Marketing Ethics and Compliance

😱 A U.S. VC fund with only $120M under management was just fined $216M for violating sanctions — potentially wiping out the investments of all its LPs. This is GVA Capital, and we need to talk about why this is such a big deal for both GPs and LPs. What happened: From 2018 to 2021, GVA Capital — based in San Francisco and domiciled in the Cayman Islands — knowingly handled tens of millions for sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov. Even after Kerimov was blacklisted, they allegedly routed investments through his nephew as a proxy. The U.S. Treasury called this a “blatant violation of sanctions law” and hit the firm with a $216M penalty... nearly DOUBLE its AUM. This means almost certain ⚰️ for the firm. Once tied to sanctions violations, raising future funds becomes nearly impossible. What this means for LPs invested in GVA Capital: 💸 Massive Capital Erosion – A $216M fine against a $120M fund means there’s not enough money in the pot. LPs could see their capital essentially wiped. 🚫 Liquidity & Operations Risk – Paying the fine could choke off cash flow for follow-ons, operations, and distributions. 📉 Regulatory Compliance Exposure – Being an LP in a fund tied to sanctioned individuals can create your own compliance headaches — especially for institutional investors. Why this matters for GPs: 🔸 Compliance infrastructure is a non-negotiable. Basic AML/sanctions screening isn’t optional; it’s the foundation that prevents fund-destroying penalties. 🔸 Fund ops, AML, and sanctions screening should be institutional-grade from day one, regardless of fund size. 🔸 Weak operational discipline can undo years of portfolio work in a single enforcement action. Why this matters for LPs: 🔸 Limited liability doesn’t protect investment value. While your personal assets are safe, your committed capital can still be completely wiped out by GP misconduct. 🔸 Always diligence how a fund operates, not just what it invests in. 🔸 Know the back-office provider. Audit AML, sanctions screening, and regulatory compliance processes. Great deal flow means nothing if your compliance foundation is weak. One preventable mistake in the back office can end your career before Fund I is even fully deployed. Institutional-grade compliance isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s the cost of admission if you want to survive in this industry.   —   ✍️ Myrto Lalacos Follow for more on launching, running, and investing in VC firms.

I’ve spent most of my professional life, including at Nestlé, engaging with stakeholders in boardrooms and in the field, from representatives of governments, international organization and NGOs to farmers, factory workers and members of local communities. I was reflecting on this experience while reading the latest version of the newly adopted Corporate Social Due Diligence Directive (CS3D), and in particular the provisions on “meaningful stakeholder engagement”. I’ve learned a lot from different voices. The inputs we collected from a wide range of stakeholders have shaped our approach to human rights at Nestlé and helped make our programs more effective and impactful. No doubt, meaningful stakeholder engagement is the way to go but what does that mean in practice? I don’t have any ready-made solution but can share a few thoughts based on some of the most recent work we've done on the ground with key partners: ➡️ Our income accelerator program, launched in 2022, is built on the inputs collected from cocoa-growing households who participated in the pilot program. We made significant adjustments based on their feedback. One change was to ensure a more even distribution of cash incentives throughout the year. Another was to split the cash incentives between male and female household owners, recognizing the contribution of women to cocoa production. Latest results from KIT Institute show that cocoa family income increased by 38% as a result of the program. Most importantly, the share of women having access to mobile money increased from 28% to 72%. ➡️ The Nescafé Plan pilot program in South Sumatra is based on our engagement with coffee farmers, addressing and adapting the program to their priorities and needs. The recent interviews conducted with farmers by our partner, Sustainable Food Lab, offered insights into the impact of the program on farmers’ yield, income and cash incentives. More than 80% of RegenTa farmers trained said that they gained knowledge in climate change risks and skills to mitigate them. 88 % who reinvested funds did so to rejuvenate their farms and drive future yields. ➡️ In Mexico, we’re testing a new approach, working with Proforest to identify and prioritize high-risk human rights issues. Meaningful stakeholder engagement is key for this model, ensuring stakeholders like local authorities, coffee farmers, and sugarcane workers are engaged so we can address the root causes of these issues together. While implementing these engagement processes at-scale isn’t always easy, they are key to the success of our programs. Stakeholders must be part of the design and implementation of any sustainability initiative. The fact that meaningful stakeholder engagement is now explicitly reflected in legislative acts like the CS3D means that we all need to be even more rigorous and systematic, even if it takes a bit more time to make sure we do it right. I'm eager to learn from your thoughts and experience in this area.

