By Adam Turteltaub

When we think of third parties we tend to immediately think of the risks. But what if it is a third party that differentiates itself by the rigor of its compliance program?

Such is the case with Swiss-based DKSH, which serves the consumer goods, healthcare, performance materials and technology industries. Tal Freilich, Vice President, Group Governance, Risk & Compliance for the company, explains that the strength of its compliance efforts have been a value add for the company and a selling proposition.

So what does he see as a third party being vetted by another company? For one, he learns a lot about the company vetting DKSH. The due diligence process gives him a sense of whether the prospective business partner truly is committed to compliance or whether it might pose a risk to DKSH’s own reputation.

He also sees common mistakes such as reliance on a one size fits all due diligence process. There is also an over-dependence on a process of asking prospective third parties for information which is already available online. It is annoying for the third party and time consuming for both. DKSH increased its use of web-based due diligence tools and was able to reduce its own due diligence process in many cases from months to days.

He also has found blind spots in many companies’ due diligence processes. They have not yet woken up to expanding requirements in areas such as responsible procurement, including human rights, child labor and carbon footprints.

Listen in to learn more about how to improve your third party vetting and to understand the third party’s perspective.

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