Hey, We’re Suddenly Hot!

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By Adam Turteltaub
adam.turteltaub@corporatecompliance.org

US News and World Report recently ran an article on five “hot jobs” for MBA graduates.  Happily, the career of compliance officer made the list.

Now, for anyone in compliance you have to feel good about that.  It’s nice to be popular and a part of a “hot” career, even if it’s still hard to get the family excited about what you do all day.  Try it in my house.  Mom works for a university and takes everyone to basketball and football games.  I go to conferences and bring them back pens that light up.  Woo hoo!

But more important than the popularity is the fact that compliance is listed among jobs that are suited for MBAs.  That is further evidence that compliance is increasingly perceived not as some variation of the practice of law but as part of running a business.  More, it demonstrates that the compliance is a role for business managers, not just lawyers.

That’s a significant change.  It demonstrates an increasing recognition that compliance isn’t just about ensuring externally-imposed rules are followed.  It’s about running a business successfully, a skill that takes managers.

Also notable is the fact that this news report follows the compliance evaluation criteria recently issued by the Fraud Section at the US Department of Justice.  As I noted in a post on this blog back in February, the DOJ is taking a similar view of compliance.  A review of the evaluation document shows a strong emphasis on business processes, not complex legal interpretations.  The word “process”, in fact, appears over and over again in the document.

What this all means is that compliance is now more woven than ever into the fabric of business.  It’s not an add on, or something forced, but a profession that, even if it is not always embraced, is ever-more central to the way business operates.

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5 COMMENTS

  2. Along the lines of recent discussion about the “integrity officer”, this reinforces the notion that compliance really is about institutional integrity, which takes a process-oriented view to achieve. Now, that’s hot!

  3. Adam, thanks for this useful blog. I forwarded it to my grandson who, as a college sophomore, has just declared his major in accounting. I sit on a public hospital’s board of directors, so I see the importance of compliance in the healthcare space. That, of course, explains the growing importance of organizations like HCCA, but the broader embrace of compliance as a good (and necessary) business practice can be seen in organizations like SCCE.

    It also makes it a career path to be considered. While it may not be as exciting as some other careers, the wide array of industries to which it is becoming more and more relevant will make it as potentially fulfilling as just about any career path that one can choose.

    Keep up the good work.

  5. My interest in ethics started about 10 years ago and I have been having the chicken and egg problem ever since — you can’t work in ethics until you have some experience and you can’t get the expereince until you work in ethics. While trying to fix this problem I finished my MBA, though no one I know in the industry has an MBA. It has been exciting to see so many of the things I am passionate about in business ethics suddenly get news coverage. There is a now a public conversation helping to marry the concepts I am trying to find in my own career–ethics and compliance making good businesses even better.

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