Interview with Ivan Skaloš, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Slovak Compliance Circle (SCC)

In today’s global business landscape, regulatory compliance and ethical conduct are essential for sustainable growth and success. The Slovak Compliance Circle (SCC), a leading non-profit organization promoting compliance standards in Slovakia, plays a pivotal role in advancing compliance and fostering ethical business practices. In this interview with Ivan Skaloš, Chairman of the SCC Advisory Board, we explore the organization’s mission, vision, and activities, as well as its contributions to raising awareness about the importance of compliance both within Slovakia and beyond. Skaloš shares his insights into the challenges and opportunities that SCC encounters and discusses how the organization continually adapts its strategies and initiatives to meet evolving regulations and trends in the field of compliance.

This interview provides valuable insights into SCC’s role in creating a better business future, where compliance not only shields organizations from legal risks but also contributes to stronger governance and sustainable growth.

How would you describe the mission and vision of Slovak Compliance Circle?

SCC vision and mission statement has been agreed at the point the association has been established and did not change ever since. Our vision is to operate in Slovakia as a country free of corruption and other devastative forms of unethical conduct. We want to contribute to this vision becoming real in 3 major areas – best practice sharing and development within the Slovak Compliance community, promoting the Compliance function within the Slovak business environment and forming the skills and mindset of future business leaders.

Can you explain how the Slovak Compliance Circle is organized and how it functions on a daily basis?

In order to cover such complexity, we need to well organize our resources, for sure. Legally wise, we are organized as a standard non-profitmaking organization. The major decision making body is the Board of directors, elected for 3 years period by the SCC General assembly. The Advisory board has non-executive, consulting and partially supervisory competence. We are happy to also have 1 employee, our SCC secretary, organizing and executing the daily operational tasks of the association. From both strategic and practical perspective, the driver of the SCC activities is, and always was the Board of Directors team. Since the beginning, SCC was lucky to setup these teams in a diverse way, always having both creative and delivery-focused experts on board. Due to this advantage, the association was able, year by year, to make visible progress in the width and quality of its activities. 

How many members does the Slovak Compliance Circle currently have and how does the membership develop over time?

The association has been originally established, for practical reasons, by 3 members, but immediately additional members joined in, so we can say the starting basis was around 10 companies.

At the end of 2017 we had 24 members, at the end of 2021 it was 37 members already. In between, some new joined in but also, unfortunately, some withdrew from the association, so currently SCC has 42 members (status 31st May, 2024)

How does the Slovak Compliance Circle recruit new members?

If a new member joins SCC, it is usually one of following scenarios: good experience from our activities, especially the conference, Compliance expert who changed job and made sure his/her new employer joins as well, company striving to develop its compliance system in line with best practice is searching for a platform to help out…

What are the current main activities and initiatives implemented by the Slovak Compliance Circle?

There is a variety of those. We are happy to be very active in university education, delivering especially guest presentations to future managers and lawyers. For our members and the broader professional community, we organize workshops and our flagship event, our annual conference. In the last period SCC intensified its communication activities, e.g. we published the Slovak Compliance standards publication and introduced a series of podcasts.

What are the biggest challenges that the Slovak Compliance Circle faces in Slovakia?

I would say, it is overall problem with positive positioning of our function. Sometimes we get questions – why do you talk so much about transformation, ESG, sustainability. But, without doing this we cannot promote Compliance as strategic function that is not only in place to protect the company from legal risks but also contributes to better governance and sustainable growth, finally.

How does the Slovak Compliance Circle cooperate with other similar organizations at the national and international level?

Over its existence, SCC has cooperated with many professionals and organizations, we had plenty of great and inspiring external guests at our events. Though, formalized cooperation so far only exists with a few universities and chambers of commerce. Strategically, we see huge potential of further networking with chambers of commerce, as well as foreign Compliance associations.

How does the Slovak Compliance Circle contribute to the improvement of compliance standards in Slovakia?

As we operate with limited resources, all the activities we do and I mentioned before, are aligned with our primary vision. Therefore, basically anything we do is there the improve the ethical business conduct in our country. The real impact and effectiveness are a different thing and this we hardly can measure. But forming a professional community around this topic and operating a platform for this community to meet and discuss is huge improvement itself, very tangible one.

How do you see the future of compliance on a global level and how does the Slovak Compliance Circle plan to contribute to that future?

My personal view is that Compliance, partially due to strengthening regulation, shall remain to be an established function, however still more perceived as a regulatory and control function rather than a strategic one. But this is the perception that SCC will continue to promote to support organizations in utilizing the potential of well-established and integrated compliance systems and related cultural transformation.

How does the Slovak Compliance Circle adjust its strategies and initiatives in accordance with changing compliance trends and regulations?

This is a difficult question, let me think about the answer. Maybe you would expect me to talk about new communication methods, new event formats etc. In my view, SCC keeps up with actual trends due to 2 things I mentioned before: diverse team and sense of community. Variety of perspectives, experiences, industry specifics, personal networks, supported by open communication and sharing, these are our enablers to remain a forerunner in Compliance trends in Slovakia for the future. I am delighted to be part of this community and this process.

foto:https://www.slovakcompliancecircle.sk/