EthicsPoint Marketing - from Bill Piwonka

Standing Ovation

2010-01-27T07:43:00.000-08:00

I just read Scott McNealy's farewell letter to Sun employees and was struck by a couple of paragraphs I'd like to share:

"What we did right and wrong at Sun over the years might make for interesting reading. However, I am not a book writer. I am a husband, father of four, and a builder and leader of people who want to make a difference.

But spare me a bit of nostalgia. Not of the mistakes we made, and lord knows I made a ton. But of the things we did right and well.

First and foremost, Sun innovated like crazy. We took it to the limit (see Eagles). And though we did not monetize our inventions as well as we could have, few companies have the track record in R&D that we had over the last 28 years. This made working at Sun really cool. Thanks to all of you inventors and risk takers who changed how we live.

Sun cared about its customers. Even more than we cared about our own company at times. We looked at our customer's mission as more important than ours. Maybe we should have asked for more revenue in return, but our employees were always ready to help first. I love this about Sun, which I guess makes me a good capitalist, if not a great capitalist.

Sun did not cheat, lie, or break the rule of law or decency. While we enjoyed breaking the rules of conventional wisdom and archaic business practice, and for sure loved to win in the market, we did so with a solid reputation for integrity. Nearly three decades of competing without a notable incident of our folds going off course morally or legally. Not all executives and big companies are bad. Really. There are good companies out there. Special thanks to all of my employees for this. I never had to hide the newspaper in shame from my children."

While tempted to comment on all I find admirable in these paragraphs, I think it's better to let them stand on their own. I tip my hat to Mr. McNealy and all the employees at Sun.

2009 Most Influential in Business Ethics List

2009-12-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a day with one of our newer clients, learning about their Compliance and Ethics program, goals for next year and overall philosophy on fostering a culture based on ethical decision making and caring for their customers. One of our topics for discussion was quantifying the return on their ethics and compliance programs, which is often a difficult number to ascertain. While it's somewhat straight forward to calculate time savings in various stages of the various business processes that are part of your GRC programs, it becomes more difficult to calculate the full impact. For instance, how do put a number on not being fined for FCPA violations, or not having a class-action lawsuit filed against you for bad labor practices, or increased sales from consumers who trust your business more than your competitors? It was a lively discussion, and one that I hope to have more often in 2010 as I visit more of our customers.

I was reminded of the conversation when I saw Ethisphere's 2009’s 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics list last week. The list is comprised of people in eight different categories spanning government, non-profits, education and corporations. When you look at the names of the companies represented by these individuals and consider their market success, you can begin to get a good idea that while it may be difficult to exactly quantify the ROI of a culture of integrity, there clearly is a strong correlation between culture and business success.

I was especially pleased to see a number of EthicsPoint's customers represented on the list, and would like to congratulate the following people for their outstanding efforts and accomplishments in the field of business ethics over the past year:

Peter Solmssen – General Counsel, Siemens
Sharon Allen – Chairman, Deloitte
Bill Gates – Founder, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Kathleen Edmond – Chief Ethics Officer, Best Buy
Brian Martin– SVP and General Counsel, KLA-Tencor
Pascal Bourdin – SVP, and GM of European Chocolate Business, Kraft

Congratulations to all the winners!

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

2009-12-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

Seems to be the season for publishing the results of surveys and other research - I just got finished reviewing PricewaterhouseCooper's excellent report,

Image by TW Collins via Flickr

The Global Economic Crime Survey which contains some great data for those of us concerned about fraud and other financial misconduct to consider.

One of the things that stuck out to me - especially considering the results from the ERC's 2009 National Business Ethics Survey - was that PwC did not see any statistical difference in the level of economic crime for companies that had suffered during the economic downturn from those that did not suffer. Hence, they conclude that economic crime remains a pervasive business risk, which does not discriminate among its victims based on the relative degree of their financial performance. They do note, however, that organizations sufferng from the downturn did report higher levels of accounting fraud.

Among the other data I found interesting:

Tips were the detection method in 34% of the cases - with the hotline system accounting for only 7% - reinforcing the need to both foster an environment in which your employees and others feel comfortable bringing issues forward in conversations as well as the need for a consistent approach to capturing and investigating these issues
While internal audit is consistently detecting less of the reported frauds over time, the combination of anti-fraud controls and a strong ethical culture appears to be improving the detection of economic crime
There is a correlation between reported frauds and the frequency of fraud risk assessments - In other words, if you look for it, you will find it.

Finally, and what should concern you if you hold a leadership position within your organization, respondents have consistently underestimated their exposure to fraud. Regardless of the research you're reviewing, the data is pretty compelling - fraud and other misconduct occurs in good economic times and bad. Having a strong ethical culture and good controls reduces the amount of fraud, and its associated losses. So what are you doing to reduce your risk?

