Compliance is a Team Sport: Navigating Ethics and Compliance Challenges for Paris 2024

As the Paris 2024 Olympics near, athletes worldwide hone their skills for peak performance. Similarly, businesses face high stakes, navigating complex ethics and compliance challenges amid evolving laws and ethical norms. Effective compliance isn’t just about avoiding penalties—it’s about excelling in the global arena and achieving compliance gold. Here are four critical ethics and compliance (E&C) issues faced by businesses around the world, as well as in previous Olympic games. And how SAI360 is helping organizations mitigate these risks to avoid organizational disruption.

Key Ethics and Compliance Challenges for Businesses

Ethics and Compliance Challenges

Issue 1: Bribery

Olympic Games Example: During the 2002 Winter Olympics bid process, several members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were implicated in a bribery scandal involving the acceptance of gifts and other inducements from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, which significantly impacted the integrity of the Olympic selection process.

SAI360’s Solution: Our UK Bribery Act: Overview course equips organizations to navigate tricky waters, emphasizing the importance of understanding and complying with critical regulations.

Issue 2: Gift-Giving

A Real-Life Olympic Games Example: The 2016 Olympics bidding process was marred by allegations that Tokyo’s bid team had made questionable payments totaling more than $2 million to a consultancy linked to an IOC member, highlighting the blurred lines between legitimate gifts and potential bribes.

SAI360’s Solution: Our Gifts and Entertainment for Public Officials course offers crucial insights into what’s permissible, helping companies maintain ethical standards while navigating corporate hospitality.

Issue 3: Conflicts of Interest

A Real-Life Olympic Games Example: In the lead-up to the 2012 Olympics, an IOC member resigned amid accusations of a conflict of interest for reportedly consulting for the bid team of a competing city. This highlighted how personal and professional interests can conflict in high-stakes decision-making environments.

SAI360’s Solution: Our Conflicts of Interest (COI) software solution helps companies establish COI controls and manage disclosures at scale by operationalizing time-consuming tasks including preparation, tracking and attestation collection. Additionally, SAI360 Disclosure Manager provides COI training in the flow of work to improve awareness and drive behavior change.

Issue 4: Supply Chain Integrity

A Real-Life Olympic Games Example: Prior to the London 2012 Olympics, investigations uncovered labor abuses in the overseas supply chains of merchandise for the games, leading to public outcry and a push for better ethical practices in sourcing materials and labor.

SAI360’s Solution: SAI360’s Third Party Vendor Risk software helps organizations manage vendors more efficiently with automated risk assessments, thorough screenings and ongoing monitoring. Our workforce training course: Supply Chain: Due Diligence stresses the importance of rigorous supplier evaluation so organizations can ensure compliance with human rights standards and avoid reputational damage.

Why These Software Solutions and E&C Courses Matter

Ongoing ethics and compliance training paired with automated software solutions that target ethics, governance, risk and compliance play a critical role in fostering a culture of transparency and integrity while also protecting companies from legal, regulatory, and financial harm.