The Connected CECO
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Posted in: Compliance
On my flight down to Los Angeles for the ECOA 2007 Annual Business Ethics & Compliance Conference I read the brand new paper from the Ethics Resource Center titled “Leading Corporate Integrity: Defining the Role of the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer (CECO).” This worthwhile paper was developed in conjunction with the ECOA, OCEG, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, and the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics.
The paper gave me plenty to think about – and talk about with conference attendees. According to the paper, "...the CECO should be connected to company operations in order to build an ethical culture that advances the overall objectives of the business.”
How, then, can a CECO get connected to the company operations? I believe automation must play a key role here. Look at what some of what the paper says the CECO must do to manage the entire ethics and compliance program throughout the company:
- Creating, revision, distribution and enforcement of the code
- Auditing and monitoring
- Training of the board, employees, and vendors on organization standards, risks, compliance, and resources.
Who initiates the search for process improvement within the compliance and ethics function?
Check back here in a couple of weeks to learn what the ECOA conference attendees have to say on this question and more when I publish the results of our conference survey.