Consultancy for the supervisory board

Good corporate governance is an important factor for corporate culture, not only in the capital market sector, and thus for the long-term success of your company, as well as your company’s reputation in the market. Following the Bilanzrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz (BilMoG) (Accounting law reform act) of 2009 and due to the current EU regulation in the field of audits in 2016 and its national implementation, there have been considerable developments in terms requirements for boards of directors and audit committees, leading to new challenges that need to be mastered. As your appointed agent, we are able to professionally support you in the evaluation and implementation of these requirements with training, consultancy and assistance, depending on your individual requirements.

TRAINING: Personal skills and qualifications are key

Qualification of supervisory board members is essential for them to perform the assigned tasks correctly and accurately. It is a prerequisite for the supervisory board to effectively and efficiently monitor the management board. In 2010, the Government Commission on the German Corporate Governance Code formulated section 5.4.1 of the German Corporate Governance Code (DCGK) as follows: ‘The supervisory board members autonomously participate in the educational and training measures required for their tasks. They are to be adequately supported by the company in doing so.’ This code regulation, compliance with which being also recommended for non-listed companies, is based on a new understanding of the law. The government commission assumes that supervisory boards have a duty to educate and train themselves. They are required to go through training and are also required to report to the shareholders. However, neither the law nor the German Corporate Governance Code determines which training measures are required for their tasks. Given this situation, BDO has developed a modular qualification concept that can be flexibly tailored to the specific circumstances of the enterprise. Knowledge and information is transferred particularly in the form of professional individual coaching, in-house training, advanced training courses, workshops and seminars according to individual agreements. The qualification measures are designed to enhance professional qualifications, in particular the economic, commercial and legal skills of supervisory board members, and their professional independence. They are conducted by an interdisciplinary team of highly qualified experts.

Please contact us for more details of our training concept.

INTEGRATED CONSULTANCY APPROACH

Active monitoring work is expected of supervisory bodies today. In their role, they are expected to supervise and advise management with foresight. The procurement and processing of information relevant to supervision play a crucial role in this context. To assess specific issues that the supervisory board cannot evaluate conclusively, or only with restrictions given the capacities at its disposal, it is not only advisable, but sometimes even necessary, to call in an external, independent expert. External experts in the sense of §109 of the AktG possess the expertise required for this purpose. However, the supervisory board is ultimately responsible for organising the supervision processes. Modern supervisory board work makes neutral support in the sense of ‘good practice’ seem sensible. Against this background, BDO has developed an integrated approach which interlinks the topics of training, process-oriented consultancy and supervisory board assistance in a modular way.

The benefits and value of our services are the

  • Minimisation of liability and reputational risks
  • Improved options for providing documented evidence in cases of liability
  • Compliance with regulatory requirements
  • Judgement of the supervisory board based on objective and neutral expert information in the sense of business judgement rule (‘informed’ decisions)
  • Improvement of the performance of the supervision processes
  • Boosted independence of the supervisory board

True to our consultancy approach, a personal contact is available for you to turn to at any time.

SUPERVISORY BOARD ASSISTANT AS AN ELEMENT OF MODERN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Today’s monitoring work by boards and their auditing committees is undergoing a dynamic change. It is characterised by increasing complexity. The amount of information to be processed is increasing continuously. Use of modern information and communication technologies is becoming more and more important. Increasing liability and reputational risks characterise the behaviour and actions of the responsible officials. The pressure of expectations from stakeholders, the progressive regulation and legalisation of business circumstances pose new challenges to all involved. Judging by the growing number of tasks, the available time is scarce. There is not usually a sufficiently optimised monitoring infrastructure. The aim of increasing the efficiency of monitoring by supervisory bodies can be better achieved by improving the working conditions and optimising the workflow of the monitoring body. An expert supervisory board assistant independent from the executive board could make a substantial contribution. Today, assistance from a supervisory board is considered an essential element of modern corporate governance. Even more so, given that the requirements will again be significantly extended in the course of the forthcoming implementation of the EU regulation in 2016.