Ethisphere hosts an exclusive roundtable for compliance and ethics leadership
Written by Ethisphere
Summer was quickly coming to a close in 2014. The city of Sao Paulo, Brazil had just played host to an exciting Second Annual Latin America Ethics Summit in mid-July. London would be the stage for Ethisphere’s inaugural Europe Ethics Summit the last week of September. Wedged between these two global events was a gathering of leaders from across the United States.
Chicago was the host city for the first Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Roundtable hosted by Ethisphere. The James Hotel and its boutique design offered just the right amount of warmth and hospitality to create a comfortable atmosphere for open dialogue and idea sharing.
The event included senior company leaders from Ethisphere’s Business Ethics Leadership Alliance community members, World’s Most Ethical Company honorees, and other enlightened companies. Each participant brought a unique set of leadership skills and responsibility for overseeing the compliance, ethics, legal, and regulatory programs and issues at their respective companies.
Spanning two days, 15 participants, along with Ethisphere representatives, including CEO Timothy Erblich, engaged in frank discussion on pre-selected topics. The approach was intentionally industry-agnostic given the diversity of organizations represented in Chicago. However, each participant was able to share very unique experiences, fueling questions and conversation that compelled the group to action, with practical ideas and tools they could leverage back at the office.
A three-person Advisory Board worked closely with Ethisphere to select the topics in advance of the roundtable, basing their ideas, in large part, on some of their own distinct challenges and collective struggles. The Advisory Board included Hospital Corporation of America’s Alan Yuspeh, General Electric’s Al Rosa, and AECOM’s Susan Frank Divers, with each Advisory Board member playing a key role in helping facilitate the daily dialogue with their peers.
This special blend of leadership fueled lively conversations over breakfast and lunch on topics ranging from wine recommendations to Russian sanctions. Networking and discussion appropriately changed course as the sessions began, with discourse unfolding on such vital topics as:
- Effective dialogue with the board and board committees;
- Enhanced perception and reception of ethics and compliance across the business;
- Needed engagement of functional experts within the business to support compliance;
- Effective employee survey tools; and
- Necessary mobilization of data analytics as predictive models for risk.
Including Advisory Board members, participation involved leadership from the following companies:
AECOM
The Boeing Company
Center for Responsible Enterprise and Trade (CREATe.org)
Deere & Company
Delphi Automotive
Express Scripts
General Electric
Hospital Corporation of America
Johnson Controls
Jones Lang LaSalle
MWH Global
Milliken & Company
Northern Trust
Realogy
Waste Management
Discussions were undertaken with the understanding that all remarks would remain confidential, and each topic was explored in depth. The proactive dialogue enabled participants to get to the core of the problems and questions they wanted to address.
On the topic of enhancing the perception of compliance programs, participants explored ways in which leaders can and should allocate resources to heighten company integrity and drive awareness across the organization. Talk of communications with the board focused on framing issues as true business concerns, and not positioning them as compliance issues. Discussion around the leveraging of data made interesting connections to analytics that can help support the need for greater resources to better protect against risk.
Discussions revealed that, regardless of industry, and no matter how long they may have been in their respective roles, the same questions and challenges consistently arise for ethics and compliance personnel. It was reassuring for all participants to share their insights with each other, and come away with some thoughtful approaches and actionable steps to better serve their roles and companies. Peer networking and dialogue continued even after the close of the event, with the participant leaders now having close channels and resources through which to share ideas.
Feedback on this first-time event was overwhelmingly positive, and participants came away impressed at the depth and value of the conversations, while recognizing how much more companies still need to do to elevate compliance and ethics.
With wide acknowledgement from those in attendance on the value of this level of peer engagement, and deep appreciation that this community is willing to support its members and offer resources, the roundtable concluded on a high note. Ethisphere is excited to continue working with top business leaders to unite this community in the spirit of best practices and actionable insights.
