Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Whining and dining

Today I am invited at The Vanenburg Kastle together with some MP's, managers and scientists. We are discussing the Dutch economy getting up to speed within an hyper competitive and mature market. Main question is: how do you realize profiable growth through excelence in compliance? Many companies find themselves hindered by the overload of compliancy regulations nowadays.

I will defend the thesis that they should stop whining about it and start spending energy on identifying possible advantages. Compliance (Sarbanes Oxley 302 & 404 for example) is all about having better and more effective (internal) processes. Normally I stirr off the group until diner time and then when several glasses of wine are consumed and the day is wrapped up they usually love me or hate me from the bottom of their hart. Both are fine, as long as they have an opinion.

13 comments:

White Square said...

It would be interesting to know about your experiences in the castle...I hope the people in the castle donot read your blog otherwise they will be prepared..
have a great time!

Granny said...

Beautiful castle but I bet it's drafty. Haunted as well?

Mother Sharon Damnable said...

Lovely location :>)

Just as well you're away Dimitri, there's loads here to catch up on!

LesleyinNM said...

Is the castle owned by the government or private?
Good for you for speaking your mind - to hell with those who don't like what you say.

Kathleen Callon said...

Love the castle.

Kathleen Callon said...

to hell with those who don't like what you say

I second Lesley's comment.

lindsaylobe said...

Is that a “Nobleman’s” Castle? Expecting you will feel quite at home!!~
I do hope partners are invited to such things!! Your part to ensure enlightened compliance rules are standard.
Our group finds recent additional compliance costs at around $60 mill a year,-not a small figure.

We are in danger of thinking of ethics and compliance as something only very highly trained people are capable of thinking about.
Imagination and morality have always been required for civilisations to deliver results for its populace along with new knowledge and understanding

Why not introduce CSR( Corporate Social Responsibilty) into the compliance debate ?

Sothis said...

If you can get a bunch of corporate execs to stop whining and agree on internal process, you deserve a Nobel Prize! Hope the wine is good!

Nice castle--looks a little like the one ABN AMRO owns.

Oberon said...

.......too bad it won't happen.....but together....you and i could rule the world.....and it would be fab...u...lous.

Kathleen Callon said...

Hope it went well. Have a great weekend.

Zee said...

What do we do when we realize that the utopia of unlimited growth is actually very limited?
Will we define management of resources anew?
Or will we starve to death?

Zee said...

Check out the QUESTIONS I put in this post for you. It leaves a lot of leeway ...

DA said...

Meeting went quite well I guess. Main differences were about the succes of recent (or all for that matter) Merger and Aqcuisition strategies. Many participants said companies would best grow only by organic growth. I don't think so. We do however need to think of a new way of doing due dilligence. More focus on cultural and human aspects would prevent future clashes. These parameters should be very strikt. Any doubt out!