Ethics Bubble?

2009-11-20T15:43:00.001-08:00

Image by ecstaticist via Flickr

Just spent some time reviewing the Ethics Resource Center's 2009 National Business Ethics Survey . There's some very interesting data in the report - some of which seems contradictory, which means I'm going to be spending more time this weekend digging into the details.

On the positive side, the survey revealed that:

Misconduct at work is down
Reporting of observed misconduct is up
Ethical cultures are stronger, and
Pressure to cut corners is lower.

But before we start congratulating ourselves too much, however, there were some cautionary data as well. For instance, 30% of people who observed behavior that constituted a "red flag" (activities that may be indicative of material fraud or questionable actions taking place) said they did NOT report it. You can't take appropriate action to mitigate potential misconduct if you aren't aware of it!

Furthermore, there is an interesting analysis of results from past Business Surveys that may suggest we are in an "ethical bubble."

If you look at the chart, you'll see that in the last economic downturn, reported misconduct also decreased, but as the economy improved, misconduct rose with it. While the sample may be a bit small, the parallels between the S&P Index and observed misconduct are fairly consistent. The ERC surmises this may be because in hard times management may talk (and inspect) more on the importance of high standards. Thus, misconduct goes down.

This really has me thinking...On one hand, I know that most of our clients are putting their money where their mouth is - allocating resources to ethics and compliance programs and making a true commitment to fostering an ethical culture. I don't see this changing as we exit the down turn. But the chart is revealing. Curious as to your thoughts - are we really in a bubble? Is this latest good news fleeting?

I'll leave you with the advice the ERC has for Ethics and Compliance Professionals:
Focus on culture and collect data! Now is the time to assess your culture and put in place processes - especially regarding the collection of potential violations of your stated code of conduct - for how you manage issues and events that expose your organization to risk.

Quick Links

2009-11-09T16:49:00.000-08:00

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I've come across a number of really great research reports over the past few weeks, and wanted to share them with you. In each case I'm finding myself going back and finding a new nugget that directly relates to Governance, Risk and Compliance, and the challenges our customers and prospects face. I'd encourage all of you to download these reports if you have not already done so.

Kroll Global Fraud Report
This is the latest of the Kroll Fraud reports, where they survey hundreds of senior executives across the world to understand the impact of fraud and corruption, both in individual industry segments and in specific geographic regions. One of the things that stood out to me on first reading was that the overall incidence of reported fraud did not increase significantly during the past year, despite what was expected. But there are differences across the various industries and countries worth understanding.

If you'd like to get a quick overview of the contents in the report, you can attend a webinar we are hosting with Blake Coppotelli and David Holley of Kroll.

Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2009
Learned about this one from the excellent FCPA Blog. This is a really comprehensive report (weighs in at 496 pages!) which definitely requires multiple visits. But to give you a taste of what's inside, consider:

90% of the top 200 businesses worldwide have adopted business codes, but fewer than half report they monitor compliance!
Companies with anti-corruption programs and ethical guidelines are found to suffer 50% fewer incidents of corruption. While that may seem obvious -especially based on other research - the question I would have is why, then, do not all companies have business codes, and why do relatively so few monitor compliance?

Fulbright's 6th Annual Litigation Trend Survey
Stumbled on the 5th annual survey last year, so was pleased to learn the latest version is out. Interestingly, as opposed to what Kroll reports, this survey of mostly General Counsels, Head of Litigation, and people with titles just below those (e.g. Senior Counsel, Associate General Counsel, etc.) reported that the incidence of companies reporting corruption/bribery investigations over the past 12 months has nearly doubled since last year! But bribery/corruption is not the only thing with which these respondents are challenged. According to the survey 40% have seen increases in wage & hour, multi-plaintiff and employement cases over the past year.

As I said, there is a lot of great information in these reports - hopefully you'll learn something as well!

The New Normal

2009-10-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

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With Less, Do More

The other day I read Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s latest executive e-mail, entitled The New Efficiency. A few of his thoughts resonated with me, and in my opinion, have broad applicability to the market segments and business functions we serve at EthicsPoint. I’d encourage you to read all his comments, but want to highlight a few here.

Ballmer’s email starts with,

In all the talk about the economy, one term that comes up more and more frequently is something called “the new normal.” I like this phrase because it speaks to the fact that economic reality has undergone a fundamental shift over the course of the past 12 months.

So what is the nature of this shift? After years of economic expansion fueled by unrealistic rates of consumption and unsustainable levels of private debt, the global economy has reset at a lower baseline level of activity. Today, people borrow less, save more, and spend with much greater caution.

