Corporate governance is a generic term which describes the ways in which rights and responsibilities are shared between the various corporate participants, especially management and the shareholders.
According to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), it is commonly referred to as a system by which organisations are directed and controlled. It is the process by which company objectives are established, achieved and monitored. Corporate governance is concerned with the relationships and responsibilities between the board, management, shareholders and other relevant stakeholders within a legal and regulatory framework.
In SA, in addition to international legislation, which significantly impacts our local situations, the following play a major role in South African corporate governance:
* Compliance with the recommendations of the King Commission ie the King Code
* Global Reporting Initiative (G3)
* The Sustainability Index
* BEE legislation
Corporate governance is a key element in enhancing investor confidence, promoting competitiveness, and ultimately improving economic growth. It is at the top of the international development agenda as emphasised by James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, who said: "The governance of companies is more important for world economic growth than the government of countries."
If transparency and assurance of "corporate governance" information leads to a sense of trust and security in the mind of the stakeholder and the employee, it makes sense that the lack of good governance will lead to insecurity at the very least. Thus, corporate governance is all about information, putting the information to good use and making the correct governing decisions based on that information. It requires the collection of data and documentation so that the data is viewed holistically in context. As Peter Drucker said, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it". It is essential that companies implement systems which will assist in the collection, management and reporting of this information.
"With the above in mind, Satori has developed comQuest, a tool that will significantly help with the task of corporate governance and remove much of the frustration associated with this activity," commented Di King, MD of Satori Group. "We are actively involved with a number of South African organisations that are already exploiting this tool to good effect."
For further information, please contact Di King at tel +27 11 234 3132; fax +27 11 234 3138; e-mail dking@satorigroup.co.za
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Satori Group SA is the local operation of Satori Group, a leader in providing pervasive business performance management (BPM) solutions and business intelligence (BI) software to the South African market.
Available from Satori is comQuest, a tool that operates within the corporate governance sector of the market and helps to streamline the collection, management and reporting processes of governance and sustainability information. comQuest is a simple, flexible, web-based application that handles qualitative and quantitative data, and supporting files and documentation. According to one of the larger auditing/accounting firms, the system eliminates many of the frustrations that previously occurred with these 'governance' processes.
Satori Group is also SA's sole agent for proCube, a multi-dimensional database aimed at eliminating the frustrations found in large Excel models that have been developed to serve data analysis, budgeting and reporting applications.
Satori Group SA's customer base includes organisations such as African Bank, AngloGold Ashanti, Barloworld, Fiat, JD Group, Komatsu, Mutual & Federal, Nedbank Limited, Northam Platinum, SAB Miller, Sanlam, Sizwe Medical Services, Standard Bank and Swiss Re Africa.
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