Governance

Organisations, public or private, for profit or not for profit, large or small, make investments and manage resulting assets or resources with an expectation of realizing value, either financial, non-financial, or, often, either explicitly or implicitly, a combination of both.

Value is a function of, and results from, optimising benefits, at an affordable cost, with an acceptable level of risk (adjusted for the time value of money).

Given this context, it is possible to define governance as:

“Establishing a framework which defines:

• what decisions have to be made,
• who is involved in making them,
• how they are made, and the process for ensuring compliance with the framework,
• that decision results are dynamically monitored,
• that corrective actions are taken when expected results are not realized, and
• that learnings are applied to continually improve the governance framework.”

Effective implementation of a governance framework requires strong leadership, supported by:

• processes with clearly defined roles, responsibilities and accountabilities
• relevant performance information
• appropriate organisation structures and
• analysis and communication tools.