Our Perspective

• Business leaders define success by solving problems for customers, bringing value to shareholders, and creating jobs that contribute to vibrant communities.

• Investigators begin their task with a different objective. They believe the company has done something wrong. As such, they will say that they want to get to the truth. But they will define success by obstructing business operations or complicating the lives of business leaders and the entire teams that they target.

Big-government leaders do not limit their attacks to the most successful companies. Elected officials create many government agencies that investigate business operations, business leaders, and people who have decision-making power in businesses. That means even small companies—and leaders of those companies that have decision-making power—are also vulnerable to government investigations and to charges for white collar crimes.

For that reason, it makes sense for business leaders (and functionaries within each company) to learn about government investigations. That insight can help people involved in businesses both save and make money.

You might ask, “How can investing in compliance help a company or people make more money?” 

• Compliance is all about transparency. It’s about documenting processes and following best-practice approaches to business. The more companies train people how to follow such procedures, the more effective companies become at messaging. If we communicate well, we’re more successful at showing the value proposition we offer.

How does investing in compliance help a company or an individual save more money?

• Investing time and energy to develop effective compliance systems can lead to lower business insurance costs and can lower the enormous risks that business owners and decision makers have to reserve for litigation expenses. Further, they provide insight into business operations and how they might be run more efficiently. Good compliance systems can also lower the risk levels to internal fraud.

Besides saving or making money, investing in ongoing compliance training represents an excellent insurance policy for the company. No company wants to become the subject of a government investigation. The investigations are costly. In many cases, those costs run into the seven figures, both for the business and in many cases, for individuals. Investigations, potentially, can obliterate a business. If authorities bring charges for white-collar crime, they also can lead to loss of liberty for some people.