Bold ambitions, careful choices. In recent times there has been a paradigm shift in many economies in the way that corporate governance, compliance, and business ethics are approached. It is a shift that continues to be driven by demanding performance expectations, increasing stakeholder demands and growing public scrutiny after some spectacular failures around the globe.
Potentially, this is a highly positive development. An investment environment places a premium on solid performing businesses that are well-managed, conferring a competitive advantage on businesses that create and maintain a culture of "integrity-driven performance". However, it is also the case that managing the shift to this new level is not simple. It presents serious challenges not only for business, but for governments, regulators, investors and other stakeholders.
New levels of accountability, which come not just from new laws and regulations, but also from the expectations of a broader stakeholder group, have elevated the concerns at board level of ensuring that effective, robust and reliable governance and compliance tools are in place and being utilised. There is also an increased awareness that this needs to be underpinned with the right attitudes and behaviours to ensure people will still act in a manner which protects the organisation’s reputation.
In this environment of rapid change and what can seem like ever increasing demands, management often finds it difficult to fully comprehend the total cost of compliance. It sees the potential for costs to escalate without the organisation realising the full benefit of such investment. Additionally, there is the need to provide more relevant and timely information in the public arena. This has heightened the focus on transparency, as well as an increased need to provide accurate and periodic reporting of issues/events and certifications.
Here are some examples of governance and compliance challenges we assist our clients with:
- Need to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley 404 requirements
- Need to adopt IFRS
- Need to advise on Board and management performance and accountability
- Need to embed governance into the organisation
- Need to reduce the incidents of failure
- Need to identify and address complaints and breaches of legislation and internal processes
- Need to achieve greater value for compliance spend
- Need to improve stakeholder and regulator relationships and communication
