Today we honor one of the most interesting personalities of the 20^th century, Shirley Temple, who died yesterday. She was probably the greatest child actress of all-time, being the lead grossing star for five straight years during the 1930s. But the thing I found most remarkable about this woman was her third career, after marriage and motherhood, in the US Diplomatic Corp. President Richard Nixon appointed her as a Representative UN. Nixon later appointed her as Ambassador to Ghana. President Ford named her to be the first female Chief of Protocol of the US. Finally, the first President Bush appointed her as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia. But whatever role Shirley Temple chose she did it with excellence.

Just as Ms. Temple had a commitment to excellence, so does my colleague, Mike Koehler, the FCPA Professor. Recently the FCPA Professor announced that he had partnered with Emtrain to create a best in class Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance training video. I had the opportunity to view the video and I can agree that it is certainly an excellent training video, which you should consider for use in your company’s ongoing compliance training and communication. As you would expect from the FCPA Professor, each slide is well documented and provides the basis for the training. However, the thing that I thought made the training stand out was the variety of techniques used throughout the video.

There are separate chapters on the following subjects: an Introduction to the FCPA, the social and business case for the FCPA, the definition of bribery under the Act, a definition of what constitutes “Anything of Value” under the Act, who is a Foreign Official under the Act and who else might be covered by the FCPA, what does it mean to “Obtain or Retain Business”, the high nature of Third Parties under the FCPA and how to manage that risk, what might be available as an exception to the Act and defenses under the FCPA, Books and Internal Controls, a discussion of the UK Bribery Act, Red Flags that you should be aware, creation of a FCPA compliance policy and self-reporting of violations to the DOJ/SEC and a summary section. After completion of the course you should be able to describe how corruption impedes global economic development and how it undermines the ability to compete fairly in business; outline three fundamental elements of a bribery offense that can lead to prosecution of companies as well as individuals; identify various red flags that can be indicators of bribery and outline how, and to whom, you should report concerns about possible bribery and corruption.

The video training includes the following:

• Executive and non-executive versions
• The ability to configure the course with company-specific policies, videos, graphics, text, and employee hotline or reporting information
• 20+ video clips to illustrate real-world business scenarios that present risk
• An Enforcement Risk Spectrum that helps learners “issue spot” bribery and corruption risk
• The ability to use video scenes outside the e-Learning experience in live training, discussion groups, or company emails and reminders
• A compliance Learning Management System (LMS), enabling an administrator to launch and track training efforts and generate audit-ready training reports showing time spent on each video, screen, policy, etc.
• There will be productions available in Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese, French, and other languages upon request.

But the video is more than simply a recitation of what is required under the FCPA. The thing that makes it stand out for me is the different types of training it employs to hold the listener’s attention. First is the length of 60 minutes for an executive/high risk trainee and a shorter length for those who do not fall into those categories. Next, for those who may desire to devolve deeply into the subject matter, are short concise descriptions of the legal and compliance concept involved in the discussions. For instance, in the section on the definition of bribery there is a discussion of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) established standards to combat bribery and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), which established guidelines for codes of conduct for public officials, transparent and objective procurement systems, and increased accounting and auditing standards for the private sector. Added to this is a short piece on the UK Bribery Act. All of these non-US laws are then tied into the FCPA so the listener will have a broad understanding of what they may be facing in any multi-national business from the anti-corruption compliance perspective. Significantly, and most soberingly, the video points out that according to the World Bank Institute, more than $1 trillion is paid globally in bribes each year. Some of the worst affected countries are the poorest ones in the world.

What I think makes the video unique and frankly enjoyable to watch, is that it  has several interactive features. The first is that it opens with an interactive pre-assessment that is designed to determine how much you already know about global bribery and corruption. From there, each section has a short interactive questionnaire at the conclusion of the video on the section’s topic. These features allow the participants to examine their own expertise and then self-assess the lessons that they have learned throughout the presentation. By making each session interactive, you not only hold the attention of the listener but also garner their participation in the training. Any time you can get participation in training, you are a long way towards having an effective training program.

There are a couple of other cool features. It allows your company to customize the training by attaching some of your key anti-corruption policies and procedures for review during the Policies section of the training. Additionally, and following my mantra of Document, Document and Document, after completion of the training, your participation is electronically noted for record keeping, along with a copy of the training materials. So when the regulators want to see not only who was trained but also the materials they were trained on, you have easily assessable records to document the event.

So when the FPCA Professor says he has created a best in class FCPA training program, I heartily agree. You can check out a demo version of the training video by clicking here.

As many of you know, Jon Rydberg and I wrote and published a book at the end of last year, entitled “Global Anti-Corruption & Anti-Bribery Leadership Practical FCPA and U.K. Bribery Act Compliance Concepts for the Corporate Board Member, C-Suite Executive and General Counsel”. On Thursday, February 13, we will discuss our book in a webinar hosted by Hiperos LLC. Hiperos President, Greg Dickinson, will be interviewing Jon and myself about the book, its genesis and our thoughts on ‘doing compliance’ as opposed to simply having a compliance program. The event is free and you can find details and register by clicking here.