How cultured are you?

If, as a society, we take ‘sustainability’ and ‘stakeholders’ seriously – a real challenge in the decades ahead – the first step is to put governance at the heart of your firm. 

Your Board needs to engage with governance the moment the firm comes into existence.   

Often compliance resource arrives very late to a firm.  Typical scenarios are:

• board compliance can sink to being ‘reactionary’ 
• compliance wardens trickle information through,
• box-ticking, disengaged and not forward-facing,
• even in the bigger firms, governance is often formulaic.
• smaller firms are failing – often for shortcomings in governance (or no governance).  

How is that going to meet director’s duties in a more demanding world?

Even the smallest firms can get secure understanding and transformational use of governance.  In this era of technological advancement – there’s no excuse not to. 

Be more radical. 

Know and show the culture of your firm.

Mentally commit to governance, the conscience of your firm – and take the technology that fits!

• Undertake a short experiment – writing a governance statement of your culture and commitment
• Link it with your annual report and accounts, create an annual cycle for it

If nothing else, that exercise is capable of achieving a sea-change in attitude – in which directors own the governance situation and engagement really begins.

Even a short crisp culture statement can start a useful conversation, internally and with stakeholders. Like this –

• ‘Outstanding governance’ 
• ‘enlightened governance’ 
• ‘good governance’
• ‘challenge-led governance’ 
• ‘purpose-driven governance’

You can go further, take a blank canvas, and invite a number of representatives from the organisation to get together to brainstorm what governance means to them. 

Think about the point and purpose of internal controls and of culture.

Governance does not have to be merely ‘controls’.  

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