20 years ago, transparency was seen as a risk. Today, it's become the strongest currency in building customer trust. Take ANITA DONGRE's brand- Grassroots. By being completely transparent about their: > Organic fabric sourcing > Fair wage practices > Sustainable production methods  They've built unprecedented customer loyalty. 65% of shoppers now switch brands based on supply chain transparency (FMI- The Food Industry Association Report, 2024) Transparency has become a cornerstone for fostering customer loyalty, and brands like Anita Dongre’s Grassroots are setting a powerful example. By openly sharing their methods and practices, they build trust with consumers who prioritize honesty and ethical sourcing. Today's customers invest in values, caring about product origins, makers, environmental impact, and fair labor. But here's what most brands miss: transparency isn't just about sharing information—it's about building trust. With over 20+ years in retailing across India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, I’ve learned that: > Being transparent about challenges, processes, and mistakes turns customers into trusted partners who understand our value and commitment. > The future belongs to brands brave enough to open their books and share their stories. Because in today's connected world, the most valuable thing we can offer isn't just quality products—it's authentic transparency. What transparency practices would you like to see more brands adopt? #RetailStrategy #CustomerTrust

Your shopper’s wallet moved to their phone. Did your org chart follow? I am seeing a clear shift in every CPG and retail conversation right now. Payments is no longer a checkout feature. It is a growth, trust, and data strategy. Digital wallets already power nearly half of US eCommerce transactions, and most consumers say they feel safer paying through a wallet than typing card details on a site. Add biometric authentication and you have speed plus confidence at the exact moment people decide to buy. Here is what this means for leaders. Friction is a P&L line. If you still treat Apple Pay, PayPal, Cash App, or Zelle as nice-to-have buttons, you are leaving conversion on the table in DTC, subscription, and even B2B portals. Wallets reduce checkout abandonment, raise repeat purchase, and unlock micro-transactions that traditional flows quietly kill. Trust is the new promo. Encrypted details, tokenization, and biometric verification are not just compliance. They are marketing. Parents will hand a phone to a teenager to approve a snack order if they trust the rails. You do not earn that trust with a banner. You earn it with clean payment experiences, clear permissions, and zero drama when something goes wrong. Omnichannel finally means payments too. Proximity mobile payments at store level are still under-penetrated in the US. That is a rare advantage window. If your retail partners can accept wallets in aisle, your sampling, loyalty, and retail media moments can jump the line from awareness to paid in one tap. Think QR to wallet to reorder. Think events and pop-ups with instant capture that flows back into CRM without a form. Data gets smarter and more sensitive at the same time. Wallets and biometrics compress the distance between signal and purchase. Your teams need to handle that data with care while actually using it. That means better identity stitching, cleaner cohorts, and real incrementality reads. It also means your CIO and your CMO need a weekly standing meeting. Talent is the bottleneck I keep seeing. Most orgs do not have a true payments owner inside brand, DTC, or shopper. You probably need one. Practical checks you can run this quarter. • Measure wallet share by channel and market, not just overall conversion. • Test one-tap checkout against your current flow on a meaningful SKU. • Link loyalty to preferred payment to raise repeat and reduce cost to serve. • Build a biometric-friendly returns and refunds path that feels as smooth as purchase. • Stand up a cross-functional payments council. Marketing, product, CX, security, finance. We talk a lot about retail media, creative, and content. Payments sits upstream of all of it. The brands that treat wallets and biometrics as part of experience design, not plumbing, will quietly take share while others debate formats. If you are leading a heritage brand, who owns payments in your house today, and do they have the remit to move the numbers? #digitalwallet #fmcg #consumertrends

