Great Example of CEO Setting the Tone

Delta

Compliance professionals talk all the time about the importance of “tone at the top,” that accurate but overused phrase that means CEOs should demonstrate the importance of disciplined, principled performance to their workforce.  Tone at the top has always struck me as one of those things where you know it when you see it —…

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Northam and Ethical Accountability

accountability

Another week, another challenging example of executive misconduct that ethics and compliance officers should consider. Our star this time around: Virginia governor Ralph Northam. Last week photos surfaced from Northam’s medical school yearbook, published in 1984. On one side of the page is Northam. On the other side is a photo of two unidentified men,…

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Michigan State Reorgs Compliance Again

Michigan State

Breaking news from East Lansing, Mich., today: Michigan State University has reorganized its office for ethics and compliance just four months after the department was created, consolidating the office into the university’s existing internal audit function. We last saw Michigan State blundering around the compliance world in June, when acting university president John Engler said…

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PwC’s Ethics Leadership After Tragedy

ethics

PwC is trying to recover from tragedy this week in a way that every ethics and compliance professional should applaud: by asking employees to confront difficult questions about race and empathy in America, in a statement directly from the firm’s U.S. leader. A risk assurance associate at the firm’s Dallas office, Botham Jean, was shot…

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Another Compliance Lesson From Michigan State

Michigan State

One of the most painful failures to watch in corporate compliance this year has been the tragedy at Michigan State University: a culture of sloppy procedures and aimless oversight that allowed Larry Nassar, a doctor affiliated with the school, to assault hundreds of girls and young women for nearly 20 years. Nassar is spending the…

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The Importance of Purpose

Mission

Mission matters. Even at publicly traded companies, where so often “the mission” seems to be making ever more profit for shareholders— at the best of them, that’s not true. They still articulate some greater purpose, and believe that purpose is worthwhile. Their leaders like talking about that purpose, whatever it is. I’ve been reflecting about…

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