STING Consultants to launch fifth accountability index
Friday, 16 August 2013 03:16
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STING Consultants is in the process of planning the next rollout of its much looked forward to Corporate Accountability Index. Now in its fifth edition, the Index is expected to be published in the February 2014 issue of LMD.
This rating is a benchmarking study sought after by corporates who have used it to assess their performance over the years. Since
historical data is available, any improvements can be tracked and targets can be set to further enhance the company’s accountability systems in the future.
Corporate accountability is a critical management discipline for the sustainability and viability of an organisation. The consequences of a potential risk can be devastating to an organisation, as can be seen from several recent issues that have hit the headlines in Sri Lanka.
Risk mitigation is therefore absolutely fundamental to corporate sustainability and reputation, and is the foundation of what is measured through this process.
The approach adopted by the STING Corporate Accountability Index is an assessment of 100 of the largest publicly listed companies, State owned enterprises plus a handful of private companies.
Whilst assisting in mitigating risk, the rating has also enabled a few companies to use their rating for contracts funded by international lenders, some of whom insist on high standards of compliance based on the sector in which they operate.
Essentially, STING Consultants’ rating focuses on assessing the internal systems, processes and capabilities of corporates in managing their businesses in a responsible and sustainable manner.
It evaluates the extent to which corporates have in place the necessary ingredients for ensuring overall sustainable performance.
This is intrinsically linked with holistic risk management, not just of financial aspects, but of environmental and socioeconomic aspects which have the potential to significantly impact the financial standing of a company.
According to STING Consultants’ Tiara Anthonisz, alongside an all-encompassing risk management system, corporates must also have in place effective and meaningful stakeholder engagement in order to be able to understand the changing needs of their key stakeholders, clear policies and guidelines enabling employees to understand what is required of them in order to meet the companies’ objectives, good governance practices and management systems, and consistent monitoring of sustainability performance together with transparent disclosure of impacts to stakeholders.
To ensure effectiveness of all these however, a key and non-negotiable requirement is the commitment and drive from the leadership of a company for ensuring responsible practices throughout all business operations.
Anthonisz said it is critical that companies realise that engaging in philanthropic activities whilst failing to address key impacts, issues and risks related to the environment and socioeconomic aspects which affect key stakeholders will ultimately result in significant stakeholder distrust and damaged relationships, and as a consequence, damaged reputations and negative impacts on the bottom line. A large majority of companies are yet to realise the distinction between corporate philanthropy and strategic corporate accountability, she said.
As companies face the consequences of loose business practices and fail to address the impacts on their key stakeholders, the importance of strategic corporate accountability is increasingly brought to the forefront of public opinion. To an extent, these are risks that could have been mitigated by correctly instilling systems of strong responsible business practice across the entire organisation.
STING Consultants therefore invites companies who have a large footprint in the country to participate in the Corporate Accountability Index in order to gain an understanding of their current practices, benchmark themselves against their peers and take steps towards making the necessary adjustments that will be required in an increasingly complex corporate environment.
Further information can be obtained from STING Consultants by contacting 114 941670.
STING Consultants is a specialist marketing and brand consulting service established in 2002. The company has worked on over 120 projects with many of Sri Lanka’s blue chip clients on strategic initiatives for marketing, branding as well as enhancing corporate reputation through accountability and sustainability.
