Compliance gets invited to the meeting after the decision has already been made. The product launch is scheduled, the vendor is selected, the expansion is greenlit, and now compliance needs to figure out how to make it work within regulatory constraints.
By then, the best options are off the table, and compliance becomes the team that slows everything down.
Teri Cotton Santos, Chief Compliance Officer and strategic advisor to senior management and boards in highly regulated industries, has spent her career reversing this dynamic. With a background in litigation, risk strategy, and compliance operations, Cotton Santos helps organizations navigate complex legal and regulatory environments not just to meet requirements, but to drive business performance.
The transformation she enables isn’t about making compliance friendlier. It’s about repositioning compliance as a strategic function that accelerates business outcomes rather than constraining them.
Stop Saying No, Start Asking How
The first barrier to strategic partnership is perception. In most organizations, compliance is seen as the department that says no.
That perception isn’t always unfair, it’s often how compliance teams operate. But it guarantees they’ll be excluded from early-stage planning and brought in only when decisions are already locked.
Cotton Santos’s approach reframes the compliance function from policing to enabling. “Too often, compliance is seen as a blocker,” she explains. “But to become a true business partner, compliance leaders must reframe the narrative, from saying no to asking how.”
That shift happens through early engagement. When compliance participates in product development, expansion planning, and vendor selection from the beginning, they can identify pathways that satisfy both regulatory requirements and business objectives. The conversation changes from this won’t work to here’s how we structure this to work.
“The earlier we’re involved, the more value we add, not just in preventing risk, but in shaping resilient strategy,” Cotton Santos notes.
Translate Compliance Into Business Outcomes
The second barrier is language. Compliance professionals tend to speak in regulatory citations, policy requirements, and control frameworks. Business leaders speak in terms of revenue growth, operational efficiency, and competitive positioning. When those languages don’t align, compliance becomes a cost center.
Santos bridges that gap by translating compliance initiatives into metrics that the business cares about. “If compliance is going to have a seat at the table, we need to speak in terms of outcomes, not only rules,” she emphasizes. “That means translating compliance initiatives into operational efficiency, reputational value, and long-term growth.”
For example, implementing a data privacy framework shouldn’t be positioned as regulatory alignment. It should be framed as enabling customer trust and market differentiation. Strong data governance doesn’t just reduce regulatory risk; it accelerates product innovation by creating clear pathways for data usage that satisfy both compliance and business needs.
“When we align our objectives with the company’s strategic goals, compliance becomes a competitive asset,” Cotton Santos says.
Build Trust Before You Need It
The third element is relationships. Compliance success doesn’t come from perfect policies or comprehensive controls. It comes from trust, with frontline teams, operational leaders, and the C-suite.
“Compliance success is built on relationships,” Cotton Santos emphasizes. “It’s about earning the trust of your stakeholders from the frontline to the boardroom. That trust allows you to influence, not just enforce.”
That trust develops when compliance demonstrates understanding of business realities, responds with practical solutions rather than theoretical constraints, and delivers on commitments consistently. It also requires cultural alignment, embedding compliance into organizational values rather than treating it as a separate policing function.
“When employees understand the why behind compliance, they’re more likely to engage meaningfully,” Cotton Santos notes. “That’s why I focus on embedding compliance into the organization’s values, not just its policies.”
Lead as a Strategic Partner, Not Just a Control Function
Positioning compliance as a strategic partner requires leading with credibility, aligning with business goals, and building trust across the organization. When compliance engages early, speaks in business language, and earns influence through relationships, it stops being the team that slows things down and becomes the function that enables faster, smarter growth.
“Impactful compliance teams are not just enforcers. They’re strategic business partners,” Cotton Santos concludes.
Connect with Teri Cotton Santos on LinkedIn for more insights on how to position compliance as a strategic business partner.