June 2019. Replicant is a one-year-old baby. We had $0 revenue. We turned down a $1M client to avoid misleading callers. Here's why ethics beats revenue: They wanted our AI agents to pretend to be human. To call on people who legally agreed to be called, but had no relationship with that company. They wanted us to say we are a human agent if asked. We said no. Here's what most people miss: Good ethics IS good business. When you compromise your values for revenue, you attract the wrong customers. The ones you can't proudly feature on your homepage. The ones that drag you into their lawsuits. The ones that distract from your mission. By saying no to that $1M, we: → Built trust with ethical brands like AAA, ADP, Fanatics and others. → Created a reputation that attracted future investors → Landed customers we're proud to showcase Today, when someone calls our AI agents, we're transparent: "Hi, I'm an AI agent on a recorded line." If they ask, "Are you a robot?" We say "Yes, but I prefer to be called a Thinking Machine®. How can I help?" 5% ask for a human agent. 95% just want their problem solved. TAKEAWAY Your first customer sets your company's DNA. Choose wisely, even if it means staying at zero a little longer. Agree?

The article "Updating the Balanced Scorecard for Triple Bottom Line Strategies" by Robert Kaplan and David McMillan explores how the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) should be upgraded to fit today’s triple-bottom-line approach—financial, environmental, and societal performance. Here are the key takeaways: ☑ Triple Bottom Line Focus: ↳ It’s not just about financial results anymore. ↳ Companies must consider their environmental and societal impacts too. ↳ Success in this area means collaborating across sectors and the supply chain. ☑ Evolving the Balanced Scorecard: The original BSC focused on maximizing profits. But for companies balancing shareholder returns with sustainability goals, the perspectives need an update: ↳ Financial becomes Outcomes: covering financial, environmental, and societal performance. ↳ Customers become Stakeholders, involving all players in the ecosystem. ↳ Learning & Growth becomes Enablers: focusing on collaboration and alignment capabilities. ↳ Processes remain unchanged. ☑ Examples of Triple Bottom Line Strategies: ↳ Amanco: A Latin American company integrating eco-efficiency and social responsibility. ↳ Ben & Jerry’s & Patagonia: Balancing profitability with social and environmental goals. ☑ Stakeholder Capitalism: ↳ Moving beyond shareholder primacy (Milton Friedman style) towards stakeholder inclusion. ↳ Businesses are expected to help solve environmental and social challenges. 🔍 Multi-stakeholder ecosystems are key: ↳ Collaboration with stakeholders like suppliers, communities, and governments drives greater results. ↳ Example: Palladium’s health impact bond in India is a powerful multi-sector partnership that delivers social and environmental impact. ☑ Strategic Planning Evolution: ↳ Sustainability goals should be integrated into the core strategy, not siloed. ↳ Engage stakeholders in co-creating strategies and objectives—this builds alignment and trust. ☑ Inclusive Growth: ↳ Pursue “win-win” strategies that deliver financial returns and positive societal outcomes. ↳ Example: Improving skills of marginalized groups to enhance labour supply and socio-economic conditions. This framework is designed for today’s complex, multi-stakeholder business environments. Full article here https://lnkd.in/eZRWZjGb Ps. If you like content like this, please follow me 🙏

𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐕𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐫 I believe that establishing a strong ethical culture is more than just having a code of conduct or annual training. On the contrary -it’s about living shared values every day and making ethics a natural part of how we work together. When leaders truly prioritize ethical behavior and walk the talk, it inspires everyone to do the right thing, even when no one is watching. I have witnessed how this plays out: in one of my previous assignments, our team faced pressure to cut corners to meet a tight deadline. Instead, our COO encouraged open discussion about the risks and reminded us that our reputation and client trust were worth more than any short-term gain. 💡This approach not only helped us navigate the dilemma with integrity, but also strengthened our sense of trust and pride in our work. 🎯Embedding ethics into the culture takes time and commitment from everyone. ✅ However, the payoff is real-higher client confidence, a stronger brand, and a workplace where people feel safe and valued. #LessonsLearned #CorporateGovernance Image Courtesy : Pexel

