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Corporate governance

ANZ Bank, the Spirit and the Letter

I enjoy finding a corporate website that stands out from the crowd. My latest finding is ANZ, one of the largest companies in Australia and New Zealand, and a major international banking and financial services group.

The first section I always look for is About Us

ANZ-About

The About Us landing page is comprehensive and well designed. Personally, I would like Corporate Governance to be more prominent, but it is available via the related links section from the landing page.

Once in Corporate Governance, let’s look at what is displayed in this section.

At the top is this statement–

In relation to corporate governance, ANZ’s Board seeks to:

  • embrace principles and practices it considers to be best practice internationally;
  • be an ‘early adopter’, where possible, by complying before a published law or recommendation takes effect; and
  • take an active role in discussions regarding the development of corporate governance best practice and associated regulation in Australia and overseas.

The second and third bulletpoints are remarkable. This is a company that wants to go beyond the “letter of the law”.

The Corporate Governance section Is very comprehensive; however you have to download PDFs to access the information.  Regular readers will know that I would prefer the information to be displayed online with PDF as another option. A must see is the the Continuous Compliance Policy (PDF) which is an explanation of the company’s objective of going beyond Compliance Regulations.

Another interesting element of this site is the Our Company section that is actually the detailed About Us section, and quite a good one at that.

ANZ-C0mpany

Click on Our Businesses and you get a more detailed description of functional and geographic areas of the company.

View Management to obtain a comprehensive background on senior managers.

Select Our Profile to learn more about the company’s strategy, and more.

A noteworthy section nestled within the Corporate Responsibility section is the company’s commitment to enhancing Financial Literacy. This subject is getting global attention due to the demise of personal pensions and the worldwide economic crisis. The company offers extensive education.

In partnership with some of the most trusted community organisations in Australia and New Zealand, ANZ has developed a number of programs that address issues of financial literacy and inclusion. Find out more about our programs:

  • MoneyMinded – an adult financial literacy education program
  • Saver Plus – a matched savings program for people on low incomes
  • Progress Loans – a program offering small loans to people on low incomes
  • MoneyBusiness – a program to improve levels of financial literacy in indigenous communities

Action on financial literacy and inclusion doesn’t only help the community – it helps ANZ too. Find out why.

This commendable suite of programs deserves to be prominently displayed on the homepage. (More about financial literacy in future posts).

But most interesting is the desire to go beyond “the letter” of compliance to “the spirit” of best practice.

SKF Little Glitz, Lots of Content

SKF is one of the leading global suppliers of products, solutions and services within rolling bearings, seals, mechatronics, services and lubrication systems.

skf-homepage-sm
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Industrial products – so I expected a more serious corporate website without the “bells and whistles” you see on consumer products and services companies.

Right? Well, not entirely… The company has a video and some interactive items on the homepage, and there are plenty more “bells and whistles” elsewhere. Plus, they do a good job of integrating product information with corporate material here (not always easy).

But the real story is how they present the company.

skf-about-sm
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First, the About Us section is called This Is SKF. This is only a portion of the page — the company offers too much information to display in one image.

So let’s see the menu on this page:

Pretty comprehensive, and there are bells and whistles all over the place: see Living the Vision and the Power of Knowledge Engineering, and do go to look at the history timeline. The In Focus section has loads of information about the various components of the company (very interesting). And “This website” is something I have never seen on a corporate website: it describes the organization of the website. Much better than a site map.

skf-corpgov-sm
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Next a visit to Corporate Governance.

The theme of rich content continues here but, unlike other sections, there is too much use of PDFs rather than online sources for my taste.

Suggestion for SKF–apply your overall content strategy in the Corporate Governance section as well as elsewhere.

Despite this minor quibble, SKF’s website is content rich for stakeholders.

