Corporate Governance & Culture

Governance, effective behaviour and a healthy corporate culture are key concerns for companies in all sectors. This is recognised not only by RSM's business consultants, but also by external regulators.

We see in practice that compliance and risk management work effectively and sustainably only when they are well embedded in the governance, culture of the organisation and behaviour of employees.

Within RSM, we combine our expertise in behaviour and culture with our governance-focused expertise. This way, we support you and your organisation from an overall vision to ensure a good fit between internal governance, risk management and corporate culture.

Our corporate governance consultants help you, for instance, to review the governance of your organisation or to recognise, understand and address problematic behavioural patterns. They do this from a role where they alternate their knowledge and experience as sparring partner, sounding board and culture and behaviour coach.

Want to know what RSM's Corporate Governance & Culture consultants can do for your company? Please contact us.

Corporate governance

The "three lines" model certainly has merit for the governance of an organisation, although we at RSM believe a pragmatic approach is even more important. Especially since an arrangement with three lines of risk control can be too costly and complex for smaller companies, for example. Our governance consultants regularly advise on appropriate organisational structures, where the risks are well identified, and therefore manageable, and the decision-making structure fits in with this.

From RSM, we support you in setting up your corporate governance, in line with relevant laws and regulations. Think about:

Adapting the "three lines" to your organisation.
Support in developing your code of conduct.
Design of your compliance charter, as a translation of applicable laws, regulations and industry standards focused on your organisation.
Integrity risk assessments on your chosen part of your business or organisation (personal, organisational, relational and related to market behaviour).
Drafting policy standards in consultation with you for compliance, based on your risks, minimum standards and guidelines.

Want to know what RSM's Corporate Governance & Culture consultants can do for your company? Please contact us.

Culture & Behaviour

The people in your organisation determine the results of your business. Even when you have all risks under control in terms of commercial results, there may still be risks in terms of behaviour and corporate culture that can have negative effects on the performance or survival of your company. For instance, everyone is familiar with the (serious) incidents in the financial sector. These show that the underlying causes of incidents often lie in the culture of the company. Intervening at an early stage in situations where undesirable behaviour is displayed prevents problems in the future.

The behaviour and norms and values of managers and employees make up the corporate culture. This is the foundation of your organisation. We examine and measure various factors that are indicators of corporate culture, such as:

experiencing (psychological) safety,
way of control,
decision-making
dealing with errors.

We also include "soft controls" in our approach. These are the non-tangible factors, which influence behaviour and thus organisational goals. For example, the behaviour of directors, management and employees can affect - intentionally or unintentionally - the quality of cooperation, and thus the successes and results of the organisation.

Ways to influence behaviour and culture - besides having a good conversation - include a code of conduct, whistleblower scheme and/or awareness sessions. We identify and assess these in your organisation. We call these the "soft control" instruments. In addition, we see in practice that so-called "hard control" instruments, such as policy papers, procedures and supervisory systems, are only effective if the right culture is already present in all layers of the company.

From analyses of incidents, we see as the underlying cause that actual behaviour is not always in line with desired behaviour. This has a direct and negative effect on the desired integrity in business operations.

Want to know what RSM's Corporate Governance & Culture consultants can do for your company? Please contact us.