Situation

Congress passes the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), imposing stricter accounting standards on all publicly-held companies operating in the U.S. For a French chemical company with multiple North American manufacturing operations, compliance proves difficult. The company calls in David to assist.

Diagnosis

It doesn’t take long for David to discover the major impediments to compliance:

• Few standard business processes documented.
• Some existing processes conflict with SOX requirements.
• Departments operate as silos, resisting collaboration.

French senior executives don’t immediately grasp the sweeping organizational changes that must be made to bring the U.S. operations into SOX compliance.

Solution

David assumes leadership for all phases of the project: design, implementation, and coordinating the development of business processes to meet the compliance audit.

First, he interviews process owners and maps existing process flows. Then he revises processes to meet SOX requirements, creates new processes and works with stakeholders to gain their acceptance.

When the new processes have been fully implemented, David works with the company’s public accounting firm to certify compliance. David assumes leadership for all phases of the project: design, implementation, and coordinating the development of business processes to meet the compliance audit.

First, he interviews process owners and maps existing process flows. Then he revises processes to meet SOX requirements, creates new processes and works with stakeholders to gain their acceptance. When the new processes have been fully implemented, David works with the company’s public accounting firm to certify compliance.

Results

Auditors from the company’s public accounting firm certify that the company complies.

What the Customer Said

“David and I worked together to roll out Sarbanes-Oxley for a global chemical company. David assumed direct responsibility for many areas outside the scope of his assignment. His professionalism and interpersonal skills were unsurpassed and made him a pleasure to work with during this challenging assignment. Without David, I am certain we would not have met the goals of this very critical project. I would welcome the opportunity to work with David again in the future.”