The World never stands still and the same is true of the business community and the people that comprise it. Business organizations strive to improve their profits, borrow to fund growth or sell assets to facilitate survival, but the one thing they can never do is stand still or at least not for very long.

Furthermore the commercial universe comprises not of a meagre handful of business entities but millions ranging in size from the sole trader to the international conglomerate. If all of these factors are combined there appears to be a recipe for chaos, but this is not the case. As the number and complexity of business organizations has increased so have the rules and guidelines that constrain them.

The balance between these two forces is always a matter for debate with some commentators stating that the entrepreneurial spirit of business is being crushed by red tape, whilst others look for increased controls following a series of high profile corporate frauds such as WorldCom which required a $74.4 billion restatement of income. These rules come from many sources:

• Corporate legislation

• Industry guidelines

• Listing requirements and other stock exchange rules for public companies

• Accounting standards.

Let us focus on the larger corporations as these will be represented by household names with which we can all associate. These usually have a large and diverse investor base plus interactions with many other stakeholder groups ranging from suppliers/customers to government. The most readily available source of information on the business for all...