WORKSHOP SERIES FOR EXECUTIVES:

NEW YEAR, NEW HEALTHY GOVERNANCE HABITS: CREATING A FRAUD-RESISTANT ORGANIZATION FOR EXECUTIVES

** REGISTER FOR ALL 4 WORKSHOPS OR SINGLE SESSIONS **

Make it a New Year’s Resolution to improve your organization’s health and success in 2024.

Financial Executives International (FEI), the Behavioral Forensics Group, LLC (B4G), and the University of Dayton Center for Cyber Security & Data Intelligence (UDCC) are excited to host a series of workshops to help begin the New Year with new habits or actions to improve the “health” of any organization. How? By helping you create a more fraud-resistant organization.

To help an organization stay healthy, we will be sharing the latest behavioral insights, strategies, trends, and tools to help those charged with governance to prevent, deter, and mitigate fraud risk with the aim of creating more fraud-resistant organizations.

Featuring a panel of esteemed industry specialists and anti-fraud professionals, these two-hour workshops are designed to build on each other to educate and encourage discussion amongst financial executives and senior leadership on fraud topics.

What makes these workshops unique? A focus on the often missing but critical component of fraud detection and prevention – the psychology or behavioral forensics behind why fraud happens. There are human beings behind every act of fraud. Understanding their motivations, fears, and behaviors is the secret to an organization’s ability, through its robust and healthy culture, to create a more fraud-resistant organization.

As with any New Year’s Resolution, time and consistency ARE essential. So, we’ve designed the workshop series into four components which progressively allow participants to absorb the learnings, make the required changes, pick up momentum, and master the learning.

Workshop One – Understand the challenge and set goals

Workshop Two – Make sure your new habits stick and are implementable

Workshop Three – How organizations get management buy-in and hit their stride

Workshop Four – On the road to mastery

The faculty recommend attending the program in this order to keep the momentum going, master the new behaviors, and learn with others as a cohort, collectively learning in lockstep.

Here are the specifics of each workshop and the speakers.

Workshop #1

Power in the C-Suite: Corporate Governance and the Charismatic Leader

Governance in Action or Governance Inaction

(Oct. 10, 2024, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm EST)

Charismatic leaders have the ability to inspire their people and lead them to enviable growth. But charismatic leadership also has a dark side. To better protect an organization from fraud it is essential to understand:

What behaviors do charismatic leaders display? When they act with corrupt intent, how are they able to tap into stakeholders’ deepest fears and insecurities.
The correlation between charismatic leadership and the stakeholder group’s failure to catch warning signs for fraudulent behavior.
Analysis of case stories on recent governance failures such as at FTX and Theranos
Leadership vs. systemic problems
How good people go bad – what human behaviors caused the fraud and the panic that ensued (missed red flags)?
Best practices to identify corruption and safeguard your organization against charismatic leaders

Speakers:

Workshop #2

Power in the C-Suite: Governance Synthesis

Mastering Key Concepts of Fraud Resistance (in a Family Business Context)

(Oct. 10, 2024, 2 – 4 pm EST)

We’ll be sharing governance case stories from family businesses to illustrate how lessons learned can be put into action, as a way to help you master your new healthy governance habits.

Family businesses make up a large percentage of companies in the United States and they contribute a large percentage to the country’s GDP. Sadly, several studies have found that because they are trust-based, and have weak internal controls, they’re more vulnerable to occupational fraud than other companies. But there are strong lessons to be learned from how these family businesses have created more fraud-resistant organizations that everyone can learn from. We’ll share insights into:

We’ll discuss:

What is “psychological materiality” and how can we use it to mitigate fraud?
Insight on what happened at Silicon Valley, Signature Bank, and First Republic – with a focus on the human side of these financial disasters.
How does a Board relate to the CEO and CFO?
How does an organization support values-based leadership?
What checks and balances were missing or abused?
Would active sensitivity to psychological materiality have helped? How?
How do you protect your organization against fraud?

Speakers:

Workshop #3

Power in the C-Suite: Governance Implemented and Measured

Psychological Materiality, a Fresh Look Significance

(Nov. 7, 2024, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm EST)

In creating a fraud-resistant organization, by only addressing “the numbers”, the touchy-feely matters that are more emotional, like culture, burn-out, or employee resentment, remain hidden and neglected. These unaddressed matters then enable fraud to flourish and continue to harm the organization. Recognizing what is psychologically material to employees and customers, provides an enlightened senior leadership team a strong competitive advantage. “It ain’t what you don’t know that kills you; what kills you is what you think you know, but ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

What is “psychological materiality” and how can we use it to mitigate fraud?
Insight on what happened at Silicon Valley, Signature Bank, and First Republic – with a focus on the human side of these financial disasters.
How does a Board relate to the CEO and CFO?
How does an organization support values-based leadership?
What checks and balances were missing or abused?
Would active sensitivity to psychological materiality have helped? How?
How do you protect your organization against fraud?

Speakers:

Workshop #4

Power in the C-Suite: The Governance Landscape:

Power, Authority, and Fraud

(Nov. 7, 2024, 2 – 4 pm EST)

When it comes to fraud, a big blind spot for Executive Teams is the notion that “Fraud won’t happen here, and certainly not by our Executives.” However, as Lord Acton points out, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely.” In this workshop, executives will gain insight on:

Understand the types of Power
Become aware of the difference between Power and Authority
Appreciate the roles management and those in governance play to manage fraud risks
Explore through actual events how a heightened risk of fraud can come to exist
Recognize what can be done to build a healthy fraud-resistant organization

Speakers:

Any questions on this workshop series? Give us a call at (847) -778-6377.