Changing the way the world manages requirements: Compliance & Risks

As the number of government regulations increases and enforcement efforts gain strength, compliance at all levels is garnering more attention with consumers, investors, in the media and even in company boardrooms. Compliance is becoming a near-constant factor in business planning: a prohibitively burdensome expenditure of resources at its worst, an operational strength and a competitive advantage at its best. Compliance & Risks helps companies to better monitor and manage compliance regulations and requirements for a cleaner, safer, better world.

The cause that motivated

When the founder, Damien McGovern, was working as a Barrister with Deloitte in Brussels, he was overwhelmed by the amount of EU official journals being delivered daily to his desk. Realizing that there must be another option, he conceived a more efficient way to assess the risks and opportunities in proposed legislation. Damien’s experience with legal, regulatory, and compliance issues, and an understanding of the problems for his customers of not having suitable tools for a difficult job gave rise to the compliance knowledge management platform, C2P, and the establishment of Compliance & Risks in 2002.From small beginnings with its headquarters in Cork Ireland, the company now has offices in Northern California, New York, Brussels and London.

In the early years, it was challenging for Compliance & Risks to have enough regulatory content available for clients. By focusing on serving the product compliance needs of the electronics sector the company gave itself the best possible chance to deliver on its commitments to clients. Now they are the market leaders in that industry, working with 7 out of the top 10 electronics companies in the world, and have naturally evolved into many adjacent industries and expanded content and services beyond product compliance.

A Natural Evolution

The compliance landscape continues to get more complex with emerging markets recognizing the need for regulation, and established markets taking a hardline approach to re-regulation.

Companies understand that regulation is an important lever in making the world cleaner, safer, and better for all. So rather than ignoring the inevitable, they are taking a proactive approach and putting as much daylight between themselves and proposed regulations coming down the tracks. Real competitive advantage comes from knowing and planning for what’s on the way, not waiting to fire fight through the changes.

“No one can ever underestimate the power in getting to really understand clients’ needs. Our service offerings have naturally grown in response to client requests and our innate desire to create something special,” said Skulski.

“C2P has matured into a highly effective regulations management platform. The next chapter in our journey is the growth of our requirements management functionality which captures, analyzes and manages requirements, ‘live-linked’ to regulations. We believe that this will elevate compliance activities from being a cost center, to a function that can add significant value to the business and be recognized at Board level for its contribution in creating market advantages.”

From Data To Information To Intelligence

Compliance & Risks was founded on the concept of turning ‘dumb’ data into structured content that was easy to consume. Their compliance analysts assess and refine global regulations and standards across a wide range of policy areas, from restricted substances to product safety, and environmental health & safety to data protection. C2P is then used to provide this latest compliance content, in a highly structured, logically-presented manner, allowing clients to proactively plan for and respond to the evolving compliance landscape.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence is another way in how the company uses content to add value. One application of this is their Approval Probability tool which predicts the likelihood of whether or not proposed legislation will come into force, with an impressive 95% prediction accuracy. This allows their clients to focus on the most important regulatory developments to reduce risk and plan for new product and market launches.

Future Perfect

‘Brand integrity’ is an overused term, but with the phenomena of instant news and always-on social media, it has never been more important. Companies have nowhere to hide when things go wrong and are instantly penalized with negative coverage. Essentially, being a good corporate citizen has never been so important.

“Transparency between companies and their consumers is reaching a new level. In the context of a Requirements Management Platform we believe that consumers will be able to really understand what they are buying and from whom. Products will know about themselves in ways that are meaningful to consumers and can allow real choice where buyer and seller values are aligned”, commented Skulski.

This is a new world where a brand is regarded as worthy of being supported and consumers can find a match with companies they admire, in addition to loving their products. We are on this journey with our clients and know that we have many more great chapters to write.

Driving success

Joe Skulski, CEO: With 20 years of international business and technical experience, Joe is a seasoned professional in areas such as product compliance, market development, product design, manufacturing and supply chains, working across Asia, the Americas and Europe. Prior to Compliance & Risks, Joe was a business consultant and worked for 17 years in a variety of management roles at Bureau Veritas, a global leader in conformity assessment and certification services. He has degrees in Materials Science and Industrial Technology as well as an MBA.

“Elevate compliance activities from being a cost center, to a function that can add significant value to the business.”