Paper to Practice: Why Compliance Programs Fail and How to Build Programs That Work - Hardcover

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EUGENE SOLTES is the McLean Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the Founder and Director of Integrity Lab. His work applies data and quantitative methods to the study of organizational culture and conduct, and has been widely cited and published in leading academic and practitioner journals. Working with a team of data scientists, statisticians, and engineers at Integrity Lab, he has supported organizations around the world in developing data-driven compliance programs, both proactively and in response to regulatory and reputational threats. He is the author of Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal and a co-author of Corporate Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions.

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Praise for PAPER TO PRACTICE

“Most compliance programs are built on an illusion of safety. Layers of procedures, training modules, and sign-off sheets create the appearance of control―but do they actually prevent misconduct, deter wrong-doing, or enable swift remediation when something goes wrong? Too often, the honest answer is no. Worse, these bloated programs waste resources and alienate the very employees companies need as allies.

In Paper to Practice, Professor Soltes draws on empirical research from psychology, economics, and organizational behavior―alongside his own rigorous assessments of actual internal reporting, compliance and investigation functions―to reveal what actually works. He shows executives how to build a culture of compliance that reaches to the roots of the firm, and gives compliance and legal professionals the tools to honestly assess whether their programs are delivering the outcomes that matter: deterrence, detection, and the ability to respond quickly and cost-effectively when misconduct occurs.

For in-house legal and compliance professionals serious about reducing legal risk while genuinely inspiring employees to join the mission, this is an indispensable read.”
―JENNIFER ARLEN, Norma Z. Paige Professor of Law, and Director, Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement, NYU Law

“Soltes flips the traditional compliance narrative on its head. Instead of treating compliance as a cost center or box-ticking exercise, he views it as a catalyst for culture. Done well, compliance doesn’t just mitigate risk, it helps shape behavior, reinforce values, and build stronger companies. The result is a more effective organization and a culture that creates long-term value.”
―ASH SPIEGELBERG, Chief Strategy Officer, Disruptive

Aus dem Klappentext

Compliance programs have grown remarkably over the past three decades, with companies devoting substantial time and money to these efforts. Yet even as leaders across industries widely recognize the importance of preventing misconduct, many of these programs are disparaged by executives and employees alike as costly paper exercises that often do little to meaningfully protect organizations. The reason is not a shortage of effort. It is that compliance effectiveness continues to be evaluated by process inputs, such as training completion rates and policy attestations, rather than by behavioral outputs that shape conduct.

In Paper to Practice, Harvard Business School professor and Integrity Lab founder Eugene Soltes draws on more than a decade of research and advisory work with companies, regulators, and enforcement agencies to show how leaders can design integrity programs that effectively shape employee behavior. With deep access to data from global multinationals, governments, and innovative startups, Soltes offers a data-driven framework that treats compliance design as fundamentally a behavioral and psychological exercise, where what matters is not the policies on paper but how employees actually experience, interpret, and respond to them.

Throughout the book, Soltes shows that the same cultural and behavioral forces that drive financial fraud also produce safety violations, harassment, discrimination, and the full range of risks that threaten an organization’s reputation. He examines how to build a culture of integrity, distinguish quantifiable risks from the deeper uncertainties that demand judgment, foster environments where employees feel safe raising concerns, and investigate allegations rigorously and fairly. He also shows how to apply consequences consistently across functions and geographies, and how to build the ongoing measurement systems that reveal whether a program is genuinely working. The result is a guide grounded in evidence from inside organizations, written for leaders who want compliance to do more than satisfy regulators.

Written for board members, chief compliance officers, attorneys, and senior executives who recognize that managing integrity is as essential as managing any other business function, Paper to Practice offers a roadmap for transforming compliance from a logistical burden into an organizational function that strengthens reputation, reduces legal and regulatory exposure, and ultimately earns the trust and respect of employees, regulators, and the public.