With Fortitude — Tackling SDG 16 with Passion and Purpose

Waiting for regulation is boring, you don’t need permission to shake up the world! Marja Innanen, Executive Director of UN Global Compact Network Finland, Monika Liikama, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, and Juspal Manic, CRO at Featurespace, sit in the hot seat for a provocative discussion on UN Sustainable Development Goal 16's overlooked challenges of peace, justice, and strong institutions. Listen in for hot takes on impending regulation and what to do about them, why SDGs are only ever an opportunity for growth, and why you should aim for 100% when outsmarting fraudsters.

 

Key Takeaways.

• [0:00] Denise Johansson puts Marja Innanen, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Finland, Juspal Manic, CRO at Featurespace, and Monika Liikama, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, in the hot seat.
• [4:18] Marja introduces the conversation and explains SDG 16 and how it might be turned into a business opportunity.
• [9:17] Monika explains how easily a simple consumer transaction can unknowingly foster a network of unseen illicit activity, from counterfeiting to trafficking.
• [11:36] Forget mission and vision, fraudsters are smart bastards, Juspal - and Featurespace stand fast with a strong mandate instead.
• [14:16] The narrative around SDG 16 mirrors that of the compliance narrative: burden and avoidance!
• [18:10] The regulation storm is coming! Companies should push ahead rather than wait for it to arrive.
• [21:50] Bringing the human aspect of fraud back into the conversation is one way to keep driving innovation and solving problems. Everyone has a child, parent, or grandparent at risk in their interactions with technology today.
• [24:42] On why Nordic countries are so great. Because they really are.
• [26:36] The fortitude pledge according to Denise, Monika, Juspal, and Marja (you CAN be awesome too!).
• [33:16] Monika and Denise drive home the point: why aim for mediocrity? Shoot for 100%, every chance you get.
• [33:36] Juspal explains how compliance sets the foundation for tackling fraud at scale.
• [36:10] The money saved by fully aligning with SDG 16 could be put to tackling SDG 17.
• [37:34] Everything a customer does has an impact; educating and encouraging them to make better decisions should be part of a company’s mandate.
• [38:40] Be better, every day.
• [39:31] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

 

People.

• Guest Marja Innanen, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Finland, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, improving the collective impact of business with companies that enable change.
• Guest Juspal Manic, Chief Revenue Officer at Featurespace, a fintech dedicated to making the world a safer place by providing the most powerful technology to combat fraud and financial crime.
• Guest Monika Liikama, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.
• Host Denise Johansson, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

 

Links.

• UN Global Compact Network Finland
• Featurespace
• Enfuce

 

Guest Quotes (edited).

• The red line with SDGs is that no one should be left behind. This means reducing corruption, ensuring a legal identity to all, ending violence, exploitation, fraud, human trafficking, fostering transparency and accountability, and finally, respecting human rights. — Marja Innanen, UN Global Compact Network Finland, InTheHotSeat
• EU regulations and legislation are coming like a storm towards companies. — Marja Innanen, UN Global Compact Network Finland, InTheHotSeat
• Citizens of Nordic countries trust in public institutions. It makes society more stable. — Marja Innanen, UN Global Compact Network Finland, InTheHotSeat
• You can't give all the keys of progress to governments only because businesses can make bigger leaps. You have the innovations, you have the ambition, and you have the money. — Marja Innanen, UN Global Compact Network Finland, InTheHotSeat
• Fraud is very consistent across the globe. The approaches they take, the impact they have on people's lives, and more importantly, the sinister behavior they display. Fraudsters spend a lot of time being very innovative, so we have to be more so. — Juspal Manic, Featurespace, InTheHotSeat
• We have to have the courage to say that what we're doing today doesn't solve the problem. But collectively, we've got enough brilliant people to solve it. We have to have the will. — Juspal Manic, Featurespace, InTheHotSeat
• Fortitude is a strength of mind and courage, and you need that when you're growing a business, when you want to solve real-world problems. — Juspal Manic, Featurespace, InTheHotSeat
• If you can help a customer make a better decision, and you take one dollar of fraud out, that's one dollar less that's going and being used elsewhere in a horrific way. — Juspal Manic, Featurespace, InTheHotSeat
• Everywhere we use money, something bad can happen. And if we start to think about where we use it, what we buy with it, we realise that it does make a difference. — Monika Liikama, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• If you’re looking for something and it doesn’t exist then f*ck it, do it yourself. The fortitude pledge is about making progress, taking accountability, and leading the way. — Monika Liikama, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat
• We can commit to 100% because lame-ass mediocre targets don’t move the needle. We understand that things can go wrong, but if we actually commit to mediocrity, we can never achieve great things. — Monika Liikama, Enfuce, InTheHotSeat

 

Denise Quotes (edited).

• Global crime, human trafficking, terrorist financing… We use these big, scary words, and I think for the consumer it can be hard to connect that to the card that they are using every day. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Fraudsters are smart bastards, and fraud is becoming more and more complex. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• With the political waves we’re seeing at the moment. It might be tempting to stop hoping for progress on SDG 16, but we can't become depressed; we should figure out what more we can do and how we can lead in the tempest. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• The only way forward is a commitment to 100%. How can you commit to allowing 3% of human trafficking to happen? — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat