Governance Archives - CGI - Corporate Governance Institute

WHY DO COMPANIES WALK ‘BACKWARDS INTO THE FUTURE’?

December 6, 2019 By Terry Booysen Leave a Comment

By Terrance M. Booysen and Paul Aucamp (CGF Lead Independent Consultant)

How can this possibly be true? Unfortunately, many companies structure strategic planning only as annual processes, ultimately as a precursor to increase the following year’s budget by for example ten percent. At the heart of this approach is a process that extrapolates the organisation’s future; it does nothing to change the nature or the strategic direction of the company. Clearly, no one in their right mind will project themselves out of existence! This is the spirit of human nature; namely to survive. The big question in business is therefore: does strategy really matter if you end up in the same place?
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The Trust Question: Can Barclays Rebuild the Brand?

December 5, 2019 By Barbara Kimmel Leave a Comment

Article appeared last week on The FCPA blog.

Jes Staley is the newly appointed American CEO of the beleaguered British Barclays Bank. He recently said, “I do believe that trust is returning to our institution. But we will never rest, we are never done. We have to focus on building that trust every day.”
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WORKPLACE STRESS: A REAL ORGANISATIONAL RISK

November 28, 2019 By Terry Booysen 1 Comment

Article by Dr Dicky Els and Terrance M. Booysen

It is imperative that the impact of work-related stress and the negative impact of distress be incorporated into the organisation’s enterprise-wide risk management framework. A Bloomberg study conducted in 2013 revealed that South Africa is the second-most ‘stressed’ country out of a study of 74 countries. This is hardly surprising given the high prevalence of political instability, economic uncertainty, high unemployment and growing crime rates in South Africa. The recent cabinet reshuffle and the decision of Standard & Poor’s (S&P), including Fitch rating agencies to downgrade the country’s credit rating below investment grade to BB+ further exacerbates the political and economic uncertainty in South Africa.
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POLYGRAPH TESTING: IS IT A LEGITIMATE MEANS TO CURTAIL CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR IN THE WORKPLACE?

November 28, 2019 By Terry Booysen Leave a Comment

By Terrance M. Booysen and reviewed by Osborne Molatudi (Partner: Hogan Lovells)

On a worldwide basis, criminal activity in the workplace — detected or undetected — is at an all-time high. Fraud, corruption and other forms of economic crimes are rife, and perceptions of increasing illicit behaviour are backed by reputable subject matter experts and research agencies, with alarming statistics. Research conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) show that workplace fraud has steadily increased between 2012 and 2016. In 2012, case studies showed that the median loss caused by workplace related occupational fraud was US$140,000. But by 2016, figures showed that the median loss caused by such cases had increased to US$150,000.
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Is Your Business Performance Lack Luster? Then Start at the Top

November 27, 2019 By Sigrid Valk-Feeney Leave a Comment

In many businesses where performance does not reach the desired targets you will have finger pointing. It is a natural reaction at all levels, there is always another person, department or group that is the reason why performance targets are not achieved. In my experience, when business performance is lacking the first place I start is at the top, the Board of Directors.
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ANTI-HATE SPEECH BILL INTRODUCES NEW BUSINESS RISKS

November 26, 2019 By Terry Booysen Leave a Comment

By Robert Davies (CGF: Lead Independent Consultant) and reviewed by Terrance M. Booysen

Saying or doing something racist, or performing various deeds which falls within a long list of things the Bill deems to be hate speech — or a hate crime — could see you ending up with a criminal record. It could also severely jeopardise your business, even if you had nothing to do with the original incident.
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Deber de responder y su significado

November 24, 2019 By Pablo Zavaleta Leave a Comment

La importancia del lenguaje en la lucha contra la corrupción

Se le atribuye a Confucio la siguiente frase: Si el lenguaje no es el correcto, entonces lo que se dice no es lo que se quiere. Si lo que se dice no es lo que se quiere, entonces lo que debe de hacerse no se hace.

“…lo que existe y no se puede contar
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Some Thoughts on Corporate Governance

November 22, 2019 By Robert Purse Leave a Comment

It is my firm belief that every employee, in an organisation, has a part to play in ensuring effective corporate governance. I have quite deliberately introduced the qualifier ‘good’ into this article. Effective corporate governance does not, in and of itself, mean good corporate governance; good may well be implicit, but I have decided to make it explicit and use the ‘shorthand’ Good Governance. The word ‘corporate’ can also be somewhat misleading and some people may, mistakenly, conclude that corporate governance is a matter for large institutions, or organisations; good governance applies to all institutions and organisations. In a recent (June 2015) survey on Corporate Governance, over 40% of respondents were from SME’s.

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RESILIENCE: A POSITIVE DEVIATION AMID DIFFICULTY

November 22, 2019 By Terry Booysen Leave a Comment

Article by Dr Dicky Els and Terrance M. Booysen

With the accelerated pace of global development, fuelled by South Africa’s socio-economic and political uncertainty, there are obvious knock-on business implications that increase business risks, not least of which includes dampening the mood for local investment. It is therefore not surprising to see many organisations downsizing, restructuring and even being forced to shrink their trading operations in the face of declining revenue and higher cost pressures. Since the 2007-2008 global financial market crisis, organisations are operating in turbulent markets and have to constantly adapt to increasing business uncertainty and changing circumstances. Whilst there may be numerous economic challenges the organisation’s leadership must deal with in order to remain a sustainable and profitable concern, they also have to be acutely aware of the manner in which these severe economic stressors impacts their workforce.
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IMPROPERLY APPOINTED BOARDS SPELL DISASTER FOR ORGANISATIONS

November 20, 2019 By Terry Booysen Leave a Comment

By Terrance M. Booysen and reviewed by Joanne Matisonn (Head of Corporate Governance: TMF Corporate Services).

It has been said that it is very difficult to accurately describe what exactly defines a good board of directors, and trying to find a scientific formulae for a so-called ‘perfect’ board is improbable. At the inception of the first round of appointing directors on the board, the shareholders will usually have a very good idea of the ideal group of directors which they believe will be best suited and qualified to start and direct the business. At this early stage of the organisation’s existence, the board will require unique people with the same vision as its founding shareholders, but have a diversity of thought and outlook to enrich the strategic process. As with most new business ventures, there’s usually a lot of risk — even levels of uncertainty regarding business success — and it is therefore critical that the board ensure they have the correct people who are capable of actually doing the work cut out for them. Indeed, the board must be capable of aligning the vision with a strategic path, whilst at the same time being acutely aware of the risks associated with the many business failures that are linked with start-up organisations.
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