Most scientists do not position the corporate secretary as a separate body in the system of corporate management of a joint-stock company, expressing the opinion that the corporate secretary is only an official. Check the essential duties and responsibilities of the Board Secretary in the article below.
The role of the corporate secretary in the company
In developed jurisdictions, the position of corporate secretary is generally found in public companies and in medium and large private companies where corporate governance is complicated by the presence of shareholder agreements and special arrangements between investors. A transparent management structure and high standards of “corporate compliance” are a variety of such requirements.
Moreover, the management of a public company itself requires subordinates to meet the highest standards in order to make effective and safe decisions. Safe not only for the company’s business but also for themselves, since the management of a public company is responsible for their own decisions and their consequences for the company.
The Board Secretary is more flexible in matters of strategy development and implementation and can influence in fewer directions, as well as interact with a smaller number of suppliers, compared to larger enterprises. The size or resource capacity of any enterprise does not relieve it of its responsibility to carry out Board procedures. Among the main responsibilities of the Board Secretary are the following:
- Dealing with new challenges, such as reorienting the work of a council with members in different parts of the world.
- Providing a secure system for exchanging documents and establishing uninterrupted operation of technologies.
- The ability to lend a shoulder to all management so that the system runs smoothly.
In addition, the role of board secretary increases the level of stakeholder confidence. If you are claiming outside resources – business or private donations – it becomes somewhat irresponsible not to do strategic planning. If people have trusted you with their funds, you should have an understanding of what changes you plan to achieve with their help.
The advantages of the Board Portal in the work of Board Secretary
Board Portal should be provided with full-featured management tools for regular backup of official documents and metadata. The system must be capable of recovering official documents if any of them are lost due to, for example, a system failure or a breach of security rules. Board Portal should be able to automatically record in an audit trail each access to any official document or aggregation for the purpose of reading, printing, or otherwise presenting.
Board management responsibilities should include the following:
- Special responsibility and accountability in the field of document management rest with the manager who has the necessary powers within the organization.
- The responsibility of managers is to support the application of basic organizational provisions, directions of development, standards, procedures, and document management practices throughout the organization.
- Specialists in the field of document management are responsible for all components of document management, including the design, implementation, and maintenance of document systems and their operational characteristics.
One of the main features and contradictions of the Board system of joint-stock companies is that the highest management body – the general meeting of shareholders – has the greatest authority while at the same time the least access to operational, accurate, and complete information about the results of operations and the real state of affairs in the company.