This is the new normal and it will be with us for some time to come. The issue now is how to respond.

I think Mr. Ballmer is spot on with this line of thinking – despite some encouraging signs of economic recovery, I think it’s going to take longer and be more difficult than any of us want, and even after the recovery has been achieved, the marketplace in which we all compete will be completely different than it was prior to the meltdown.

Mr. Ballmer goes on to stress the importance of cutting costs, but points out that no company ever cut their way to greatness. Rather, to ultimately succeed, you need to do two things – increase productivity and provide value to your customers – the trick is how you achieve these two objectives simultaneously. He writes:

For years, we’ve talked about how information technology enables companies to do more with less. But during this economic reset, IT provides business leaders with the answer to a slightly different question: Can my company with less, do more?

Other trends give this question even greater urgency. Workforces are more distributed and employees are more mobile. Government regulations are increasing and compliance requirements are mounting. Data security is more important to preserve and more difficult to maintain.

At EthicsPoint, we’re seeing Mr. Ballmer’s comments play out in our customer base every single day. Compliance mandates are mounting, governmental enforcement is strengthening (witness the increase in FCPA prosecutions and Corporate Integrity Agreements), rates of employee misconduct – if not increasing – are at least holding steady, and compliance, audit, HR and other budgets are being cut. The only way to effectively manage in this environment is to find ways to build efficiencies into your processes – increase the level of collaboration, communication and insight across the enterprise, while eliminating waste, and the barriers that create and maintain organizational silos.

As I’m going through our own internal 2010 budgeting and strategy-setting sessions, I’m challenging myself and my team to think about Ballmer’s question: how can we – with less, do more?

What are you doing?

Detecting Fraud

2009-09-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

Image by Roby© via Flickr

KPMG released their Fraud Survey 2009 the other day. Among some of their findings were:

Nearly a third of executives expect some form of fraud or misconduct to rise in their organizations
66% of respondents reported that inadequate internal controls or compliance programs at their organizations enable fraud and misconduct to go unchecked.
Roughly a quarter of respondents lack effective protocols on how investigations should be conducted and what point the board of directors should be alerted to potential concerns. (check out our website in the next few days to sign up for a webinar addressing internal investigations)

There was a lot of thought-provoking data in addition to the stats above. But the one thing that got me thinking was their finding that 47% of executives believed that Internal Audit, Legal or Compliance would be the most likely to uncover fraud in their organization - the number one source for detection. Yet they note in their report that this contrasts with the findings in both the ACFE Report to the Nation 2008 (tips were identified there as the number one source) and their own KPMG Integrity Survey 2008-2009 that cited Internal Audit as among the least likely channels to which employees would feel comfortable reporting misconduct.

From an EthicsPoint perspective, we've always said the venue is not important - whether fraud is detected by people reporting via a hotline, though face to face conversations with their manager, HR or other appropriate personnel, through controls or other methods - what's important is that your organization have a strong ethical culture, a way to collect reports of misconduct, and a system to consistently investigate, document, resolve and ultimately analyze each report.

But I'm curious as to your reactions - In your own organization or experience, what do you think is the most important channel for detecting fraud?

(Hardly) The Lazy Days of Summer

2009-08-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

Image by NatalieMaynor via Flickr

Summer is definitely in full swing here in the Northwest -we've had a couple of weeks of record heat, the farmers markets are full of beautiful produce, my boys are filling the days between their recently completed summer camps and the start of football and band camps with the final week of swim team practice before the championship meet, and 24 of my colleagues are in their final training days for the 28th annual Hood to Coast 197 mile relay race. With all this and more going on, one might be lead to believe we're firmly entrenched in the fabled Lazy Days of Summer.

Fortunately, that's not the case at all - our whole company has been rallying around the launch of the Summer 09 Release of the EthicsPoint Issue and Event Manager Professional and Enterprise solutions. This is the first big release I've enjoyed since joining our company last Fall, and I am incredibly proud of the effort of the whole team. Our engineers have put in many long hours and truly produced a fantastic solution for our customers. Our Client Services, Professional Services and Marketing teams have also worked diligently to ensure that we are fully prepared to support this new release in the market - we've got new training videos, new services offerings, enhanced documentation, updated content on our community forum and more. Combined with our announcement last week of our new web report forms, we really are delivering on our promise to clients to better help them gather information, manage that information and ultimately gain insight from that data with respect to the risks facing their organization.

I know this post is a bit of self-congratulatory - which I try not to do very often - but I believe it's important to celebrate and recognize great teamwork and effort. And I'd love to hear feedback from all of you who logged on to a brand new experience - are you as happy with the release as I am????

Hit the Road, Jack!

2009-07-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

Image by express000 via Flickr

It's been a while since I've posted an update here, but not for a lack of interest - I've just found myself to have been extremely busy the past few weeks.

