Corporate Risks and Leadership

The context of business has been changing for companies in recent years, and following numerous corporate and accounting scandals, many countries have increased the number of national and international regulations designed to ensure transparency and compliance with the law. Because of the existence of these new regulations, the level of control, the severity of sanctions by governments, and the amount of fines for noncompliance have increased dramatically. In parallel, with the technological revolution in communications, business management has become more transparent, and any negative event is uploaded to social networks and shared with an indeterminate number of people. This change in the regulatory, sanctioning, and technological context has forced large companies to rethink risks, investments, and budgets to deal with this more complex environment. To transition to this change, some companies have included ethics and compliance programs in their corporate agenda, along with marketing and sales plans, strategies, growth targets, investment plans, and/or talent acquisition. While each industry has its particular risks, in this book, the author describes the essential elements that any effective ethics and compliance program should contain. This book is a source of information that connects yesterday with today. The author shares observations and lessons of the past to suggest corporate leaders implement effective ethics and compliance programs to protect their organizations and themselves. The book covers theories of ethics but with an eye focused on practical application. Risks, ethics, and compliance are analyzed with an overall vision, connected to the reality of business life, without getting bogged down in abstract thinking or technical and regulatory details. Ethics and compliance are disciplines that have increasingly achieved greater recognition in organizations. Thus, due to the importance of risk management in the business world and the necessary involvement of the CEO and the board of directors, it seems appropriate that executives get access to a book about risks, ethics, compliance, and human resources directed not only to compliance experts but also to any organizational leader. This second edition specifically answers the following questions: Why is an ethical corporate culture important? Why is how we get the results important? Why should you control the exercise of power in your organization? What are the risks of the digitally hyper-connected world? Why must we be vigilant and react quickly when the risks are still small? Why are vision, motivation, and commitment needed to overcome internal resistance and implement changes in organizations? Should we become more aware that we can be deceived? How should we deal with uncertainty? What kind of training, analysis, and questioning can improve decision-making? What are the main compliance risks that organizations face? What basic elements should an ethics and compliance program have to protect a company against risks? This work offers various examples to cultivate ethical thinking and behavior, identify common risks, and comprehend their adverse effects on organizations.