Dian Zhang (dian.zhang@gartner.com) is a Research Specialist at Gartner in Arlington, Virginia, USA.
Board presentations are no easy task. You must help directors clearly understand top threats facing the organization and appropriately allocate resources to address them. Many compliance leaders only have 30 minutes—quarterly or annually—to do so.
The following tactics will help you make the most of your face time with the board.
Communicate risk exposure with predictive metrics
To get the attention of your board members, show them what issues may lead to a compliance failure in the future, rather than focusing on past incidents. For instance, the number of expense reports related to government officials and percent change in number of gifts may indicate higher corruption risks. But the number of anti-corruption training completed probably can’t.
To develop forward-looking metrics, consult with business partners to understand what events drive a potential threat, then translate the risk drivers into measurable indicators for your board report.
