How many times have you been required to assume director’s or executive’s functions within an organization or to assess the performance of the latter whose roles and responsibilities have not been clearly defined beforehand?
For public companies, mainly big corporations, there is a regulatory and legal framework forcing them to disclose specific information on their governance. Globally, the securities commissions and stock exchange are responsible for the legal and regulatory framework related to the governance of public companies. There are various organizations worldwide promoting good governance practices. When it comes to SMEs and NPOa, there is no regulatory and legal framework forcing them to disclose specific information on their governance. We have therefore listed standards that would be essential to the good governance of SMEs and NPOs.

These standards require that mandates or charters establishing roles and responsibilities be adopted for the board of directors, for each of its committees, for each of the directors and for each of the executives. Every board of directors should be able to assess its work and that of each of its committees as well as the contribution of each of the directors and managers on the board to the results of the company. The evaluations must be periodic and be, among other things, based on the mandate of the board and its committees as well as the skills and abilities demonstrated by each of the directors and executives.

The first step in the move towards good governance practices begins with clear and distinct mandates for the directors, the executives, the Board of Directors and its committees.