South Asian Federation of Exchanges (Safe) has concluded the Executive Leadership Forum with the consensus that the corporate leadership plays a vital role in ensuring smooth working of the business affairs of corporate entities and the overall success of businesses.
On the second day of the seminar, Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah, a top Islamabad based lawyer gave a presentation on, "Two Unpopular Themes for Business Leaders." The two themes discussed were issues relating to Whistleblowing and Succession Planning.
During his presentation, he shared various international case studies and examples where financial mismanagement resulted in serious issues for the concerned companies or financial institutions or even the general public. He described the scope of Whistleblowing in US, UK and European jurisdictions, and appreciated these within the applicable framework and business ethos in Saarc countries.
He summarised that generally breaches of civil, criminal, regulatory or administrative law, miscarriage of justice, dangers to quality, health security and environment and public interest have been seen as caused for Whistleblowing. He explained that general attitudes prevalent which regard conscientious employees as troublemakers, and at the first resort move to ignore or ostracise them or discipline or dismiss them in the fear of adverse action under law or public outcry.
He mentioned that more responsible legal systems now have provisions whereby Whistleblowing is no longer regarded as a pejorative act or against the establishment but is becoming synonymous with openness and informed decision making. He concluded by making the point that business leaders need to recognise that leaders control traffic on a two-way lane, and they must achieve a balance between public interest and employees interest. He emphasised for a need for developing policy making room for robust internal procedures which would not result in reprisal of employees coming forward to disclose breaches and also the need for introducing corporate integrity agreements to ensure goo governance.
On the topic of Succession Planning, Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah highlighted the need and benefits of succession planning for corporate leaders. In addition to continuity of policies, this approach was also needed for due protection of shareholder interests.
He pointed out that business leaders need to be prepared for putting in place a viable organisational structure, mechanisms for inter-generation transfers, risk management so as to reduce reliance on individuals, conducting due diligence for HR recruitment and retention appraisal, benchmarking and timelines. He quoted examples such as that of GE, which have established succession-planning policies, which have resulted in increase in business valuation and shareholders protection. He also emphasised that there was need for a commitment to a process rather than a result in developing a core team and the culture of one man show must see its last days, Syed Ahmad Hassan Shah added.
Other speakers from USA, India and Bangladesh have explained the concept of leadership and working relationship between the employees and the employers. The representatives of the stock exchanges from regional countries benefited from the seminar by sharing their experiences. The issues of capital market reforms and role of the regulators were also highlighted during the Safe seminar.
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