Corporate Eye

Corporate Governance Award — Colgate

November 10, 2008
by

Colgate, the $12.2 billion maker of household, oral hygiene and personal products, received the 2007 Treasury and Risk publication Corporate Governance Award.  This seemed to slip under the news radar,perhaps since Chairman Reuben Mark avoids media interviews. Still, this was a notable event. I was impressed when I visited Colgate’s Corporate Governance site.

First impression was that there is a comprehensive display of financial filings. In addition, as you look further there are more noteworthy items under their Principles:

  • Open communication between and among directors and management fosters effective oversight. ( This is lacking in many companies.)
  • Established policies guide governance and business integrity. Our Board plays an active role overseeing the integrity of the financial statements of the Company. (Bravo!)
  • Good governance is the responsibility of all Colgate people. (This is exceptional and is a key component of effective Corporate Governance)
  • Good governance thrives from continuous improvement. (Indeed)

Colgate provides links to documents that further describes each of these principles and in the Governance Commitment in Action section, there is a further elaboration of what actions the company is taking relative to each principle.

But wait, there’s more, Board members and their backgrounds are clearly displayed and How To Contact Board members is clearly defined. It is not surprising that Colgate received the award and they provide a model for other companies to follow.

The following two tabs change content below.

Ed Konczal

Ed Konczal has an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business (with distinction). He has spent the last 10 years as an executive consultant focusing on human resources, leadership, market research, and business planning. Ed has over 10 years of top-level experience from AT&T in the areas of new ventures and business planning. He is co-author of the book "Simple Stories for Leadership Insight," published by University Press of America.

Related posts:

Benefits of Reverse Mentoring Enterprise Mobility And Innovation Governance
Search
From the archives
All Corporate Eye posts
Read more in our archives, or by stakeholder area:
Leading Digital Agency
"Without doubt, the Corporate Eye reports are the best in the market"
FTSE 100 Client
Having worked with a number of agencies that offer corporate website benchmarking and strategic advice, I have to say that the combination of Paul Nixon's strategic knowledge and real life experience combined with the power of Corporate Eye's tools puts him into a completely different league to other consultants
FTSE 100 Energy Client
The most useful part is being able to talk to someone about the strategy for digital communications and how best to translate these ideas into working practice – it’s what sets Corporate Eye apart from the others.
FTSE 250 Client
The Content strategy presentation was invaluable – it really helped us to piece together where we could do better and gave us some really good examples which we can adapt to our company and its audiences
FTSE 100 Telecommunications Client
Fantastic at brainstorming with and discussing upcoming trends etc. I find their input in the meetings a real help in strategising the next steps of the corporate site.