Corporate governance: the need to know

Corporate governance has emerged from obscurity into being a mainstream topic which there is a need to know, as well as being incorporated into industrial and commercial training courses. There has been a plethora of reports starting in the USA and spreading to the UK, whose influence, example and model have spread throughout the world. Some main forces explaining the provenance of corporate governance are provided before discussing the US Treadway and COSO Reports. Concerns with business ethics also are a factor. These reports in turn influenced the Cadbury Report and the “sons of Cadbury” the most recent and most significant being the recent Turnbull Report. This impacts much more on grass roots practices than the others, and its messages therefore need to be absorbed into training courses.