About the Swiss Centre for Corporate Governance

Corporate governance – a key ingredient for success

Professionally managed and ambitious companies form the backbone of a successful and innovative economy. Good management geared towards the interests of shareholders is crucial. The term corporate governance refers to guidelines and measures that are conducive to the successful management of a company. The relevance of adequate governance is further underlined by the fact that many companies are now publicly accountable for their management structures, diversity practice and appropriate remuneration systems.

Corporate governance and the Swiss market place

Compared with other jurisdictions, Switzerland has very few statutory corporate governance requirements. Those worth mentioning include the Code of Obligations, the Swiss Ordinance against Excessive Remuneration in Listed Companies, which was brought into force by the Federal Council following the adoption of the initiative against fat-cat payouts (Minder initiative), and the Swiss Code of Best Practice for Corporate Governance. The latter regulatory instrument has established itself as a set of recommendations.

Although Switzerland is not a member of the EU, Swiss companies are nevertheless affected by international regulatory efforts. These will inevitably have an impact on Swiss companies in the long run, which is why it is recommended to already now base corporate governance on international standards.

Keeping an eye on the future – the Deloitte perspective

Here at Deloitte we believe that professional corporate governance in accordance with Swiss requirements and international corporate governance trends is vitally important. With this in mind, we address various aspects of corporate governance on a regular basis through regular corporate governance related research and thought leadership.

The focus of our research and thought pieces lies on issues of relevance to executives and non-executives serving on boards of directors and other leaders in the Swiss governance arena. Topics are as diverse as innovation, incentives and rewards, risk and strategic oversight by the board, and the different approaches to board leadership globally and in Switzerland.

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How Deloitte can help

We provide a range of services to help you address governance issues and to improve board and committee :

• Design of management structures and roles
• Benchmarking of existing corporate governance to best practice
• Introduction of appropriate and reasonable remuneration systems
• On-boarding directors of the board and executives
  

Global insights

For more global insights and a complete list of all our centres for corporate governance around the world see our DTTL Global Center for Corporate Governance website