After 30 years working overseas assignments in emerging markets, Marvin Hough has learned a thing or two about spotting corruption in international markets.
Now, as executive-in-residence and academic director at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, he is part of a team offering a one-day seminar on anti-corruption tactics. The seminar, which takes place Feb. 25, is meant to help prepare executives and trade facilitators to do business abroad.
© File photo. Marvin Hough, executive-in-residence, Telfer School of Management.
“Canadian companies have to realize they can’t just turn their attention to emerging markets and go on automatic pilot in terms of what they’ve been doing in the U.S.,” Mr. Hough says. “They really need to prepare and assess the risks and be mindful of these issues, particularly corruption issues.”
In some countries there are ongoing struggles with corruption because it’s built into the cultural relationship aspect of doing business, he adds.
“What we’re trying to convey is Canadian companies need to know Canadian law,” he says. “They need to know the red flags that are out there and then have an internal anti-corruption compliance program that catches the main things that could happen to them.”
Alexia Naidoo 