Export Controls should be Management’s Favorite Topic

This is a translation and re-post of a short interview done by Genius Thinkers in Die Welt.

Tips from Erika Trujillo, Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Trade Compliance Data Analytics Company SEIA. 

Regardless of whether you are a large corporation or an SME, everyone is obliged to comply with trade regulations for imports and exports. Since the beginning of the Ukraine war and the growing tensions between the West and China, it has become clear: the situation is becoming more difficult, and the risk of sanctions, fines, and reputational damage is increasing.  

Ms. Trujillo, numerous Russian weapons contain parts from Western companies. You recently called for significantly more support and commitment to export controls from company management in Newsweek. What do you mean by this? 

In my opinion, export controls should be the favorite topic of management, not only because they are personally (criminally) liable, but because strict and effective compliance can create strategic competitive advantages for the company. Compliance departments have a reputation for being paper tigers. But in times of global, geopolitical crises, in which not only human lives and national interests are at stake, but also the resilience of companies is called into question, this way of thinking no longer works. This means: Trade compliance must not only be there, but must also function effectively and be continuously strengthened in a proactive way. 

To what extent does digitalization help? 

Digitalization enables a huge increase in effectiveness and unprecedented transparency in all areas of the company. However, it also presents companies with new challenges when it comes to maintaining an overview and checking the effectiveness of their processes and IT systems. In our industry, we see an unshakable belief that expensive tools will always work perfectly, but this is often not the case. For example, the demands of authorities have increased enormously that companies proactively identify compliance violations. But without powerful data analytics solutions, companies are not even using the information they already have, let alone managing external risks effectively. 

How do you bring technology and legal requirements together? 

We leverage a significant foundation of human intelligence, based on expert experience in identifying compliance risks, to create advanced data analytics solutions. By reverse engineering risks, we have identified the most relevant logical indicators that point to potential compliance violations. We help companies build data analytics solutions using their existing IT infrastructure to enable the effective management of risks in real time while promoting a much more efficient use of internal resources.