Welcome to the inaugural issue of GRC 360º—Perspectives on Governance, Risk, Compliance and Culture, a quarterly publication of The Open Compliance & Ethics Group (OCEG).
GRC 360º is a vehicle for the exchange of ideas and the presentation of new tools and resources to support the critical business functions of governance, risk, compliance and ethics management.We intend to provide useful information and fresh perspectives on methods to enhance and improve business performance, measure and benchmark compliance systems and fully evaluate program design and operation for continual improvement.
IN THIS ISSUE
Finding the “Weak Link” in Your Compliance and Ethics Program
Most organizations strive to have effective compliance and ethics programs, but there may be areas that need improvement:
• Have you evaluated your organizational culture - its approach to risk, its values and how actual behavior relates to stated risks?
• Are you too busy putting out fires to engage in time- consuming risk analysis and strategic planning?
• Then how do you know that you are properly allocating limited resources and scarce time to the right issues?
• Can you effectively oversee the many aspects of your compliance and ethics program that operate in different business units in remote regions of the world?
Four authors respond to these questions: Worth MacMurray, principal of Compliance Initiatives, visits with two business leaders to address the amorphous and often puzzling nature of organizational culture. Jerry Gootee, a partner with Ernst & Young’s Assurance and Advisory Business Service, leads us through the critical aspects of risk assessment and strategic planning that form the foundation of an effective management system. Adam Turteltaub, corporate relations executive at LRN, focuses on the importance of managing and overseeing compliance and ethics systems as efficiently and effectively as other core business functions. Ted Frank, president of Axentis and chair of the OCEG Technology Council, addresses the critical need to ensure technology solutions for compliance processes.
Benchmarking Survey Result of Compliance and Ethics Programs
We present significant, and sometimes surprising, findings from the first OCEG Benchmarking Study of Compliance and Ethics Programs. Seventy-nine organizations, ranging from Fortune 50 companies to major university systems and small businesses, participated in this far-reaching survey about compliance and ethics program structures, scope and resources.More information on the findings for each of more than 300 questions, and the opportunity to participate in future studies, may be obtained from OCEG at www.oceg.org.
OCEG is a not-for-profit organization with a clear public mission: to help organizations align their governance, risk management and compliance activities to drive business performance and promote integrity. OCEG was formed by a multi-industry, multi-disciplinary coalition that saw the need to integrate the principles of effective governance, risk management, compliance and integrity into the practice of everyday business.
To achieve these goals, OCEG developed the OCEG Framework—an important business tool that provides structured guidelines for planning, operating, managing, evaluating and improving compliance programs. The Framework has two parts—the Foundation and Domain Guidelines. The Foundation offers a scalable, customizable approach to integrating governance, risk management, compliance and ethics within your organization. The Domain Guidelines supplement the Foundation; providing detailed information on specific legal requirements and business practices in substantive practice areas, such as employment or environmental law.
By establishing guidelines, rather than standards, OCEG provides a tool for each company to use as it sees fit, given its size, scope, structure, industry and other factors that create individualized needs. Through the OCEG online portal, members can search a database of all OCEG guidelines, practice aids and resource libraries to find exactly the information they need to build, manage and evaluate effective compliance and ethics programs.Members can join working groups that address their specific interests and share ideas and tools with other group members.
We welcome your comments on this issue of GRC 360º, as well as your thoughts on future subjects that OCEG should address, both in the magazine and through the development of guidelines, resource materials, benchmarking studies and research projects. Contact us at grc360@oceg.org. To receive updates on OCEG activities, please register on the OCEG website at www.oceg.org.