The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has come up with a Corporate Governance Charter dedicated specifically for startups.
This Charter will serve as a blueprint for startups to adhere to, guiding them of the compliance requirements and fostering a culture of responsible corporate citizenship. This charter comprises an on-line, self-evaluative, governance scorecard, that startups take to evaluate and improve their governance status.
With this step of CII, Startups are encouraged to adopt this Charter as a guiding light throughout their journey, from inception to going public. Divided into four distinct stages – Inception, progression, growth, and going public – each phase outlines specific governance principles to focus on.
During stage of inception, it’s supposed, that startups should concentrate on forming a robust board, to establish and ensure a culture of compliance, and implementing effective accounting and finance practices, which in turn will always keep a check on mis-management in terms of finance.
As the startups progress, sustainable growth comes in the picture, and it’s given a significant weight. with the progress, startups must expand their board oversight, monitor key business metrics, and fortify internal controls to ensure sustainable growth.
Once entering the growth stage, startups should prioritize some other very important factors such as, building stakeholder awareness, promoting organizational values and ethics, and fostering diversity and inclusion.
And when startups are ready to go public and preparation for the same is on fire, they must elevate their governance practices to include comprehensive oversight of committees, robust fraud prevention mechanisms, and effective stakeholder management strategies.
This good governance report advises that, throughout their journey, startups must adhere to statutory requirements, comply with relevant laws and regulations, and maintain transparency through timely disclosures and filings.
I am very sure that by adopting the CII Corporate Governance Charter, startups can pave the way for long-term value creation, win stakeholders’ trust, and position themselves as leaders in their respective industries.
So this report is going to be an important steppingstone for Startup excellence.