Something for everyone…

Holcim–Communicating Process and Strategy

Zurich based Holcim, a construction materials and consulting company, knows something about how to use their website to provide stakeholder information. You only need to to look at the About Us section…

Holcim
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Some highlights:

  • a good landing page, with teaser links to Strategy, Videos and more
  • “This Could Be Interesting”: an unusual title for related links, which contains a link to an good explanation of how the company manufactures their main products
  • a factsheet, “Holcim at a Glance”, is available but alas only as a PDF.

Click to enlarge

Holcim uses a well organized approach to explain its strategy to visitors in some detail.

The strategy is explained with the use of visuals. The link to the Value Chain displays a comprehensive visual and a portfolio analysis of its product lines. 

The company also includes targets related to the strategy. This is an item overlooked by some companies.

This post would not be complete without a visit to the Corporate Governance section.


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There is a link to Vision and Mission.  Also visit the Organization section. The only suggestion I would make is to offer more content as HTML in addition to PDFs.

Glanbia–Ethics and Employees

Glanbia is an Ireland based diversified food company. Their website could be a model for good business and financial reporting. The Homepage is a gem–

Observations–

  • Letter and picture for the Managing Director
  • Good display of the business and performance
  • Links to more information about the company

Well designed, organized and eye appeal with sacrificing content.

Next, go to the Strategy section where there is a graphic and narrative description and targets that are boldly displayed–

How’s that for Transparency!

Hurray, the Annual Report is online —

Navigation is provided and you get a menu of services such as–

  • Create a PDF of the page
  • Send the company feedback
  • Print
  • Put page in a print basket

Very nice indeed. Another notable feature of this site are short narratives from employees–

This feature sends a message that the company values its people and gives a sense of humanizing an otherwise static medium.

Finally the company discusses Integrity–

  • The Board applies integrity, principles of good governance and accountability throughout its activities and each Director brings independence of character and judgement to the role. All of the members of the Board are individually and collectively aware of their responsibilities to the Company’s stakeholders. (2008 Annual Report), (Governance Report)
  • We encourage all our people to ‘Make a Difference’ through:
  • high energy performance;
  • constant innovation in the way we work and openness to change;
  • clear accountability and delivering on our commitments;
  • personal integrity and pride in Glanbia. (Corporate Culture Statement)
    • The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity
      of the website.(2008 Annual Report) This is unique. I have not seen this on other corporate websites.

    All notable since Integrity is amplified by the “Tone at the Top”. The company would benefit greatly by adding an Ethics/Integrity Process that would integrate these statements.

    Effective Corporate Ethics — More Than A Code Part 1

    Crises in the global economic and financial landscape reached seemingly epic proportions. Once again there is a focus on ethics–

    Failed Leadership Caused the Financial Crisis

    We need to do more than fix the crisis; we need to fix the mindset that got us into it. …They should be authentic leaders, focused on serving their clients and all the institution’s constituents, rather than charismatic leaders seeking money, fame, and power for themselves.

    Bill George, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, US News November 19, 2008

    Despite lessons learned during the Enron era, government regulations, and companies’ codes of ethics,  surveys indicate problems with ethics.

    • The Edelman Trust Barometer indicated that trust in business fell below those of the Enron era
    • Surveys by Integrity Interactive Corporation and Alt­man Weil, and CFO Europe Research Services (free registration required) both showed that most companies do not go much beyond issuing codes of ethics
    • Compliance Week’s 2009 Global Integrity Survey indicated “…Accord­ing to the findings, 43.3 percent of respondents don’t measure the integrity performance of management at all. Of those companies that do, 29.9 percent grade their management through an employee review process, followed by 26.8 percent that tie compensation to integrity. Only 11.5 percent of respondents said they grade integrity performance through internal benchmarking.”

    …there is a gap between the existence of explicit ethical values and principles, often expressed in the form of a code, and the attitudes and behaviour of the organization…two basic reasons appear to be at the heart of the problem: ineffective ethics programmes and deficiencies in corporate culture…corporate ethical values requires well-designed ethics policies, sustained ethical leadership and incorporation of ethics in organisational processes and strategy as part of an ethical culture at all levels of the organisation.

