For the world outside of law and accounting, let’s be clear that the our use of the word “noncompliant” here is an academic spin on “illegal”, although this is not the platform to discuss the legal or ethical concepts. From this same academic perspective, there is also a possibility that “noncompliant” could simply mean “novel”. This post entirely skips these issues and simply presumes that the starting point is that we find some new clients are noncompliant. Where do we go from there?
These are the three steps I use to address noncompliant businesses:
1. Risk assessment – The first step must be risk assessment and strategy formation.
2. Work plan – There must be a plan to address the risk.
3. Trigger point – There must be a point at which lack of progress or a slide deeper into risk triggers our disengagement.
Unlike many of our peers, we don’t think that noncompliant businesses are an unacceptable risk. Ignoring this massive business sector makes no sense. Whatever the starting point, there is always room to improve.