Certificate in Corporate Governance (CCG) Part 3- Strategy and Risk

Goals of the Certificate in Corporate Governance (CCG) Programme:

The Certificate in Corporate Governance encompasses the core knowledge and awareness that is necessary to function effectively as a director and includes:

• An in-depth view of the role, responsibilities and legal duties of a director
• An understanding of the characteristics of an effective board
• Sound knowledge of financial terms and concepts
• The issues and processes associated with formulating strategic and business plans and achieving strategic leadership.

This is covered in a series of four courses and leads to the Certificate examination. The Certificate in Corporate Governance Programme has the following features:

• Certification based on assessment that contains a knowledge test.
• A core staff of qualified instructors. Many of the instructors will have attended a Training of Trainers Programme led by an International Finance Corporation Master Trainer.
• An advisory group consisting of both regional and international persons to guide the programme.
• The examination structure is based upon UK National Occupational Standards for Corporate Governance as our basis for us to accredit successful candidates.

In order to ensure high participation rates, reduce costs for participants, increase flexibility in dates and increase flexibility in educational choice, the participants can choose when to do the different components and then decide when to be certified.

Target Group

The course is designed to meet the development needs of existing, new and aspiring members of and advisors to Boards of Directors, including:

• Chairmen
• Executive Directors
• Non-Executive Directors (both newly appointed and experienced)
• Independent directors
• Company Secretaries
• Legal Counsels
• Consultants

The course is also designed to meet the development needs of senior managers who report to the Board or Board Committees or are members of the Executive Committee who are interested in expanding their knowledge and applied experience of boardroom activities, including:

• Executive committee members
• Vice Presidents
• General Managers
• Corporate Governance Executives
• Chief Risk Officers
• Internal Audit Officers

The course is relevant for directors and senior managers in:

• Multinational Companies (MNCs)
• Listed companies,
• Public Interest companies;
• State Owned Enterprises and Parastate Organisations;
• Unlisted and family companies;
• Not for Profit sector Organizations; and
• Partnerships

In addition professional executives with an interest in Corporate Governance may find the course to be relevant and useful e.g. media, judiciary, legal, accounting, finance and banking.

An essential requirement for an effective board is for the directors to provide the strategic direction for the company as a whole is their ability to deal effectively with dilemmas facing the board.  This workshop explores how a strategy is how a orients the company towards its market and its competitors. Flawed strategic thinking at board level can create massive value destruction and even threaten a company’s survival.

Risk management is also a key role of all boards. Companies take risks to generate returns. The board is responsible for ensuring that all business risks are identified, evaluated, and suitably managed. In a world of increasing complexity and uncertainty, directors must manage risk more assiduously than ever before. Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a structured, consistent, and continuous process across the entire company (usually large companies) for identifying, assessing, responding to, and reporting on opportunities and threats that affect the achievement of the company’s’ objectives.

The amount of risk varies not only with the type of business or its market circumstances, but also with the business’s position in its life cycle. Young, high-growth businesses will be more vulnerable than mature, stable businesses. Directors must decide, acting on management’s advice, how much risk the company can accept.  This risk appetite may vary over time and will be influenced by the company’s financial condition and market position.

What will be covered?

This workshop explores the role of the Board in formulating and implementing strategy and managing enterprise risk. The course includes the evaluation of the Executive Directors’ performance as well as corporate responsibility.

The course will:

• Explain an effective strategy’s components
• Analyze the board’s role in the governance of a company’s strategy
• Identify the benefits of developing a strategy
• Identify appropriate tools to formulate strategy
• Identify key performance frameworks and indicators to evaluate organizational performance
• Identify and implement appropriate actions based on performance assessment
• Identify key performance indicators to evaluate CEO’s and other executive directors’ performance
• Describe the nature of risk and the board’s role in risk management
• Outline risk-assessment and decision-making frameworks
• Outline priorities for disaster-recovery and business-continuity planning
• Define corporate responsibility and related terms
• Describe the business case and best practices for corporate responsibility
• Relate the board’s role in strategy and risk to corporate responsibility

The workshop is highly interactive and includes presentations, tools, guides, case studies and simulations relating to strategic management and risk assessment in the Caribbean.

Benefits

• Better, efficient and defensible strategic planning
• Approaches for dealing with board strategic management issues
• An opportunity to address real and practical questions or issues
• A guide to strategic management and risk assessment tools
• Insights into unintended strategic consequences