Innovation In Compliance With Tom Fox

Linda Fisk is an award-winning author, speaker, and university professor. Her mission is to amplify and extend the success of other high-caliber business leaders. She is the CEO and Founder of LeadHERship Global, a community of unstoppable women enhancing their leadership blueprint and embracing their power to be the best version of themselves. In this week’s episode, she and Tom Fox discuss the challenges that come with leadership and how to overcome them.  Leadership Is a Passion  Tom asks Linda why she is so passionate about leadership and teaching others how to be effective leaders. She explains that throughout her career she has had the privilege to serve as the CEO or the CMO. From this position, she has witnessed first-hand “the transformational power of leaders coming together to solve problems, to advance solutions, to be able to tackle some of the most daunting issues our planet is facing today”. She explains that good leadership will always be the driving force behind a successful organization. Sh

Tomell Ceasar is the Group Head of Ethics and Compliance at Careem (An Uber Company). He is one of the founders of the Middle East and Africa Compliance Association (MEACA). This organization strives to raise awareness on business ethics and provides tools to build stronger and more responsible businesses. Essentially, they promote global regulatory compliance and effective governance in the Middle East and Africa. In this week’s episode, he explains to Tom the intricacies of practicing compliance outside the US, specifically the EAME.  Compliance Practice in the EAME Tom asks Tomell to describe what it is like practicing compliance in EAME. Tomell responds that it's difficult to make broad generalizations on compliance region-wide since the EAME is such a huge territory. Compliance is a “Western value in terms of the way one approaches international business”, Tomell remarks, so adoption would take some time. However, appreciation of compliance roles and professionals grew exponentially over the past decade

Mollie Nichols is the co-founder and CEO at Redgrave Data, a technology solutions provider. Redgrave Data aims to re-explore how data is analyzed and utilized to drive effective business and legal solutions. Mollie’s legal career spans 3 decades; her mission, she tells Tom Fox, is to provide services at the intersection of law, technology, and science. She and Tom discuss her company, as well as the importance of data governance and ESG.  Technology Helps Her stint as assistant to the Texas Attorney General in the late 1990s aroused Mollie’s interest in how data and technology could impact the practice of law. Mollie found an analytics tool that did exactly what they needed to have a breakthrough in the investigation. She remarks, “For me, it was like an ‘Aha!’ moment that showed how powerful technology could be in the practice of law. I literally changed my career at that moment in time, to focus on technology and how it could help clients deal with legal matters.”  Automating Regulatory Processes Tom asks

Connor Borrego is the Chief Executive Officer at Emergent Digital. He is an expert in data warehousing, artificial intelligence, and business applications, with over 10 years of experience in the digital marketing industry. “The highlight of my career was landing at Google, where I did a two-year stint coaching startups that have raised between $5 and $50 million on how to profitably use Google Ads to grow their business,” he tells Tom Fox. Currently, he is building a Web 3.0-powered productivity and growth marketing tool for content creators to help them fully own the value of their first-party data. He joins Tom on this week’s show to explore the world of NFTs, Web 3.0, what it means for business professionals, and how Emergent Digital handles the changing technological landscape.   What is Web 3.0  Connor explains that Web 3.0 is the next iteration of the internet and online technologies. To fully understand Web 3.0, you should first understand Web 1.0 and 2.0, he tells Tom. Web 1.0 is the ‘read and post

James Shannon is the founder and CEO of Xone, a mixed reality platform that makes it easy to build, share and interact inside virtual worlds. Their mission is to create a bridge into the metaverse using familiar social media interfaces and immersive environments, to onboard creators into Web 3.0. He and Tom Fox talk about Xone, and its place in the current technological sphere and metaverse.  Defining Web 3.0 Terminology  James defines key Web 3.0 terms, including NFT, metaverse, and augmented reality social media platforms. NFTs or non-fungible tokens are attached to digital assets to make them scarce using blockchain technology. The metaverse, he says, is “an interconnected series of virtual worlds that can be accessed through mixed reality devices and blockchain technology”. He explains that “augmented reality is overlaying digital information on top of the physical world”. Thus augmented reality social media will be a combination of augmented reality and social media interfaces.  Bridging the Gap Tom as

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