The new King III report puts a much larger emphasis on so called Triple Bottom Line reporting for businesses. Business is not just about making money anymore as it is about how you make the money and whether you take from the people and planet or give to the people and planet.
Obviously as King III applies to all entities it is placing a bigger burden on smaller business to also comply to these codes and therefore we are seeing a bit of resistance to King III. That said King III has an apply or explain approach and therefore I am off the opinion that this approach makes it accessible to most businesses. But what does apply or explain mean? This basically means that you need to apply your mind on how you can comply, do the best you can do to comply and explain why you can’t do more. So basically it is a soft and positive approach rather than the traditional comply or else like in the US system. With the recent global meltdown I am sure we can debate for hours on the success of the more aggressive approach taken by the US government in governance.
I do however believe we need to ask ourselves a more prudent question. Is it good business to comply to King III? Well let’s not debate the legal issues around it but the pure advantage that it will offer you, if any. I think the answer is a resounding YES. Most of us as directors spend 110% of our time working IN our businesses focussing on our functional role within the company and we don’t spent any time working ON our businesses focussing on strategic and long term visions. When complying and applying King III into your business you will force yourself to spent at least some time ON your business and just in that the advantage of compliance is massive.
In conclusion, every change brings opportunity and risk and compliance to King and THINKING about Poeple, Planet and Profit will give more opportunity to you to manage your business effectively. Non compliance only brings risk. So my opinion is: Lets apply King III.
To find out more about King III, the New Companies Act or the Consumer Protection Act please visit http://www.sinkorswim.co.za/
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