Friedrichshafen. For companies, the topic of compliance has gained in importance over the past years.The focus is on the adherence to legal regulations and considering voluntary codes of conduct in order to ensure ethically sound business practices of companies. About 40 company representatives and experts met at ZF Friedrichshafen AG to share their knowledge about this issue.
The “Lake Constance Compliance Summit” was for the first time initiated by Jürgen Holeksa, ZF Board member responsible for HR and Governance, and Bernhard Günther, Chief Compliance Officer of the ZF Group. “Correct behavior is an integral element of our business relationships,” said Bernhard Günther at the kickoff of the event. “For this reason, it was important to us to promote a mutual exchange of experiences among companies in the Lake Constance region”. This event also served as a platform for the participants to discuss current challenges and to convey knowledge on the topic of compliance as well as to give advice on how to deal with it in practice. From the companies’ point of view, the ever higher fines for legal violations as well as the possibly upcoming legal disputes come along with considerable risks for their business.The demand for compliance officers is rising – it is their responsibility to embed compliant behavior throughout all business processes of a company.
“The roles and risks of compliance officers” were the overarching topics at this conference premiere hosted by ZF. Compliance officers from several companies from the Southern German region as well as scientific experts had come to Friedrichshafen to participate in this event. Dr. Christoph E. Hauschka from Price Waterhouse Coopers in Munich was a guest speaker. He published one of the standard works on the subject of “Corporate Compliance”. Hauschka emphasized that the compliance officer’s activities were always in the interests of the company. In order to ensure compliant behavior at work, active support from all employees was required. “The commitment of the Board of Management and the resulting compliance culture in the company are important prerequisites for good compliance work,” Hauschka said. Michael Loer, head of an anti-corruption department at the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt, shared his experiences from different investigations regarding criminal acts related to corruption, fraud, and breach of public trust at the expert conference.
The “Lake Constance Compliance Summit” is to be held regularly under the auspices of different companies from the Southern German region.
