Today has been a lovely day in the coffee culture of St Peter Port, meeting and catching up with people, discussing contracts, plans and ideas, before returning home to work on some clients. Working from home allows me the time and space to not only work on engagements but also on ideas, while also being able to attend to the evening meal, taking breaks to collect fresh vegetables and herbs from the garden before slow cooking for the family. It suddenly struck me that a compliance framework is very similar to a recipe. You wouldn’t just throw random ingredients that look good into a pot and hope for the best — at least not if you wanted it to be edible and the same goes for compliance frameworks.

1. Ingredients (Policies & Procedures) 
Any recipe starts with a list of ingredients — the must-haves. In compliance, these are your policies, procedures, and controls that have been carefully designed to meet the expectations of regulators, clients, and stakeholders. Without them, you can’t “cook” a compliant organisation 

2. Method (Processes & Workflows) 
The step-by-step instructions in a recipe are your workflows. They guide your team on how to use each ingredient in the right sequence — whether it’s onboarding clients, undertaking client transactions, or reporting breaches, complaints or suspicious activity. The method ensures consistency and clarity.

3. Measurements (Risk Appetite & Tolerances) 
A pinch of chilli adds flavour; too much overwhelms. Similarly, defining your risk appetite ensures the right balance between flexibility and control. While regulations set the boundaries, your organisation can tailor its approach to suit its unique palate. 

4. Timing (Monitoring & Review) 
A good chef knows when to stir, when to simmer, and when to serve. In compliance, that’s your ongoing monitoring and periodic reviews to make sure the framework is still effective and the business can demonstrate its compliance to the regulatory framework and its appetite and objectives.  It helps catch issues early, before they “burn” or for the sauce to curdle.  

5. Presentation (Reporting & Audit) 
Even the tastiest meal needs to look appetising. Your reporting and audit trail present your compliance efforts clearly, demonstrating your compliance with the desired regulatory and business outcomes and your competence to regulators, stakeholders, and auditors. 

The secret ingredient? Culture
Without a shared commitment to doing the right thing — backed by the right resources, experience, and mindset, even the best-designed framework will fall flat. Culture binds it all together 

If you’d like to chat about how to get the right ingredients or refine your recipe to make it more palatable for the Stakeholders and Regulator, feel free to reach out: sara@tspgsy.com and please have a look at our website https://technicalspecialistpartners.com/ and see what our menu can offer you.