---
id: "quote-safe-harbor-compliance"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ How the Company Gained Buy-In"]
tags: ["incentives", "performance-management"]
related: ["concept-risk-free-adoption", "action-restructure-evaluations", "contrarian-reward-compliance-over-outcomes"]
speaker: "Iavor Bojinov"
speakers: ["Iavor Bojinov"]
quote: "If you follow the recommendations and you don't quite meet the quota, that's OK. But if you don't follow the recommendations and you don't meet the quota, that's not OK."
sources: ["adoption"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-adoption"
originDay: 9
articleStem: "hbr-edu-41-french-spirits-employee-buy-in"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/12/how-a-french-spirits-company-created-employee-buy-in-for-ai"
sourceTitle: "How a French Spirits Company Created Employee Buy-In for AI"
---
# Safe Harbor for AI Compliance

> "If you follow the recommendations and you don't quite meet the quota, that's OK. But if you don't follow the recommendations and you don't meet the quota, that's not OK."
> — [[entity-iavor-bojinov]]

Bojinov explains the asymmetric risk structure Pernod Ricard used to encourage AI adoption without penalizing employees for the AI's potential shortcomings — the mechanism formalized in [[concept-risk-free-adoption]] and enacted via [[action-restructure-evaluations]]. It is the concrete basis for the contrarian claim that compliance should be rewarded over raw outcomes during a transition ([[contrarian-reward-compliance-over-outcomes]]).