What Should You Call Your Department?

Dear Import/Export Compliance Manager,

It seems that many companies these days are referring to their departments as simply Trade, Global Trade or International Trade instead of Trade Compliance or Import/Export Compliance?  What lies behind this and what do you call your department?

Branded in Broca Beach

Dear Branded,

The Import/Export Compliance Manager is very, very big into marketing, essentially how you and your department present themselves to outsiders.  Words mean everything!  The name of your department is quite possibly the first thing your co-workers hear regarding import/export compliance.  It is certainly the name used whenever people are thinking who to go to in order to deal with certain issues or provide certain data. 

So let’s think like Marketers.  What does the word ‘compliance’ signify?  Rules.  Complying with rules.  What do people normally associate with rules?  Hurdles.  Impediments.  Boundaries that have to be worked within.  Most people understand that rules are important but, deep down, there is a feeling of Aw man, now I’m going to have a more difficult time getting my job done.  Now, if you want people to understand that import/export compliance is serious business and that keeping people out of jail and the company out of the newspapers is the ultimate goal, it is important from a marketing perspective to have a word conveying that in your department’s title.  In ‘ol Import/Export Compliance Manager’s opinion, ‘compliance’ is the best of these because it is simple, understandable and widely-known.

There is another component to compliance, however: the benefits of following the rules.  Taking compliance seriously can lead to significant cost savings, faster shipment times and less work for everyone.  The best term for this, in the opinion of the Import/Export Compliance Manager, is ‘facilitation’.  ‘Facilitation’, which includes the Latin root for easy (facil), is a much nicer sounding word than ‘compliance’ and, while probably a more obscure word than ‘compliance’, still fairly easy to understand and get a decent mental picture of.

We know as import/export compliance professionals that compliance leads to facilitation but to laymen they can seem to be more of a Jekyll and Hyde/good cop-bad cop relationship.  What to do, then?  What kind of name can you provide which will convey both the ‘bringing the hammer down’ potential of the department with the sugary sweet helping made everyone’s lives easier and less costly? 

Why not simply ‘trade’?  It’s a nice, simple word that can encompass both ‘compliance’ and ‘facilitation’, right?  However, the Import/Export Compliance Manager thinks there are two shortcomings that are associated with this.  First, to the layperson, ‘trade’ sounds like a lot more than just what we know as trade compliance.  It makes people think mainly of international shipping and perhaps any operations relating to setting up international business.  Thus, using only ‘trade’ or ‘international trade’ can be a bit of a misnomer.  Also, Finance is a universally-known term with a long history.  ‘Trade’, well, not so much. 

The Import/Export Compliance Manager suspects the reason that many companies leave out the word ‘compliance’ is to harmonize with other departments.  Let’s take Finance, for example.  Some of the people in Finance, if they work for a publicly-traded company, are up to their eyeballs in Sarbanes-Oxley and other financial compliance laws and regulations.  Yet one doesn’t usually hear about a Financial Compliance Department.  All we see used is simply ‘Finance’.  It goes without saying that it encompasses all aspects of compliance, whether it be keeping the books straight, complying with the rules, providing reports to management, paying the bills and collecting money.  It’s all ‘Finance’. 

For these reasons and to convey the message of make no mistake, we have the power to get you fired if you mess with the rules, the Import/Export Compliance Manager prefers to keep the word ‘compliance’ in the title of the department.  It is then up to us to ensure that all company employees have a good understanding of what we do, including both the enforcement and the assistance tasks. 

As for ‘import/export’ vs. ‘trade’ compliance, the Import/Export Compliance Manager was firmly on the ‘trade’ side of the fence for a zillion years.  Then he was suddenly surrounded by engineers who, in their helpful-engineer-way (and seriously, this is a good thing), pointed out that the operations were not technically ‘trading’.  And...they’re right.  The first thing many of us think when you say ‘trade’ is either financial trades like selling and buying of stocks, futures, etc. or the actual act of trading, like trading baseball cards.  Sure, the overarching system can be referred to as ‘international trade’, but it’s a bit high and mighty and vague.  The best way to describe what we do is import/export compliance.  You import and/or import and we make sure that the operations are compliant.  Unfortunately, it’s wordier than trade compliance and doesn’t lend itself to nifty acronyms but it’s worlds more accurate.

Now, to answer your question about what the Import/Export Compliance Manager calls his department, of course it’s Import/Export Compliance.  Is this a hill the Import/Export Compliance Manager will die on?  Yes.  Does he think less of those who use other words like ‘trade’ and ‘trade compliance’?  Absolutely not.  We’re just not that standardized a field and heck, even our biggest organization, ICPA, is called the International Compliance Professionals’ Association, with ‘trade’ or ‘import/export’ nowhere to be seen, eh.  As long as we’re all out there effectively minimizing risk and facilitating operations, the name isn’t as important. 

P.S. Nice G.I. Joe reference.  Cobra Island would definitely be embargoed.