One of the things (and there are many!) that have taken up my time has been traveling to meet with customers, partners, prospective clients and other individuals within the GRC ecosystem. As I was being told I could feel free to unbuckle my seatbelt and walk around the cabin on a flight earlier this week, I was reminded of a conversation I had with a colleague at a different company many years ago.

I had just had a blowout argument with my CEO (long story...) and was really questioning whether I wanted to stay with the firm. My colleague suggested I hit the road and meet with customers, as doing so always rejuvenated him. I took his advice, and came back exhilarated! As a marketing guy, I always find it inspiring to talk with my customers and prospects - even if they're unhappy. These conversations give me so much insight into the challenges my target audience faces, ideas for how we can improve, but also how what we offer makes life easier/better for our users. I really don't see how you can't come back fired up!

For those of you who agree with me, I'd like to point you to an article written in 1995, but one I find to still be relevant today. It was written by Edward F. McQuarrie, a professor at Santa Clara University (coincidentally, an EthicsPoint customer!). The article is titled, Taking a Road Trip; Customer Visits Help Companies Recharge Relationships and Pass Competitors. I highly recommend it!

Some notes on my recent (and upcoming) travels:

I had an opportunity to speak at the annual ACFE conference last week. I have to hand it to the organization - I thought the conference was one of the best run events I have attended in my career - they really do a good job! Harry Markopoulus spoke during lunch one day - most people found his speech to be one of the highlights of the show. Personally, while I enjoyed it, he left me wanting much, much more. There is a big story behind the Madoff affair that has yet to be told, and Harry is a central figure in it. He did mention a forthcoming book - I will definitely be putting my order in ahead of time on Amazon!

One of the things that keeps coming up in my conversations with organizations is that they want a way to capture all the important reports of conduct violations that are conveyed in face to face meetings between employees and managers. I'm happy to report we announced an easy way for our customers to do just this via EthicsPoint Issue and Event Manager Report Forms yesterday.

I've gotta wrap this up - need to head to my afternoon meetings with a couple of customers here in the Cincinnati area and then plan for our Portland and Bay Area User Forums next week. If you'd like to share your comments or thoughts with me, please just reach out!

Ethics on the Cheap????

2009-06-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

Image by shainelee via Flickr

I just ran across a recent thought-provoking article in the Christian Science Monitor, called "Are Ethics Too Expensive? about companies cutting back on ethics training due to budget pressures.

This got me thinking on a number of fronts:

How can we measure the long-term ramifications of these decisions? I spend a good part of my time at work thinking about how to prove the positive return on investment for ethics programs. So little hard data exists I find the same statistics being used over and over in the media (the cost of fraud, according to the ACFE, the increased shareholder value for the Ethisphere "Most Ethical Companies," etc.). But if there's a lack of hard data to prove the positive, there's even less to show the adverse affects of a poor ethical culture (unless you take what's written in the popular media every time a company on Wall Street fails). I'd love to know which companies are cutting back and track their performance over time - I'll bet they suffer.

Given that we're all under pressure to keep costs down, you can't just argue to keep spending flat to previous years, much less increase it. So - instead of cutting training altogether or severely cutting back on it, have these companies looked at new ways to deliver the training? I filled in for our CEO David Childers today on a "Use of Social Media in Compliance" webinar and talked about ways companies can use Web 2.0 technologies and sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, LinkedIn, etc. within their compliance programs. Based on the instant polls we conducted, not many organizations have embraced Web 2.0 yet. There are a lot of cool and inexpensive ways to deliver your training if you're willing to try new things.

I'm curious - what are you doing to make your ethics training more efficient and effective?

Back to School

2009-06-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

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I'm currently sitting at my son's dance studio, waiting for him to finish his hip/hop rehearsal in preparation of the big recital in two weeks. Ironically, in one of the studios nearby, the class is working on a dance to Alice Cooper's 1972 hit, "School's Out," while I'm writing this blog announcing the new EthicsPoint Fund for the Discovery and Dissemination of Ethics Research with The University of Arizona's Department of Management and Organizations in the Eller College of Management. School is definitely NOT out for EthicsPoint!

The first of its kind for the University and EthicsPoint, the Fund will support research, education and collaborative programs designed to redefine the focus and impact of business ethics research. One of the things that attracted us to the work being done at The University of Arizona is they share our view that the teaching and research of business ethics needs to transition from the philosophical to the practical.

As a result of our partnership, we'll be working with the faculty of the Department of Management and Organizations in a number of ways, including:

Establishing a Business Ethics Symposium later this year in which industry ethics and compliance officers and faculty from M&O will jointly participate in panel discussions that tie best practices from industry with budding research from academia.
Publicizing the work of the M&O faculty in the area of business ethics through webinars, whitepapers and other communication vehicles.
Working with the faculty on their research projects into business ethics when appropriate.
Collaborating with the faculty within their classrooms, with EthicsPoint senior management participating as guest lecturers, providing students with the perspective of private industry to augment their studies.

This announcement is just the start in our relationship with The University of Arizona, one that I see having great promise and potential, and I can't wait to see where it goes!

Is That a Pledge Pin, Soldier?

2009-05-31T13:31:00.000-07:00

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Forgive the reference to one of the favorite movies from my early teenage years, but it came to mind when I read a NY Times article about the Harvard MBA's who were taking a pledge to act responsibly, ethically, and refrain from advancing their "own narrow ambitions" at the expense of others.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for people acting with integrity and ethics, but I find this news somewhat disturbing. First, only 20% of the graduating class has signed it so far. I refuse to believe the rest of the 80% don't believe in what the oath stands for. Instead, I'm very hopeful that those 80% feel a bit like me - why do I need to sign an oath to do what should be considered normal course of action?
As a father of two boys (12 and 14), I certainly hope they don't need to sign an oath to remember to do what's right - I know that the values my parents, coaches, teachers, Sunday School leaders and other adults instilled in me helped form the basis for my actions. Likewise, I would hope that the future leaders of business already had formed a moral compass that will guide them as they encounter ethical challenges in the workplace. If an oath helps them remember to do the right thing, great. But hopefully it's only a reminder to do what they would have done otherwise, and not the sole thing guiding them.

Perhaps I'm being a bit cynical - what do you think?

Ernst & Young European Fraud Survey 2009

2009-05-28T16:08:00.000-07:00

Image by otrocalpe via Flickr

Last week Ernst & Young released their European Fraud Survey 2009 - a fascinating and disturbing (they called it "startling") report. I'd strongly recommend any readers with European operations to download a copy, as it highlights a number of key problems, including a shockingly high tolerance for unethical behavior and a serious lack of confidence in senior management and board members.

The survey was conducted in January and February with a total of 2,246 interviews with employees in 22 European countries - all participants were employed with companies with over 1,000 employees, stock exchange-listed or multinationals.

Here are just a few nuggets I pulled:

55% of respondents expect corporate fraud to increase over the next few years
29% believe management to be untrustworthy
42% believe that the senior ranks in an organization pose the biggest threat of fraud.
25% thought it was acceptable to make case payments to win new business (potential FCPA violations!)
At a country level, only 12% from Italy or France believed their management always operated with a high level of personal integrity (my ancestral home of the Czech Republic didn't fare much better at 13%)

On a much happier note, we had a fantastic user forum in Boston last week. Very interactive, lots of networking (favorite quote from the day from a conversation between two participants - "We HAVE to meet more often- we only work five minutes from one another!") and a great presentation from Doug Cornelius on the implications of social networking for compliance officers. I'll be in Chicago next week and am really looking forward to meeting our clients there. (unfortunately will not be able to attend the Toronto Forum also next week, but looking forward to hearing how it goes).

Interesting Litigation Survey

2009-05-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

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At the end of March my family and I escaped the dreary weather of Portland for the warmth and sunshine of Arizona. At the time I remarked to my wife just how much I disliked the whole air travel experience - from the lines at security to over-crowded planes with decreased/ nonexistent service (food, beverage, a kind word, etc...). There's just no comparison to the experiences I had as a child, when flying was fun (at least to me).

I thought about that today as I was flying across country, sandwiched between the window and a woman who evidently couldn't remember that her husband (and the person - I hope -on whose shoulder she wanted to sleep) was on her LEFT side, and not the right, where I sat. Because, despite the discomfort and inconvenience that is now associated with air travel, I actually had been looking forward to my flight. Not for the flying experience, but for the four hours my laptop battery would last, and the uninterrupted time to get some work done!

One of the things I did somewhere over Minnesota was read the 2008 Fulbright Annual Litigation Trends Survey, from the law firm of Fulbright and Jaworski LLP. Although published in October of 2008, I just ran across this earlier this week, and I found it fascinating! Here are just a few tidbits I pulled from the report:

One third of all publicly held companies and 17% of all privately held companies have at least one lawsuit with more than $20 million at issue
One of every 10 companies spends at least $10 million or more annually (excluding settlements and judgments!)
A third of all publicly held companies and 17% of all privately held companies have at least one lawsuit with more than $20 million at issue
43% of respondents from the largest companies expect disputes to increase this year
The greatest increases in multi-plaintiff cases in the US are Wage-hour, discrimination and privacy issues
Half of the US respondents consider Labor/Employment litigation to among their greatest concerns
Companies spending $1 Million or more on litigation increased in both the US and UK. Among smaller companies, the percentage spending $1M+ more THAN TRIPLED and increased by half among mid-sized companies
One third of privately held companies and 60% of publicly held companies conducted at least one internal investigation requiring outside counsel. More than half report 2 to 5 of these investigations

Considering all this, the biggest question I have is...

