The unconscious conscience of digital transformation: The Chief Compliance Officer?

Corporations around the globe are embracing Digital Transformation (“DT”) to enhance competitiveness i.e., streamline operations, strengthen relationships with customers, and increase revenue.1 In this dynamic digital world, where data and algorithms are increasingly leveraged both for decisionmaking and to achieve economic and social objectives, a relevant digital transformation requires corporations to, not only onboard new technologies and ways of working, but also to address how they will be using tech in a responsible, ethical, customer/consumer-centric, and sustainable way.2 Necessarily, functions that directly impact the bottom line (like Sales, R&D, Supply Chain) are deeply engaged in these DT efforts.3 The question is what role is and should Compliance be playing in these DT efforts. This thought piece focuses on the evolving role of the Compliance function in this rapidly developing ecosystem, analyzing what role does – and should – the Compliance function play in DT and how should the Compliance function future-proof itself to better manage the governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) aspects of their corporation’s DT initiatives and better leverage the environment, social, and governance (“ESG”) objectives of their company. To address these questions, the authors interviewed two heads of Compliance at larger multinational corporations and facilitated a Salon hosted by the Digital Legal Exchange, entitled 'The Role of Compliance In Digital Transformation: Old Habits Risk Harm”. This event was attended by 12 participants including several General Counsel and Compliance professionals. The Salon was conducted under the Chatham House rule. All participants consented to an anonymised write up for these purposes.4 The purpose of this piece is to provoke more international, cross border discussion around the role of Compliance in digital transformation