Governance

Governance. This seems to be the word on people's lips more frequently than ever these days. I guess that the events at Barings Bank, ENRON, HIH and a number of other companies are the reason why there is such a high interest. Their fall from grace and indeed from the stock market leaving thousands of investors, creditors all out of pocket has left a sour taste in the mouth of many.

The solutions which are being found nationally and internationally range from legislation in the USA which demands better record keeping to all sorts of responses from consultancies and advice offering purveyors of software or hardware solutions.

There is just one solution which does not seem to be on offer and that is good old fashioned hard work attached to something that is referred to in the text books but seems to be missing from the work place - good old fashioned duty of care.

I am continually amazed by people who manage to go to work each day and focus their attention on what they call 'customer service' which amounts to a smoke and mirror game to make the person and the organisation look good by offering to provide whatever the customer wants.

The reality is that for many of the organisations that win awards for customer service and for excellence in their front office there is an organisation which has been gutted and left unattended in the back office. The back office which provides the necessary underpinnings of the way in which business is carried out, the back office which ensures that the front office looks good.

Since most organisations have a history that goes back at least ten years or so, the organisational foundations that were in place then were more or less robust enough to keep the organisation sailing along regardless of whether or not there was much care taken to maintain its back room systems, processes and procedures.

Ten years later though, with many of the people who knew how to make things work now heading off into retirement in the sun set years of their life, with the current crop of new 'you beaut' managers who have no history of doing things or knowing how to do things other than promoting themselves and their career paths there is a vacuum into which pours the demand to refurbish and restore operational functioning.

The answer, most people think lies in reorganisation and governance.

I would suggest that while I am not averse to either or both of these solutions as a start, I hope that things do not end there. It would be my view that attention and financial attention should be paid to the foundations of the business. Things like standards, processes, procedures, skills and competence of staff to be able to do the work for which they are being paid, control of the information which is flowing into and out of the organisation in ever larger volumes and with more frequency of change.

It is these back room functions and foundations that are the real success of any business and not the flash Harry operatives that get all the glory and get all the money from their remuneration packages.

Let's hear it for the real workers - the ones who really keep an organisation going and let's give some meaning to the word governance that enables those who are left who know what to do and when to do it the opportunity to get on with it.