This article first appeared in Revista Capital on June 06, 2019.
Let’s learn the lesson, let’s stop looking only at KPIs based on results, what matters is how we reach the results or goals we set ourselves. If we do not take this recommendation into account, the risk is very high, because I assure you that business scandals will continue to occur.
Lately, I have noticed that businessmen are more worried than usual. The appearance of new regulations, specifically those that are being incorporated into the Law on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities, such as unfair administration and bribery between private parties, added to the rules issued by the Financial Market Commission (CMF), such as Circular N°385 and N°386, is stirring up the waters in the private sector and this is not going unnoticed.
I understand the concern, given that the regulations are only a part of all the work that a board of directors must articulate, where in addition, the digital transformation is established as a new challenge, and as if that were not enough, it configures a great juggling presentation, with the idea that the strategy is the right one, to follow the path of sustained growth.
There is something indisputable, we directors cannot spend all our time on regulatory matters, since we have to deal with the issues described above, but we must have a clear picture to give way to the constant adaptation of the company, always thinking of the strategy as the determining framework.
The mission is not as difficult as it is believed, and there is a reason why some points of the regulation are copied from outside. There are no excuses, especially because companies are not born to do evil. It is the circumstances and the lack of consistency in establishing a culture of doing things right that can play a dirty trick. I would like to stop here: it is the people who make up the company and history has taught us that we have been wrong to trust more in people than in processes and their measurements.
The board of directors has to open their eyes and always keep in mind that, even if people are “very good”, companies commit crimes, and yes, this also happens in Chile. Otherwise, we would never have had cases such as La Polar, SQM, Penta, Corpesca, CMPC, to name a few.
Let’s learn the lesson, let’s stop looking only at KPIs based on results, what matters is how we reach the results or goals we set ourselves. If we do not take this recommendation into account, the risk is very high, because I assure you that business scandals will continue to occur.
And here arises a tool that can contribute to correct business management: compliance, which is mistakenly associated with one more protocol, when it could be used to greater advantage.
Let’s face it, nobody reads the brick-like ethics manuals, which are characterized by being full of eternal checklists, completely outdated. That is why it is time to make compliance a corporate ally that helps us to visualize the processes that make our business grow (or harm), and if or if they strengthen under the line of probity.
To adhere to compliance does not matter the size of the company. Even if it is a startup that is just starting, an SME with 15 workers, or a multinational with thousands of employees; each of them can (and should) focus on the processes and ensure that they are complied with. The only thing that changes is the number of protocols they need, which is given by the size and the industry of the company.
If we want real changes we must change our attitude, and the role of companies is key in this regard: the decisions they make and the way they do business do matter.
Let’s be realistic, as we cannot put up with another scandal from the corporate world, because it will end up destroying confidence in companies and we will bequeath to new generations a country of which they will hardly be proud. As Albert Einstein rightly said: If we seek different results, we have to change the way we act.
By Susana Sierra
