Today we celebrate England’s sole World Cup win that occurred 50 years and two days ago on July 30, 1966. England, the World Cup host, beat West Germany 3-2 in the final. A crowd of 98,000 watched the game end in regulation time at 2-2. However at the 98th minutes, Geoff Hurst, who had earlier scored, hit the crossbar and the ball bounced into the goal. Hurst scored once more in extra time to seal the win, thereby becoming the first person to score a hat trick in World Cup final. England’s single tournament success has not been replicated in the ensuing 50 years.
One of the most ubiquitous phrases in all of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance arena is ‘tone at the top’. Some deride it as meaningless, a simple bromide of words. But the underpinning reality of the phrase is that if senior management is not behind doing business ethically and in compliance with anti-corruption laws, such as the FCPA and UK Bribery Act, it does not matter what programs are put in place, it is doomed to fail. In short, leaders need to lead for a compliance program to be successful.
Sometimes management must effect a culture shift in order to move a company to put doing business in compliance at the forefront of its efforts. I considered this area when I read a recent interview with Paula Kerger, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) by Adam Bryan, in the New York Times (NYT) Corner Office section entitled “Find the Courage to Take a Scary Leap”. Kerger identified cultural change as the “biggest challenge for leaders, and it’s also the thing that will kill you if you can’t figure out how to manage what is clearly a shifting landscape, and get people moving along that path and not be stuck.”
Kerger said that PBS has gone through such a change, by noting “We’re going through a big rebuild of our whole infrastructure of how we distribute our content. When you get your head around it, it’s such an extraordinary time, and it’s not one for the faint of heart.” Many companies who have gone through a FCPA investigation or enforcement action have been required to make such a change in the culture of how they do business. If your senior management is not committed to such change, the message will not make its way down to the troops in the field.
I thought that Kerger captured it well when she said, “Life is often about those moments — you have to be willing, every once in a while, to jump, and it’s absolutely terrifying. Our nature as humans is to not change. We get comfortable, and we don’t want to be pushed outside that comfort zone, whether it’s moving from a job that you know is not the right one or because it always feels so much easier to keep doing the same thing, even if it’s painful, rather than taking that leap.”
Kerger described her tools for making and then implementing, a culture shift. She begins with having a diverse leadership team. She said, “With the teams we build, we look for different skill sets and we look for people who bring different voices to the table. I know that’s now become very popular in theory, but that’s something I’ve always done. I always believe that the best projects are managed not by people who all think alike but who are all contributing something different.”
To effect this strategy, she also provided insights into how she has accomplished culture shifts. She has done so by pulling “teams together that have representation from every facet of the organization. So you’re aligning people together around shared projects and shared outcomes, and people get to know each other so then it’s not about us versus them. I think it’s good to have a blend of people that have been there for a while as well as new talent. I think tipping too far one way or another is always a problem.”
Another key leadership point is about communications. Of course listening to your team members is critical but Kerger took it to a broader context when she said, “Sharing information is also really important. In some organizations, leaders can go into their bunkers, and if people don’t get enough information, then they start making it up. I try not to shield people when the news isn’t always good, because they just need to know.”
Yet, at some point, leaders have to make a decision. Whether you are the CEO or the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), you will eventually be called upon to make a decision. Kerger said, “I like to get a lot of information before I make a decision, but I’m not afraid to make decisions. That comes back to the whole thing about being the C.E.O. You have to be able to move. People who always want all the information before they make a decision are disastrous C.E.O.s. You’re never going to have all the information.”
Kerger also had some interesting thoughts on hiring which can certainly be useful to the CCO. First is that she looks for people who are intellectually curious, in addition to a passion about the work of PBS. She wants people to have a “fire” for working in the public media. How many CCO’s consider the passion of those working in the compliance function? Many compliance professionals are passionate about doing the work of anti-corruption compliance because it is such a worthwhile endeavor, particularly in the business context. I often say that compliance programs are business solutions to the legal problem of bribery and corruption. If you can tap into a person who has this passion, they can help bring a level of enthusiasm to you company that may not normally be seen.
Echoing the emphasis Kerger puts on disparate team members, she also looks “for people who are going to bring something to the table and who will work well collaboratively, but I don’t want a group of people that just tell me what I want to hear. I just want them to tell me what I need to hear. And so I want people that are going to be comfortable doing that.” Finally, she wants someone who can be the “devil’s advocate, ensuring that “you don’t come up with consensus too fast.” She ended with the following, “Even if you end up at the same outcome, you don’t want people walking out of the room saying, “Well, I wonder why we didn’t think of… ?””
I found Bryant’s interview of Kerger to provide some excellent insights into leadership.
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