visit with John Arendes, CEO at the company on what is new at New Traliant and what the DOJ has communicated to the compliance community regarding its expectations around online training and communications; Maggie Smith, Vice President of Human Resources at Traliant on the role of DEI in your corporate ESG program; and Scott Schneider, Head of Content Development at Traliant on your Code of Conduct and anti-corruption training. In this Episode 3, I visit with Maggie Smith, VP for Human Resources at Traliant and we discuss the intersection of diversity equity inclusion and compliance. Highlights include: DEI is much more than anti-discrimination/anti-harassment How do you bring in inclusion to an organization and why is it