Cahier Internal Governance

With the support of Ageas, Deloitte and Laga, GUBERNA created in 2008 the Centre Internal Governance aiming to raise governance awareness at the level of corporate groups, their subsidiaries and directors. 

The publication GUBERNA Governance Insights: Internal Governance summarizes the research and exchange of experiences of the Centre. Since there are currently no “codes of best practice” for internal governance, the authors had to rely on governance literature, governance experts and their own research to develop a number of basic principles of internal governance within corporations. These ideas have been further complemented by concrete governance practices, based on testimonials of CEOs and directors of subsidiaries and parent companies. This combination has made it possible to develop a number of best practices and opportunities and to point out the main challenges and red flags for internal governance. 

The publication is divided in three parts: intra-company governance, intra-group governance and subsidiary governance. The publication bundles some principles & literature on corporate governance in groups of companies and practical views of corporate governance based on testimonials of top managers and directors as well as case studies presented at the roundtables of the Centre (2008-2012). The publication also includes views of some experts in European corporate governance for groups of companies. The publication clarifies the basics, proposes a series of general principles as well as some specific internal governance guidelines.