The financial crisis has thrown up all sorts of debate about corporate leadership so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that I find myself having conversations about governance and compliance much more than I used to a few years ago.
The public furore about board remuneration, the pressure to cram more and more into quarterly reports and shares bought and sold in seconds, rather than years by anonymous trading systems means that it’s not an easy time to be a board director.
Reading through Professor John Kay’s review of UK equity markets, the central theme emphasises the importance of trust and confidence along the investment chain. Thinking about, and implementing good practice, getting regulators to develop policy which recognises the nature of markets and competition rather than obsessive focus on conduct, all seems like good stuff. If that can be aligned with a long overdue industrial strategy from the Coalition Government then maybe more board meetings will be taken up with discussions about the next 2-5 years rather than the next 2-5 months. Let governance and compliance be part of the business as usual rather than something designed to scare the hell out of everyone around the board table.
Thinking about honesty, trust and ethics, I came across the latest in the excellent RSA Animate series. Interesting, clever and thought provoking……The Truth about Dishonesty