Is That a Pledge Pin, Soldier?

Image via Wikipedia

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

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

Image via Wikipedia

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???

Image via Wikipedia

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!

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

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

Image via Wikipedia

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.