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Evolving Issues This section includes additional resources that we believe may be useful to audit committee members in discharging their oversight responsibilities for the financial reporting process.
_______________________________________________ What the Credit Crisis Has Wrought (April-May 2008) KPMG’s Audit Committee Institute assembled a series of Roundtables in 2008, as a prelude to its 4th Annual Audit Committee Issues Conferences, co-hosted by the National Association of Corporate Directors and law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. The panels of experts, which included corporate governance influentials and a cadre of topnotch audit-committee members, explored the implications of the credit crisis for future board and management risk practices, as well as issues concerning audit committees generally.
_______________________________________________ 2008 Annual Audit Committee Issues Conference Report While audit committees will continue to focus on refining their oversight of financial reporting, internal controls, and risk management in 2008, they also will be paying close attention to “recession-related risks”—and there may be many.
_______________________________________________ Achieving Measurable Performance Improvement in a Changing World Over the past year, KPMG has researched how organisations are addressing the challenge of bringing good information into decision making during these times of continuous and sometimes extreme change. The result has been strong reinforcement of the hypothesis that smart, experienced executives and government officials lack the insightful and reliable information they need to make strategic decisions and successfully implement them. KPMG's interview data, summarised in this white paper, indicate that leaders are dissatisfied with the reliability of traditional measurement tools as organisations are driven to real-time responses. These leaders are often inundated with data but lack relevant information - the kind of information that can help make the difference between success and failure. While traditional performance measurement systems may be suitable for maintaining business as usual - managing day-to-day activities and compiling figures for accounting and other purposes - such systems have not measured up to the increasingly complex task of directing organisations in a world characterized by what participants in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's "Delta Project" termed "continuous inexorable change."
___________________________________________________ Managing Business Continuity: 21st Century Challenges for Competitiveness This white paper examines the variety of issues that organisations face today. It introduces a framework for managing the risk of disasters in the context of managing the continuity of the enterprise from an information asset perspective. It also discusses a process for implementing a chosen business continuity strategy, integrating it with an organisational strategy, and capitalizing on opportunities to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. Finally, the appendix provides a summary of interviews with industry leaders whose thoughts reflect issues many organisations are now addressing.
A New Covenant with Stakeholders: Managing Privacy as a Competitive Advantage This white paper describes the challenges organisations face in balancing their customers' right to privacy with their own interest in using customer information to identify marketing opportunities that could help them better meet their customers' needs and expectations. It addresses how organisations can seek to develop a competitive advantage, as well as a new covenant with stakeholders, through the design and implementation of a comprehensive privacy risk management program.
___________________________________________________ New Strategies for Success in E-business A new white paper from KPMG describes the fundamentals of a properly designed and integrated e-business risk-management framework. Entitled "New Strategies for Success in E-business: Managing Risks to Protect Brand, Retain Customers, and Enhance Market Capitalization," the paper addresses how such a framework should be designed and deployed and offers information for helping companies strategically occupy and compete in the e-business environment.
___________________________________________________ E-commerce and Cyber Crime: New Strategies for Managing the Risks of Exploitation This white paper focuses on how organisations can use a comprehensive cyber defense program to turn e-crime preparedness into a new competitive advantage. It describes the business risks now evolving rapidly in the electronic marketplace. It discusses how some attacks take place as well as how some organisations are beginning to protect themselves, both to deter and respond to attacks and to avert further damage once an exploitation has taken place. Finally, this document examines how the scope and nature of e-crime is expected to change and how organisations can prepare to meet those new challenges.
__________________________________________________ Insights into creating shareholder value through mergers and acquisitions
KPMG's Transaction Services has released a global survey comparing how companies approach merger and acquisition ("M&A") deals with how successful their transactions were in building shareholder value. Using responses from 118 companies around the world, KPMG has developed a model to help companies create value through their transactions.
The findings of the survey show a large gap between the number of companies who view their mergers or acquisitions as successful and those who have created shareholder value. While 75 percent of companies felt their transaction had been successful, only 30 percent created shareholder value as a result of their M&A deals.
To help companies build value, KPMG used the results of the survey to identify seven key practices implemented by companies which have succeeded in creating value through their transactions. Capturing the experiences of some of the world's largest companies, the practices include board leadership, pre-bid value assessment, and the involvement of a process manager. The study found that a combination of the individual practices leads to a higher success rate. The more practices that are adopted, the more likely a deal is to create shareholder value.
___________________________________________________ Defining the Digital Future: Business and Accounting Issues
KPMG's e-business publication identifies the major e-business accounting issues that today's companies face and provides KPMG's perspective on the implications and resolution of those issues.
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