Kasturi Venkatesh on Conflicts of Interest [Podcast]

By Adam Turteltaub I want to write enough about this podcast to get you to listen to it, but not too much because then you might decide that reading this was enough. I’m conflicted, and conflicts of interest are the topic of this podcast with Kasturi Venkatesh, who spoke on the topic “Ethics in Action: A Fun Guide to Tackling Personal Conflicts of Interest” at the 2024 SCCE Compliance & Ethics Institute. When it comes to managing the issue, she explains, the primary goal for compliance teams is to help the workforce identify and bring forward potential conflicts. The challenge is that they often hesitate to bring these issues to management or the compliance team out of fear and a lack of understanding. Training is helpful, but it can’t demonstrate all the potential issues, nor can it always overcome the anxiety. That takes a personal touch of reassurance. In this podcast, Kasturi makes the case for a gentle hand a nuanced eye. The compliance team needs to be aware of the sensitivities of workers and also that, in some geographies, for example, with limited talent pools, there are likely to be many potential conflicts of interest. The nuanced eye needs to understand that challenge as well as see subtle issues, such as two connected workers who are “safely” in different departments, but there may still be some interaction between the two that could prove problematic. Listen in to learn more. Listen now