Compliance is more than a legal requirement; it's a chance to increase shareholder value. In this whiteboard, two members of Deloitte Consulting LLP map the connection between Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and four ways companies can create value.To view the full whiteboard, click here.
For a printable version, click here.
Creating value for shareholders and owners is the ultimate goal for all public
companies. And while compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 may be a
legal requirement, many IT executives aren't limiting their work to merely complying
with the letter of the law. According to this month's CIO Insight/Gartner EXP
survey, 51 percent of companies are also attempting to take advantage of Sarbanes-Oxley
initiatives to achieve better business performance. But how? Where, amid the
legal language of the act, and the hard work of testing and validating financial
controls, does the connection lie between Sarbanes-Oxley and building (as opposed
to protecting) shareholder value?
This whiteboard, developed by Lee Dittmar, Kyle Cheney and other consultants
from Deloitte's Sarbanes-Oxley practice, shows the way. It focuses on four fundamental
areas where shareholder value gets generated: growing revenues, increasing margins,
maximizing return on assets and effective governance. Next, within each of these
areas, Dittmar and his colleagues have identified specific opportunities for
proactive CIOs and their teams to leverage IT specifically implemented for Sarbanes-Oxley
compliance to create business value. The whiteboard uses the example of a fictitious
company, Existential Chemical, a profitable company with slipping growth levels,
but looking to improve growth by taking advantage of its Sarbanes-Oxley compliance
work.
The whiteboard is not intended to provide a comprehensive list of all the ways
companies can derive shareholder value from their Sarbanes-Oxley compliance
efforts. Instead, it highlights four examples of areas that demonstrate real
upside potential, and is intended to assist managers in recognizing how regulatory
compliance can lead to greater overall business success.
Lee Dittmar, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, is the lead consulting
partner and co-leader of the firm's Sarbanes-Oxley practice. Dittmar is based
in Philadelphia. kyle cheney is a senior manager in the CFO services area of
Deloitte Consulting and a Sarbanes-Oxley project manager. He is located in Cleveland.