    Corporate codes of ethics:necessary but not sufficient
    Simon Webley and AndreaWernern Business Ethics: A European Review Volume 17 Number 4 October 2008

    Perhaps the key reason is that most companies don’t realize that ethics must start with “the tone at the top”. Board and C-Suite members must be visible in promoting ethical behavior and putting in place an ethics program that promotes an ethics culture. This takes considerable effort and time since it must be embedded in the existing corporate culture. Perhaps this deters most companies.

    Here is an example from the Bell System (old AT&T) before the 1984 divestiture. The Long Lines unit had a culture that promoted employee safety. Some elements included–

    • Every employee had to attend a monthly safety presentation on a variety of topics
    • Employees received desk drop materials
    • Safety posters were displayed in public areas
    • If there was an accident, a report had to be completed and sent to head of the department within 24 hours
    • There was an annual event for employees and their families
    • Even at the annual off-site middle to upper management conference, there was a safety presentation before the agenda started.

    This is the type of effort that is needed to ensure that all employees know that they must be ethical in all matters.

    There are some current companies that do understand that ethics must be promoted every day. These companies will be profiled in future posts.

    France’s Crédit Agricole a Website to Bank on

    Don’t know how I missed this one, but Crédit Agricole is the largest retail bank in Europe. Their website suits this status. In the Profile section, click on Organization and access an informative visual that gives the visitor a quick view of how the company and its components are organized.

    Credit Organisation

    Next Economic Research is a major navigational component and for good reason. This section contains a robust supply of economic information on a very wide array of subjects.

    Credit Eco Research

    In the upper left navigation box, you have access to–

    • Perspectives

    A quarterly publication setting out the Crédit Agricole scenario for the economy, interest rates and currencies in the main economic regions, ie, the Americas, Europe and Asia.

    Aperiodic publication – Tabular data for Crédit Agricole economic and financial forecasts.

    • Eco News

    Eco News is an aperiodic publication providing up-to-the-minute analysis of a current topic.

    • Eclairages

    Monthly Eclairages

    Éclairages is a monthly publication featuring a series of articles addressing a single issue from a range of different viewpoints. The core topic is examined according to the different specializations of teams from the Economic and Banking Studies Department: macroeconomics, country risk, banking and finance, and economic analysis of individual sectors.

    Eclairages Emergents

    Eclairages Emergents is an aperiodic publication offering a series of articles addressing emerging economies or an emerging region from a variety of angles.

    • Eclairages Research

    Eclairages Research is an aperiodic publication providing in-depth analysis of a specific topic.

    An impressive menu of information and research offerings. Each topic can be viewed as a summary so you can decide if you want to download a PDF. Better if it was available as HTML and an option to download. Note the effective use of Tag Cloud that links to various topics.

    My favorite section of this site is the Shareholders Corner. A link to this section is prominently displayed under the major navigation link Finance & Shareholders. This is the company’s unique method of communicating with its shareholders. What a great idea!

    Credit Corner

    Skeptics might say that this is nothing new since most companies already provide this type of information. This is only partially true — Crédit Agricole goes the extra effort to provide a section that makes easy access to relevant shareholder information on one page. Note how resources are organized and see the upper right Direct Access navigation. Then there’s the Shareholder Club and Consultative Committee.

    To develop close relations and regular dialogue with shareholders, Crédit Agricole S.A. set up the Shareholders’ Club in June 2002. Its main purpose is to inform shareholders, helping them understand the company, its organisation and businesses, to learn about the stockmarket and finance, and to provide them with our analysis of the economy.

    The Club provides information, publications and other resources to what appears to be investors with modest holdings. Another good idea. But the pièce de résistance is the Consultative Committee —

    Crédit Agricole S.A. set up in 2003 a Consultative Committee to help the company communicate as effectively as possible with its retail shareholders.

    Members of the Committee are judiciously drawn from representative geographic areas —

    Credit Agricole

    Brilliant!

    Crédit Agricole clearly is an example of how to engage a company’s most important stakeholders — Investors, including those with modest holdings.