Outlier Compliance Group is a compliance advisory firm specialising in anti-money laundering (AML), privacy, and regulatory compliance. In a nutshell, we keep our clients out of trouble.
Tell us about yourself?
I’ve worked in compliance since 2001, first in-house in insurance, securities, and banking. I moved to a boutique consulting firm that was acquired by a larger firm in 2010, and the model always seemed off to me. I wanted to build something better, so I founded Outlier in 2013.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
The last two years have been great, but if I could go back 10 years to Outlier’s founding, I would tell myself to focus on the problems that I was most interested in solving… and to rip off the proverbial Band-Aid faster when things aren’t working.
What problem does your business solve?
We help businesses to understand and meet their compliance obligations. Our compliance advisory services include the development of policies and procedures, risk assessments, training, compliance audits, and assistance with regulatory examinations.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
It’s really twofold. Traditional consulting firms generally use smart young people with no industry experience (and no profit-sharing options) to complete work under a few highly paid salespeople with industry connections (and all of the profit-sharing options). We take inspiration from Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”, which exposes the notion that to be very good at anything, one must practice a lot – roughly 10,000 hours. All of our consultants have over 10,000 hours of in-house compliance experience before they join us, and everyone participates in profit-sharing.
What is your magic sauce?
The combination of experience (all of our consultants have more than 10,000 hours of in-house compliance experience) and skin in the game (all of our consultants participate in profit-sharing) is unique. The result is a very experienced team that is deeply invested in the success of the company and our clients.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Business is increasingly international, and I would like to develop deeper ties with similar firms in other jurisdictions and potentially expand internationally.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Often there are many regulatory changes at once, and we’re tasked with helping our clients to navigate those challenges. It can make for some very long days, but the team always pulls together.
How can people get involved?
You can reach us via our website, www.outliercanada.com, by email at info@outliercanada.com, or toll-free at (844) 919-1623.