How to Ensure Regulatory Compliance in Manufacturing Industry?

The year 2021 ushers in a new decade of business change, especially considering the roller-coaster that 2020 was. As organizations move forward, there are various compliance challenges both new and old that compliance officers must come to terms with. Compliance refers to playing according to the rule book, so amid geo-political changes, data privacy concerns, questions on operational resilience, and cybercrime threats, there is new interest in policy and regulatory mandates.

With digitization of services progressing at a relentless pace, businesses are storing large volume of customer data . But with sensitive information being routinely handled by service providers and third-party associates, there is a pressing need for increased information security. Data breaches and cybercrime too are a threat to security. In such a scenario, it is not uncommon for clients to want an independent review of your internal controls for data security prior to partnering with you, especially if you are a SaaS organization.

Cyber threats have grown from being plausible to probable. With organizations becoming more dependent on the internet, social media, and digitization, exposure to cyber risk has also increased manifold. Today, cyber security is among the top priorities of organizations world-wide simply because a cyber-attack can leave your organization in a dilapidated state – untethered from information systems and unable to provide services, owning a handful of compromised data, and staring at massive reputation loss.

Proper policies are integral to the good governance of any organization. Clear and actionable policies, for instance, a cybersecurity policy or an employee safety policy define the boundaries of employee conduct and set the stage for a compliant workplace.

Risks are inevitable in business. Businesses must reduce their exposure to risks and find ways to mitigate them to remain competitive in business. Identification and acknowledgement of risks that affect the operations, profitability, security, or reputation of the business is the first step. Developing strategies to mitigate these risks is the next and the most essential step! Risk mitigation is an important step in risk management that includes identifying the risk, assessing the risk, and mitigating the risk.

Etymologically, the word resilience has roots in the Latin term resiliere, which means ‘to rebound’. In similar vein, operational resilience describes an organization’ stability to cope with change or misfortune. The ongoing global pandemic, COVID 19 is an extreme form of misfortune, but its impact has been so universal that it has laid bare each organization’s level of operational resilience and sparked renewed interest in the topic.

In this day and age, data is the most important asset that businesses need to protect.
All businesses, big or small, have access to more data than ever. This includes customer data, suppliers’ data, accounting data, and more.