Best Practices’ to extend across company board, customers and employees

NASSCOM today announced a set of recommendations aimed at further strengthening corporate governance practices in the Indian IT-BPO industry. The report enumerates a set of detailed voluntary recommendations with an objective to establish highest standards of probity and corporate governance within the IT-BPO industry.

The NASSCOM Governance and Ethics Committee was set up last year and comprises of industry leaders and experts in the field and is chaired by Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy. The report establishes that the fundamental objective of "Good Corporate Governance and Ethics" is to ensure commitment of the organization in managing the company in a transparent manner for maximizing long-term value of the company not only for its shareholders but also its customers, competitors, employees and all other partners

The recommendations of the report include best practices followed by the IT-BPO sector, many of which are world-class firms with world-class business practices competing at a global level based on service quality and delivery providing significant value creation to their stakeholders.

Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy said “The IT-BPO sector goes beyond just regulatory compliance and involves robust governance practices and ethical behavior which not only hinges on the functioning of the board but also on how various interconnected building blocks of the ecosystem work together. I am convinced that with these guidelines the Indian IT-BPO industry will become the flag bearer for best practices in corporate governance across sectors.”

Commenting on the announcement Mr. Pramod Bhasin, Past Chairman,President and CEO , Genpact  NASSCOM said “We are extremely happy with the progress the Committee has made over the last year and would like to thank Mr. Murthy and all the members for their leadership and guidance. The industry in India comprises large number of unlisted companies as well as upcoming start-ups. The recommendations in the report define a series of best practices which companies can voluntarily adopt to generate long term value for the corporation”.

The report is structured across the stakeholder ecosystem to build an effective and ethical governance framework:

• Board of Directors: The recommendations detail the role of the board wherein it can move from traditional advisory to strategic oversight of company affairs.
• Customers:Ethical practices for contracts, clear accountability, compliance with legal issues, data security, privacy as well as thrust on customer satisfaction are the key recommendations.
• Competitors: Sharing of best practices, respecting intellectual property and ethical hiring would enable a collaborative industry.
• Employees: Confidentiality of information, protecting company assets and adherence to company policies and processes would enable the company and its employees to align to common goals
• Company as an “Employer: Providing a congenial and safe work environment, equal opportunity to all, appropriate grievance handing and enabling processes for promoting learning and fair practices.
• Vendor Partners: Fair and transparent procurement processes and clear guidelines on related party transactions and gifts / donations will build a framework for ethical practices with vendor partners.
• Apart from the above recommendations, a detailed guideline has been created for whistleblower policy and Ombudsperson concept.

The report will be available on the NASSCOM website and NASSCOM will facilitate a series of interactions through roundtables to share practical and implementable insights for different types of organizations. These recommendations are evolving and will be updated at periodic intervals.

The committee members include:

• Mr N. R. Narayana Murthy - Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Limited
• Mr. Pramod Bhasin; Past Charman, NASSCOM President and CEO, Genpact
• Mr. N. Vittal – Independent Director and Former Chief Vigilance Commissioner
• Mr. S. Ramadorai, Vice Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services
• Mr Deepak Satwalekar – Independent Director
• Mr. Ashank Desai, Member of the Board, Mastek Limited
• Dr. Omkar Goswami, Chairman, Corporate and Economic Research Group Advisory Pvt Ltd
• Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Vice Chairman & CEO, Zensar Technologies Ltd\
• Mr. Prithvi Haldea, Chairman & Managing Director, Prime Database
• Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM

 

 

Updated on: 27 Apr, 2010