Corporate legal departments are breathing a sigh of relief after a federal appeals court effectively preserved attorney-client privilege protections. The closely watched case is an important one for all companies that conduct internal investigations. In the case In re Kellogg Brown & Root, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last month […]
Ethics & Culture
Posted inEthics & Culture
Appeals Court Preserves Attorney-Client Privilege
Corporate legal departments are breathing a sigh of relief after a federal appeals court effectively preserved attorney-client privilege protections. The closely watched case is an important one for all companies that conduct internal investigations. In the case In re Kellogg Brown & Root, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last month […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Tackling Culture at the VA
Students of corporate culture should turn their eyes to Washington. We are about to see whether a gigantic effort to re-engineer a deeply flawed culture can actually succeed. I speak of the Veterans Administration, where discussion of poor culture could occupy us for days. On Friday the White House released a blistering diagnosis of what […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
As Sustainability Reporting Matures, Focus Shifts to Materiality
Corporate America is on the verge of a major revolution in sustainability reporting. Everything—the what, how, and when—is about to change. The way companies have traditionally approached sustainability reporting is to disclose in anecdotal terms their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) efforts in their annual reports. A lack of standard disclosure metrics, however, continues […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
As Sustainability Reporting Matures, Focus Shifts to Materiality
Corporate America is on the verge of a major revolution in sustainability reporting. Everything—the what, how, and when—is about to change. The way companies have traditionally approached sustainability reporting is to disclose in anecdotal terms their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) efforts in their annual reports. A lack of standard disclosure metrics, however, continues […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Tackling Culture at the VA
Students of corporate culture should turn their eyes to Washington. We are about to see whether a gigantic effort to re-engineer a deeply flawed culture can actually succeed. I speak of the Veterans Administration, where discussion of poor culture could occupy us for days. On Friday the White House released a blistering diagnosis of what […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Compliance Week Europe: Call for Speakers
The Compliance Week Europe conference is gearing up for action later this fall, so before you European compliance professionals take the summer off, take note—we are looking for speakers again! This is the second annual Compliance Week Europe conference, happening Oct. 13-14 in Brussels. Our inaugural Europe conference last year had more than 130 attendees, […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
The Corporate Value That Wrecked GM
Yes, yes, yes—everyone in the universe is complaining about General Motors, and the disastrous corporate culture there that led staffers to keep critical information from the board about ignition failures in the Chevrolet Cobalt. In just a few keystrokes you can find plenty of columns about whether the chief compliance officer should have played a […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Identifying Top Indicators of an Effective Ethics and Compliance Program
Football has touchdowns and baseball has homeruns. If only keeping score for compliance officers was as easy. Measuring success, knowing what works and why, is no simple task for compliance departments. The hallmarks of an effective compliance program are spelled out in numerous pieces of regulatory guidance, including the U.S Justice Department’s Federal Sentencing Guidelines. […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Identifying Top Indicators of an Effective Ethics and Compliance Program
Football has touchdowns and baseball has homeruns. If only keeping score for compliance officers was as easy. Measuring success, knowing what works and why, is no simple task for compliance departments. The hallmarks of an effective compliance program are spelled out in numerous pieces of regulatory guidance, including the U.S Justice Department’s Federal Sentencing Guidelines. […]