I am delighted to have recently been to Singapore to be one of the presenters showcasing some of the great work we have been undertaking at Ross - see this link for more details…

I recently attended a workshop held by the Australian Institute of Company Directors that was discussing the challenges of compliance, particularly related to the continuous disclosure legal requirements of Australian companies. The intent of the requirement is to ensure continuous disclosure to ensure an equally and adequately informed stock market.

A case study was presented of various situations in which a company might have disclosure issues and when to disclose. For example, a heads of agreement is at a draft stage - but commercially sensitive. Any information made public about the deal may actually kill the deal - but legally the company is required to release a disclosure statement to the share market. How do you do that appropriately?

In speaking to various directors after the event, I posed the question that the very high bar set in meeting compliance requirements might be distracting directors from the core job of creating value for shareholders and continuing to innovate. One of Perth’s leading directors agreed, and also expressed concern that high caliber people will be less likely to pursue directorships. Another indicated that it was his view that most boards worked out how to deal with compliance quickly, and were then able to get on with the job.

Unfortunately the minority of companies that perform poorly and unethically tend to create problems for everyone else. I sense that compliance is imposing too much - however, perhaps it is a necessary evil to protect the interests of shareholders and business partners.

Richard Koch and Peter Nieruwenhuizen have written an enjoyable and practical read on strategy as it applies to business. It asks 10 key questions that are the useful questions that need to be answered when taking over or trying to get the better out of a business.

The questions are:

1. What business are you in?
2. Where do you make the money?
3. How good are your competitive positions?
4. What skills and capabilities underpin your success?
5. Is this a good business to be in?
6. What do the customers think?
7. What about the competitors?
8. Should you do something else?
9. Who are we? What will we do?
10. How to raise profits quickly?

Each of the chapters looks at a question, and then details how to answer it, with two case study examples.

One of the neat ideas that they have applied to this is that they have developed their own software - which is a neat way of extending the capability of the book, and to get people to visit the www.simplystrategy.com site. In my view I confess I didn’t find the look of the software compelling, and the site left me a bit flat - but the book is an excellent read and I heartily recommend it. The way to use the software is described throughout the book, however it is not pushed on the reader. It is clear that the authors have used the tool as a part of the strategic engagements they have led.

As an alternative, you might like to take a look at www.planhq.com

Obviously derived from BaseCampHQ heritage, it provides an approach to developing a traditional business plan. Like so many Web 2.0 sites, free trial for a month is available.

Happy strategizing!