Two weeks ago I wrote here about the dawn of a new job function: the chief transparency officer. That idea seems to have resonated with readers; the column saw an unusually large amount of traffic, and one compliance professional told me via email, “Your vision of the chief transparency officer just sent off fireworks for me. It’s the job I’ve dreamed of but never been able to articulate clearly.”
Let’s elaborate on the concept in more detail, then—because, frankly, improving transparency is now the most critical task most of you do, regardless of whether your specific title carries the words “compliance,” “risk,” “counsel,” or “audit.” Better visibility into what your company does, and finding abnormal behavior before it metastasizes into something dire, is the whole ballgame.
