Here’s an excerpt from a document used by Bridgestone to market its ethics and compliance program, which is important for many reasons, including the management of scope creep.[1] “Every ethics and compliance program has a brand,” said Adam Balfour, vice president and general counsel for corporate compliance and Latin America at Bridgestone Americas Inc. If the brand isn’t communicated, an ethics and compliance program is vulnerable to scope creep. Contact Balfour at balfouradam@bfusa.com.
Acting With Integrity In Everything We Do: How Bridgestone’s Legal Compliance Team Supports Our Teammates and Bridgestone in the Americas
Introduction
Integrity stands at the core of the Bridgestone Essence and is a fundamental, non-negotiable value for Bridgestone and our teammates. It is part of Our Way To Serve and means doing the right thing, always — even when it is hard. As Bridgestone’s Code of Conduct provides: “we must act with integrity in all aspects of Bridgestone’s business.”
There are many different resources to help our teammates think and act with integrity. One of these resources is the Legal Compliance Team. This document is intended to help teammates understand what we do and how we can help you. As always, we encourage you to reach out to us with any questions or if we can help you by emailing compliance@bfusa.com.
Our Mission
The mission of the Legal Compliance Team is: “To build and sustain a culture that supports the hearts and minds of Bridgestone teammates to think and act with integrity and always do the right thing.” We aim to build and sustain a culture where teammates have the knowledge and wisdom to do the right thing and speak up when they have concerns or become aware of wrongdoing. We developed our mission statement to align with Bridgestone’s mission of “Serving Society With Superior Quality” and Our Way To Serve.
Our Team
Our team consists of four teammates in the Law Department who are responsible for the architecture and management of the Bridgestone Americas’ ethics and compliance program and the program itself, while the Law Department as a whole is considered a functional resource for the day-to-day program operations. We are based in Nashville, USA and São Paulo, Brazil, and we are here to support teammates throughout the Americas through the continuous improvement and expansion of our ethics and compliance program. We encourage you to reach out to us with any questions or if you need any support or guidance, or if you have any feedback on how we can ensure we are delivering a Best-In-Class compliance program for our company and teammates.
What We Do
We are responsible for developing and sustaining the architecture of Bridgestone Americas’ ethics and compliance program and collaborating closely with other Functions and teammates who handle the operations of our ethics and compliance program. We invest time and energy to learn about the different businesses and each of their unique objectives, challenges, risks, and opportunities to ensure our ethics and compliance program supports the growth and well-being of the business. We handle a variety of activities, including (but not limited to):
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Working with leaders and managers throughout the organization to help build and sustain a culture of compliance and integrity;
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Managing and administering reports raised through the BridgeLine with the support of various functions;
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Building and developing policies, procedures and tools that help our teammates comply with applicable laws and internal requirements; and
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Helping educate and communicate with teammates throughout the organization to ensure they know how to think and act with integrity.