On Jan. 27, 2009, Compliance Week and Integrity Interactive presented an editorial roundtable focusing on supply chain and vendor management risks. They were kind enough to invite me to participate. There is an article about the roundtable in the next issue of Compliance Week and a copy is available on line: Roundtable Discusses Supply Chain Risks. (subscription required)
One theme from the discussion was a desire for an industry or third party standard for compliance. We all thought it would be great if some industry association or auditing firm could review vendors and give the reliable ones a seal of approval.
Dave Curan, the Chief Executive Officer of Integrity Interactive, recommended that all companies have a separate code of conduct that applies to their suppliers. Many in the audience pointed out that vendors often have there own code of conduct which precipitates a “battle of the codes.”