Why aren't more companies implementing ethics and compliance programs that have proven to reduce both the risk of litigation and the cost associated with settlements and judgments???

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Oh, and I was on a plane today because I am attending the first of the 2009 EthicsPoint Regional User Forums here in Boston. I'm really looking forward to meeting many of our customers here in the Northeast, including Doug Cornelius, who writes a great blog - Compliance Building, and will be presenting on the use of social media in Ethics and Compliance programs.

EthicsPoint 2009 Best Ethics and Compliance Portal Winners!

2009-05-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce, honor and celebrate the 10 winning companies in the EthicsPoint 2009 Best Ethics and Compliance Portal contest. These portals were chosen from among our more than 2000 customers, and were judged based on a number of factors, including clarity of message, quality of reporter experience, effective integration within their overall governance, risk and compliance (GRC) strategy and innovative use of technology.

Please join me in congratulating this year's winners:

AkzoNobel
AstraZeneca
Catholic Healthcare Partners
The Coca-Cola Company
Diocese of Cleveland
FMC Technologies Inc.
Integrys Energy Group
Staples
Toyota Financial Services
University of California System

To view a screenshot of these winning portals or learn how we can work with you to improve your portal, visit our site

Celebrating Ethical Companies

2009-05-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

Last month Ethisphere announced the 2009 World's Most Ethical Companies list.
We here at EthicsPoint are proud to be associated with the following customers who made it on this prestigious list:

Salesforce.com
Henkel
The Hartford Financial Services
General Mills
Premier, Inc
Cummins
Baxter International
Avaya, Inc
BMW
Wisconsin Energy
Unilever
AstraZeneca Pharmceuticals
Flint Hills Resources
Sompo
Toyota Motor of North America
Ricoh Company

Please join me in congratulating these companies for their achievement!

Ethics and Compliance Week

2009-05-03T20:48:00.001-07:00

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It's been a few weeks since my last post - no idea where the time goes. But I'm hoping to post at least 3-4 times this week - lots going on, as it's Ethics and Compliance Week. For now I've just got some random items...

Just read a really interesting blog by Shanti Atkins, President and CEO of ELT, discussing the impact of the "Obama Effect" on Workplace Compliance. Whether you fervently support our new President or find yourself disagreeing on his policies thus far, I think we all can agree that compliance will play a big part in his policies, and it pays to keep up with all the new legislation. (If you want to get more informed on the impact of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, sign up for our upcoming webinar, to be given by Martin Wickliff, JR - Epstein Becker & Green, P.C
Congratulations to all the EthicsPoint customers who were named among the 100 Most Ethical Companies. (I'd name them all, but the list would get unwieldly for a short blog!)
The OCEG Red Book 2.0 Final Draft has been released - If you haven't downloaded it yet, you should!
If you ever have a chance to go to Blue Hill NYC restaurant, I strongly encourage you to do so - had a phenomenal meal there earlier this month

Look for more stuff here later this week - I'm hoping to preview some really cool data we've been looking at as we pull together our latest benchmarking report; we'll be announcing the winners of the 2009 Best Ethics and Compliance Portal contest, and maybe a few other things as well.

Celebration of Excellence

2009-04-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

Madoff. Satyam. Stanford. Who's next?

Actually, I don't want to know who's next. I'm tired of hearing about ethical lapses, fraud, misconduct, etc. I'm tired of opening the morning paper (actually, my browser) and reading about who's been accused of FCPA violations, bribery, or worse. Spring has arrived here in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm feeling hopeful and optimistic, and I'm tired of all the negativity.

Thus, I'm very pleased to announce that EthicsPoint has launched the nomination page for the 2009 Best Ethics and Compliance Portal contest. We want to recognize clients who have done an outstanding job of fostering cultures of integrity and compliance. We're soliciting nominations for Ethics Portals that demonstrate excellence in the following areas:

Clarity of message
Integration of technology within an overall ethics and compliance strategy
Quality of user experience
Overall "look and feel."

So please click on the link above and nominate your organization! And good luck!

(and if you're just getting started on building your portal, you may want to check out the 2008 winners. And I'd also encourage our existing clients to attend the April 23 webinar "Get Creative! Are You Optimizing Your Hotline Portal Page to Increase Employee Awareness?")

