A survey of Canadian decision makers on business performance and regulatory compliance in the Finance function

July 2006 form KPMG - "KPMG's Advisory practice conducted a survey of 170 of Canada's senior executives to determine how their Finance functions have responded to the new regulatory mandates, and how successful they have been in maintaining the balance between activities supporting compliance and those supporting business performance. In an effort to focus on the views of Finance functions' key customers and stakeholders, the survey included Chief Executive Officers, Presidents, and Chief Operating Officers, but specifically excluded Chief Financial Officers themselves…

Business leaders are concerned that regulatory requirements have caused the Finance function to focus on compliance at the expense of other areas of its mandate. Three-quarters of respondents believe that corporate growth and profitability have suffered as a result of the Finance function's focus on compliance. Management reporting, budgets and forecasts, corporate finance, risk management, and strategic planning represent areas of opportunity for Finance departments to rebalance their activities and improve contribution to the business. Decision makers are prepared to make investments to rebalance the activities of their organizations' Finance function."

180 View - We think that compliance auditors should provide value related to business performance at the same time. By identifying inefficient and ineffective business processes, compliance auditors would support business performance. Inefficient business processes do the job with the least amount of resources. Re-keying or duplication should be easy to spot. However effective business processes are more difficult to identify. Effectiveness requires knowledge of CSFs (Critical Success Factors are what an organization must do well in order to be successful). If the business process does not support the CSF, then it's not effective.