Reverse Governance to create Value and reinforce Ethics, Accountability, Controls and Transparency

Common wisdom dictates Good Governance improves corporate discipline. Bad Governance on the other hand may deteriorate the company's fiscal position, cause damage to reputation and harm the stakeholder interests. Instead of simply adjusting your Governance bar and make fragmented changes to your Governance policies and procedures, go thru the process of reverse Governance every 3-5 years to avoid the volatility of fragmented Governance systems.

Reverse governance if correctly implemented will terminate the near continuous flow of minor and major scandals of systemic failures and localized crack that move focus from developments that improve Governance to continuous fire fighting and damage control issues.

Reverse Governance is the process of analyzing the current Governance structures, to identify the entire range of current Governance components. This classification and categorization of each Governance component must be related to their interrelationship to the issues that involve the processes of Risk management and compliance.

Reverse Governance should be used to gain a better understanding of the current Governance system, its complexity and functionality and to identify the troubled spots.

The errors of the current Governance issues must be detected and corrected before embarking on a Reverse Governance journey. Modifications to the current Governance structures can be made to improve the Governance system performance.

The information gained from the Reverse Governance process can then be used to restructure the Reverse Governance system, thus making the future Governance system more maintainable. Maintenance request for improved Governance when e.g. entering new markets can then be implemented and maintained more easily and quickly

One of the advantages of Reverse Governance is that you have prioritized you Governance activities and determined the 10 Governance issues that are important to your organization. The results of reverse Governance will benefit the organizations decision-making process and gradually create a more mature and effective system of internal controls in the organization.

There are 10 steps to implement The Reverse Governance exercise.

1. The procedure of Reverse Governance, involves analyzing all of the process documentation information that relates to the current Governance practices. This information is required to modify the current governance systems to fit the results that are derived from the reverse Governance exercise.
2. It is beneficial to start the process of Reverse Governance process at the low levels of the Governance supply chain that often consists of between 50-100 Governance policies.
3. The top level support and the long term commitment is very critical before you start the Reverse Governance process.
4. In order to avoid stumbling and struggles when going thru the Reverse Governance processes, determine the related structures that are necessary to integrate the reverse Governance to the organizations Risk Management and Compliance forces.
5. High quality staff is also essential to meet the revised level of the set Governance bar.
6. In Reverse Governance it is essential that it is the business that is the driver of the course of action. Reverse Governance is not technology driven
7. In order to be able to start you Reverse Governance procedure, it is essential to have substantial stakeholder input that give you their opinion on the various adverse Governance issues that have occurred in the past.
8. In Reverse Governance you have to coordinate between the functions and the departments the ramifications to the Governance process that have a direct impact, so that you can ensure that the organization is capable of meeting the changes Stakeholder input
9. The organizational structural issues and the entire Change Management procedure must also be reviewed in the right order before implementing the Reverse Governance procedures.
10. Good upfront planning that include templates, roadmap, technology, matrix, monitoring and valuation of the feedback are the essential elements of the entire Reverse Governance process.

As the world makes a slow and for some companies even a painful recovery after the financial crisis, a growing number of companies are rapidly extending their global reach by launching new and innovative products. Before you embark on a globalization journey ensure your current governance roadmap.

This reverse Governance service check includes the pickup in momentum due to the changing strategies as a result if the entry of globalization, before launching products in global markets.

The sustaining and accelerating momentum of globalization requires a different kind of Governance vigil as current policies should be strengthen to fit the essential core of eco-system for Governance. The review must fit the requirements of the large and growing markets. Governance strategies should include how to boost the brand without being insatiable to local Governance mandates.

One of the several Key Notes on How Governance can improve your bottom line is on:

Embarking on The GRC Journey – How to develop An Integrated Approach Towards Governance, Audit, Risk and Compliance

• BWise - a brief introduction
• The GRC Journey: Think big, start small
• We speak different languages, but we do speak the same risk language - Why companies should use an integrated approach into practice:
• International customer cases

Mr. Rob van Straten, Senior Vice President Sales EMEA