Where there is large quantities of money and power, there will forever be corruption and the degradation of standards. It’s unfortunate to admit, but it’s human nature to lust after things that will fill your pockets while hurting another company, economy or person. And wherever there is money, weakness will bring out the people who abuse their power and infest entire structures of governance, business and of course culture. Do you really think you’re immune to such malpractices in your business? Look around you, and ask yourself whether or not you can or do truly trust the people you have placed in power? One would hope so, but it’s better safe than sorry. It isn’t like corruption in the police force whereby problems will be swiftly handled and the taxpayer might end up footing the bill. When corruption happens in business, it will be the owner who pays dearly for the misdeeds of others. Companies can collapse, their public image destroyed beyond repair and funds dried to the point of bankruptcy looming.
Logging activities on trips
Caviar and champagne: Mexico’s main anti-corruption agency has little idea how its own employees spend public money abroad
When do you think someone in your business would feel most comfortable betraying your trust? More than likely it will be abroad. Managers and or departments heads, as well as board room members such as CFOs, will be in a different country, where perhaps the threat of your power isn’t so highly felt. You’ve seen it a million times in Hollywood. The important business person, goes abroad to finalize a business deal with a new import contract worth millions hanging in the balance. After negotiations that make progress but don’t finish, the partying already begins. The opposition take your employee out on the town, get them drinking and suddenly, the power and attention gets to their head. They make deals underneath the table, embezzling themselves and of course it’s too your detriment. You need to demand that when somebody who works for you is on a foreign trip, they log their activities for each day. Send some people to also keep track of what is going on to monitor the situation. This way those working for you know you’re watching and listening to them.
Steering clear of the tainted
How can companies doing business overseas reduce the risk of corrupt practices?
Do you potentially have a new contractor? This should be excellent news as B2B clients should be cause for much celebration. These sorts of deals are very lucrative and they embolden cooperation and competition at the same time. However, how do you know the company you’re talking to, hasn’t got a chequered past? Surely there must be a way to just make a quick check, and see if they are clean in terms of corruption, bribery and quality control. Well there is, with professional due diligence solutions you have access to 26,000 global news stories, over 1,000 sanctioned watchlists of people and entities to avoid, more than 1 million political figures, and 3,000 databases on public and private companies to steer clear of. Doing business with a company that is known for corruption, will drag your public image down into the dirt along with them.
You can’t say you weren’t warned when you are hit by corruption whether externally or internally. You should be aware that people you have hired may turn out to be personalities of low trust, therefore when they are not within you sight, check on their activity regularly.