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗰𝘂𝘁? Think again Skipping regulatory steps might seem like a quick win. But it's a trap that could cost you dearly. 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻: Regulatory compliance isn't just a box-ticking exercise. It's there to ensure your device is safe and effective. Cutting corners can lead to product recalls. Imagine the financial hit and brand damage. Noncompliance can result in hefty fines. The kind that makes you wish you'd followed the rules. Regulatory bodies like the FDA and MHRA are not lenient. They demand thorough, documented compliance. Trust is hard to earn back. Once lost, it can take years to rebuild. Now, for those thinking, 'But regulatory steps are cumbersome!' 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: → Compliance is not the enemy. ↳ It's your ally in delivering safe, effective products. → Following the rules fosters innovation. ↳ It pushes you to think creatively within the framework. → Proper documentation and testing can reveal hidden issues. ↳ The ones that could be catastrophic if left unchecked. 𝗦𝗼, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆? → Embrace the regulatory process. Make it part of your culture. Train your team to understand its importance. Most importantly, never ever skip steps. Think of regulatory compliance as the backbone of your success. Without it, you risk not just failure but the safety of those who depend on your devices. Agree? Disagree? Let's discuss in the comments.

Uncomfortable truth: your passion built the brand, but it's also limiting its impact. The real problem isn't capacity - it's capture. 🧠 All the brand knowledge lives in the founder's head 🤝 Client relationships depend on personal connections 📈 Growth strategies rely on individual networks ⚖️ Values exist as feelings, not operational systems This isn't sustainable. More importantly, it's not scalable. My take? Systems don't kill authenticity; they preserve it. Tony's Chocolonely scaled globally without losing their anti-slavery mission. How? They embedded the founder's values into every process, from sourcing to packaging to staff training. Lush turned founder activism into store-level systems. Every employee became an ambassador, not just the founders. The difference? These brands codified their soul. Your ethical brand deserves to create impact beyond what you can personally deliver. The question isn't whether you should step back from operations. It's whether you're brave enough to trust your systems to carry your values forward. #EthicalBusiness #ScaleUp #PurposeDrivenGrowth

🌈 Not another rainbow logo. On the final day of Pride Month, we’re sharing something better. 📊 61–75% of consumers expect brands to stand for inclusion — not just in ads, but in how they operate. So which brands are getting it right — and how? I’m proud to share Windō’s new global report: “From Ad to Action – LGBTQ+ Brand Authenticity Examined” In partnership with Max Templeton at LGBT+@Work and with the support of the Association of National Advertisers, Outvertising, and Do the WeRQ, we analysed 8 standout LGBTQ+ advertising campaigns from around the world. But we didn’t stop at the ad. We looked behind the scenes to see whether these brands walk the talk — assessing their wider efforts on LGBTQ+ inclusion. The result? 8 campaigns. 8 recommendations. One roadmap for trust that lasts all year — not just June. 👉 Take these recommendations to your next strategy meeting → https://lnkd.in/eJcduvmU A heartfelt thank you to the brilliant industry experts who shaped this work: Glen Lomas Greg Wright, Cassius Naylor Chris Dunne Suresh Raj (He/Him/His) Andrew Tindall Graham Nolan🏳️🌈 Matt Foster🇵🇭🇬🇧🏳️🌈 Maggie Lower 🏳️🌈 and Michael McConville. Your insights, perspectives, and encouragement were invaluable. #Pride2025 #InclusiveMarketing #LGBTQ #Authenticity #Windō #PurposeDrivenBrands Brands: Unilever, HSBC, Diageo, BMO, dentsu, Expedia Group, ORBITZ Starbucks and Procter & Gamble Creative Agencies: Ogilvy Singapore, Wunderman Thompson, el Ruso de Rocky, FCB Canada, Dentsu Creative, Laundry Service, Edelman and Valtech RADON