The "Art" of Customer Service

2009-04-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Guest blog from Mike Hyatt-Evenson, EthicsPoint Director of Client Services

My father-in-law is a retired pharmacist. All jokes aside about being a drug dealer, for part of his career he worked as the pharmacy manager where he, as you can expect, was continually enticed by pharmaceutical salespeople. Since the pharmaceutical sales model is one of the most competitive, highly compensated models in the world, I asked him how he would choose what to buy. His answers struck me. Fundamentally, everything had to do with the salesperson who:

Kept their promises.
He trusted.
Really listened to understand his needs.
Took the extra step.

What struck me was that he did not mention price, quality, gifts, or incentives. Though he was talking about salespeople, those qualities are exactly what we train our customer service people to do. For example:

We always call when we say we will.
We build trust and relationships with our customers to develop long term loyalty.
We actively listen to our customers so we completely understand their needs and pain.
We distinguish ourselves from our competitors by doing more than just the minimum.

This reinforces one of the concepts that I believe makes some companies great – the “art” of customer service. The “science” of customer service comes in accurate tracking of customer information, good phone systems, proper staffing, efficient use of tools, etc., etc. Any company can do the science.

The “art” of customer service means that we deliver what and when we say we will. It means that our customers are doing most of the talking. It means that our customers know that we take pleasure in working with them and doing our jobs. It means that we let our customers tell us the story of their child’s graduation if they want to. It means that we quit talking and get down to business if they want to. It means that we take the extra step to make our customers’ jobs a little easier. It means that we happily communicate good news but are also honest with bad news. It means that customer service is not a department, but is pervasive in everything we do across the organization. It is what will lead to a great customer experience.

In this economic environment, our customers are (and should be) scrutinizing every penny they spend. I believe that the companies who live and breathe the “art of customer service” in everything they do will be the ones left standing.

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?

2009-04-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Image by Martin LaBar via Flickr

As I dodged the rain drops on my way to bring in the newspaper this morning (yes, I still read print - my boys and I read the sports and comics during breakfast), I thought of this old joke. And while some of you are answering, "Pilgrims," I'd argue that April showers also bring Ethics and Compliance Week 2009! (It's May 3-9 for those of you unfamiliar with this important week!)

We're planning a few cool things here to celebrate and recognize the importance of Ethics and Compliance (more to come in a later post), but I wanted to see what you all are doing in your organizations. Here's a partial list of ideas that I've collected from my discussions and email threads with some of our customers:

Message from CEO to workforce on importance of ethics and compliance
Update/New compliance posters at major locations
Compliance/Ethics polls posted on intranet homepage
Remind employees of Code of Conduct
Compliance Quiz/Survey - prizes to random employees who complete
Awareness campaign around Ethics Hotline availability
Voicemail message from CEO/Compliance Officer
Roll out new compliance training
Compliance word jumble or crossword puzzle - with prizes
Essay on Compliance/dealing with ethical dilemma - award for best submission

Post a comment here with your ideas and I'll share them with our customer base.

March Madness

2009-03-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

It's that time of year again - the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Championship. Get ready for a slew of articles about how much productivity is lost while people research their brackets, fill them out, debate the merits of each team, and follow along Thursday and Friday as the games are played (oh yeah, and blog about it!).

So who do you like? Me? I like Stanford. But, unfortunately, the Mighty Cardinal men failed to make the Big Dance this year (nor did they qualify for the NIT, but they are in something called the CBI. Whatever.). The Women's bracket isn't out yet, but as the No. 2 team in the nation, I'm predicting a Number One seed, and I'll be projecting them to upset UConn in the final.

So without my beloved Cardinal men to cheer on, what should I do? Rather than stick with the Pac-10, which is what I've done in the past, I've decided to broaden my horizons. So this year, I'm rooting for one of the following to win: Ohio State, Utah, West Virgina, Robert Morris, BYU, Texas A&M, Northern Iowa, Marquette, Cornell, California, Oklahoma State, UCLA, VCU, Minnesota, North Carolina, Butler, Syracuse or Stephen F Austin.

If I didn't name your alma mater, there's an easy way to get on this list - simply join these fine institutions, and sign up as an EthicsPoint customer! In the meantime, I'll be cheering on these fine teams!

FCPA in the Spotlight

2009-03-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Some of you may have noticed I recently added a blog role to this page over on the right. (I also added a "My Faves" and the mint love letters at Babbo are to die for, but I digress). For those of you in compliance at large organizations, I strongly recommend the FCPA Blog - this is a great place to get timely commentary on corruption, FCPA violations, compliance and more.

I mention it because today they recognized the work of Dan Newcomb and Philip Urofsky, who publish the FCPA Digest - a great resource for people interested in recent trends and patterns in the enforcement of the FCPA.

