Lean Compliance - A Lamppost in an Uncertain World

After three decades in engineering and compliance, I took a leap of faith to address a critical gap I kept seeing in our industry.

Eight years ago, I founded Lean Compliance because I believed there had to be a better way than reactive box-checking and last-minute audit preparation.

Leaders in high-risk, highly regulated industries don't just want to pass inspections—they want genuine assurance they're meeting their duty of care to employees, customers, and communities.

In this reflection, I share my journey of trying to transform compliance from a reactive necessity into a proactive business advantage, the challenges we've faced, and why, despite the obstacles, this remains a mission worth pursuing.

Lean Compliance - A Lamppost in an Uncertain World

In life and in business, you will face struggles.

Some result from the actions of others and the environment we live in.

Others are caused by our own choices.

Anyone who has started a new business knows exactly what I'm talking about.

When I founded Lean Compliance back in 2017, this was my situation.

After working as an engineer for another company for over 30 years—designing and building systems for companies in highly regulated, high-risk industries—it was time to part ways.

This wasn't the reason but rather the catalyst for something I should have done years before.

The chances of success for any new business are slim, particularly when you're trying something innovative.

This challenge is compounded when, as in the case of compliance, many don't have the desire to improve or see the need to do something different.

"I'm already in compliance, so what is there to improve?"

Sure, there's a business case for doing compliance more efficiently, and by compliance, most mean passing audits and inspections. Some call this GRC engineering, automation, or just IT development—something I had done, and many have done, for years.

While management systems and automation are solutions for efficiency, they weren't answering the real issue facing leaders.

Leaders wanted to know if their compliance efforts were enough, were they effective.

Not just effective at passing audits and inspections, as important as that is. They wanted to know if they were meeting their obligations associated with safety, security, sustainability, quality, ethics, regulatory requirements, privacy, and so on.

They were concerned about their duty of care.

What assurance was there that their efforts would be enough?

Could they keep their plants operational, employees safe, customer data secure, products and services at the highest standard of quality, and maintain the trust of all stakeholders?

Those in highly regulated, high-risk sectors understand that without trust, you'll never have a legal license, let alone a social license to operate.

This wasn't a technical problem looking for a technical solution. It was something more.

It was about integrity, consistently meeting obligations and keeping promises. Not just once or right before an audit, but all the time.

But here's the thing: they wanted this not primarily to pass audits and inspections. They wanted this because they cared for the welfare of the business, employees, customers, and communities.

For them, compliance wasn't optional. It was essential to keep them on mission, between the lines, and ahead of risk.

And the way compliance was being done wasn't working. Doubling down on audits or doing them faster was never going to be enough.

Course correction after the fact was always too slow and too late when it comes to duty of care.

So this is why I created Lean Compliance—to help businesses deliver on their duty of care.

Compliance could learn from Lean principles about processes, controls, continuous flow, problem-solving, and how to continuously improve toward better outcomes. This would create room to be proactive—something that is desperately needed.

But compliance also needed to be thought of differently. Not as a checklist of things needed to pass (Procedural Compliance), but as something organizations need to continuously do (Operational Compliance).

After 8 years, this remains for me and others on this journey a road less travelled.

Organizations appear just as reactive with their compliance as what I observed throughout my career. Compliance budgets are insufficient, and what little they have is used to invest in technical solutions to provide some relief, in hopes of catching a breath.

Some are now looking to AI to accelerate their reactivity, and time will tell if this helps or makes matters worse.

Lean Compliance exists because compliance remains predominantly reactive, siloed, and uncertain.

I realize that Lean Compliance is not yet what it could or needs to be.

However, for some, Lean Compliance has been and continues to be a lamppost shining light toward a better way to approach compliance—compliance defined by proactivity, integration, and certainty.

As someone once said,

"Good things take time. Great things take longer."

The important thing is not to give up, which is what I intend not to do.

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If you want to join me and the others who have already begun this journey, I welcome the opportunity to meet you, share stories, and discuss the future of Lean Compliance.

Reach out to me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raimund-laqua/