By: Jorge Diéguez

Corporate governance is a set of rules and management tools that guide organisations, which must have appropriate rules that are compatible with the characteristics of the company and the line of business. The implementation of effective corporate governance attracts much more investment, and generates greater confidence and security for investors.

Therefore, the implementation of a correct corporate governance policy allows organisations to obtain multiple benefits, among which the following stand out: 

It increases the value of the company. 

It increases market confidence. 

Improve competitiveness. 

Improved access to capital. 

It promotes efficiency gains and quality management. 

It facilitates better direction of resources to the company. 

Companies that have a corporate governance policy create an environment of trust in business, and this process is reflected in the growth and structure of the organisations. As a result, they have access to better financing conditions as investor confidence remains the most important asset. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that companies focus their efforts on automating their management in order to provide the market with quality information that can be verified through characteristics such as its level of efficiency, clarity and security.

Corporate governance is based on four fundamentals: 

• Responsibility: corresponds to the identification of shareholders and their responsibilities. 
• Independence: means that the executives, as well as the auditors who audit the financial information, have a relationship of integrity and that their actions are impartial, objective and independent of the other members of the board. 
• Transparency: understood as clarity within corporate governance by promoting the obligation to generate detailed, timely and accurate reports that reflect the organisation's true financial situation. 
• Equality: promotes the equal rights of shareholders with respect to corporate issues, i.e. all shareholders shall have the right to be informed of day-to-day information relevant to the organisation. 

This means that good corporate governance practices are part of the internal policies of organisations and these factors will have a positive impact on the growth of their products, thus presumably generating more value, competitiveness and access to finance.

Nowadays, the implementation of corporate governance is no longer a fashionable topic, but is one of the means that guarantee the continuity of companies, as it allows the strategic vision of the company to be transmitted, providing transparency, certainty and stability. For entities, it includes gains in efficiency and management quality; it limits risks and generates a better perception in the industry to which the organisation belongs.

Corporate governance is an instrument that establishes mechanisms to help make objective, collegial, collaboratively constructed decisions, with an ethical foundation to regulate the operation of companies; and ensures the protection of a company's most precious asset: its reputation.