CEOs have many responsibilities and one of them is to influence company culture. Company culture affects everything from employee morale to the extent which internal controls are emphasized. In a post-Enron world in which Sarbanes-Oxley has become ever more important, it is increasingly important for top executives to communicate the importance of internal controls to employees. So, how can you, a busy CEO/CFO/CIO, mold your company culture in such a way that internal controls (and other important issues) become woven into the fabric of your company's culture?Following are a few tips to help chief executives to set the tone from the top:
1. The CEO should prepare and communicate periodic messages to employees
- Explain why the information you are communicating is important
- Send successive messages to praise progress and to highlight specific, positive results
2. Meet with your senior executive team to communicate their responsibilities in influencing culture
- Follow up with senior executives to monitor progress
- Communicate specific objectives and, if possible, talking points regarding the message you want to send to employees
3. Coach senior executives to initiate a similar process throughout their chain of command communicate the importance of the cultural issues you wish to modify
- Explain the reasons it is important for employees to embrace the changes
- Outline consequences of failure to embrace and comply with the cultural changes that you are championing
4. Give employees time to understand and question the changes you propose.
- Offer them the opportunity to make suggestions about enhancing the changes to culture that you have proposed
- Acknowledge and reward good ideas
Edward G. Maier is the CEO of the Maier Consulting Group LLC in Chicago and may be contacted at egmaier@ameritech.net Ed will be a featured speaker BroadPeak's Spring CFO Forum. Mr. Maier serves as the CFO for and is a director of Millennium Park, Inc. He is also a former partner at Arthur Andersen.
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