On the shameless plug side of things, I'm very pleased to provide a venue for Dan and Philip to present on The FCPA Year in Review: How Recent Investigations and Prosecutions Will Impact Compliance Programs, as part of EthicsPoint's ongoing webinar series. Click here to register!

We've put a big focus this year on hosting relevant, interesting webinars - partnering with experts such as Dan and Philip to share their knowledge, advice and experiences. If there is a topic you'd like to see covered, please let me know.

What role technology?

2009-03-03T17:26:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

BusinessWeek ran an interesting article yesterday, Tech That Combats Employee Fraud. While I thought the article was well written, what I found most interesting was the series of comments posted by readers on the web page. One poster was incensed that companies might deploy keystroke loggers or monitor website usage of employees. Another thought it was perfectly acceptable, as we wouldn't condone watching movies all day on a DVD player or spending hours on the telephone ordering items from a Sears catalog.

I think these people are missing the point.

Culture is Key
Technology should be an enabler, supporting the strategies and tactics employed to meet corporate objectives. When combating fraud, fostering and maintaining an environment of integrity, honesty and ethical decision-making is far more important than deploying technology to inhibit or root out misconduct. The Ethics Resource Center's National Workplace Ethics Survey clearly shows that having a positive work environment strongly correlates to minimizing misconduct.

So How Much Big Brother?
The other comment I'd make relates to management philosophy on how much monitoring is necessary. I'll leave it to the lawyers to argue where and when the line is crossed when infringing on the right to privacy for employees. But my own personal management style is to set expectations, and then let my reports live into them. At the end of the day, I care whether the work is done - with high quality - and that my employees act with integrity and respect for others and follow our code of conduct. Since I have no issue if they work long hours - including weekends - I don't really feel that I should have an issue with them taking time to view Youtube, update their Facebook accounts, shop online, IM, or other activities that others believe shouldn't be done on "company" time. In my mind, the lines between "company" and "personal" time have blurred.

If I have an employee who chooses to not to live up to our agreed upon objectives and expectations, then I have a management problem that I need to correct. Similarly, if they break the law, or violate our code of conduct, then I will take appropriate actions. Technology may help me identify these adverse situations, augmenting the culture I help set for our employees, but in the end, I hold myself accountable for hiring great people, treating them with respect and allowing them to be professionals.

What do you think? What is the "right" amount of employee monitoring?

The Great Debate

2009-02-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

How do you teach Ethics?

There have been a lot of op ed and blog posts lately about how US and European business schools need to increase the focus on business ethics within their curriculum. On one level my reaction is, "well, duh!" Academic research has overwhelmingly confirmed that companies with strong cultures of integrity suffer fewer incidents of fraud, have lower turnover, decreased costs and outperform their less "ethical" competitors.

But on another level, I wonder to what degree a university or graduate school can truly change the nature of an individual with 18-25 years of life experience. Furthermore, how effective will that learning be if higher principles are not adhered to in their work environments once the students leave academia?

I bring all this up because our CEO, David Childers, is participating in the OICF Ethics Bowl and Great Debate this weekend. A lot of schools have ethics bowl challenges for their students (which I think is a great experience for all involved), but I really like the twist the OICF has introduced this year with the Great Debate. On Friday night the tables will be turned, as the judges - including David and other local CEOs - will be asked to debate an ethical challenge and subsequently judged by the student debators. David has written about this year's subject in his blog.

I see this as a great way to reinforce with the students that business leaders truly do care about making decisions of integrity, and that the lessons of the classroom really do have applicability in the outside "real" world. What do you think - can ethics be taught?

Proud Papa

2009-02-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

If you read my first blog post, you’ll probably remember that I promised to try really hard not to let this become just another vehicle for pushing corporate marketing messages. I may be on the fine edge of breaking that promise today, but I just have to do it.

Over the weekend we launched a brand new web site, and I am really proud of it. I think it really accomplishes what we set as our objectives for the project:

Make it simple to understand what we do
Provide content that can help our existing customers do their jobs better
Represent who we are as a company and individuals – open, approachable, friendly

There’s still a LOT to do; more content to be added, a new section with photos and bios (not of our executives, but of all the people who make us successful; our client service representatives; our sales people; our call center specialists, etc.), more case studies – the list goes on and on.
In the meantime, I encourage you to check it out and send me and my team your feedback.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t do a couple of very well deserved shout outs:

To the team at Pollinate Media, for exceeding our expectations and being such a great partner in this project.

To Grady Locklear, for spearheading our effort to highlight all the cool things our customers are doing.

And finally, to Rodica Buzescu, for everything. There is no way we could have made it to this day without your energy, enthusiasm, skill and dedication. You truly exemplify the values that make EthicsPoint great!