According to the judges of the inaugural Hong Kong Corporate Governance Excellence Awards, participating companies benefited from the experience through the rigorous process of self-assessment they were required to undertake.
Anthony Neoh, a member of the judging panel and former chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), said the most important dividend to each company that entered the competition had been the opportunity of going through a rigorous process of self-assessment.
'This has to be of value to any company. All the winning companies displayed strong board inputs into the process of self-assessment,' said Mr Neoh who is also the ex-chief adviser to the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
As part of the evaluation process each entrant was required to complete a five-page questionnaire accompanied by a self-commentary. In some cases the self-commentary submitted extended to 15 pages.
'It was very clear from the submissions we saw and the 30-minute presentation and question-and-answer session, that the shortlisted finalists have accepted corporate governance as a core value within their companies. This was clearly articulated in corporate literature, company policies, annual reports, and well disseminated among board, management staff and shareholders,' said Mr Neoh.
He said the judges had been impressed by each finalist's programme of implementation of corporate governance policies and monitoring procedures including internal auditing systems. The finalists also earned praise for the way they had structured a system of active engagement between the board of directors and senior management, such as retreats and visits to operating departments.
It was also clear that the finalists had put into place measures that allowed management and the board of directors to develop strategies for development in a way the board of directors could conduct their monitoring role seriously. The finalists were acknowledged for their commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, it was not clear if each company had given sufficient thought to devising performance indicators, both qualitative and quantitative, for their CSR programmes.