Response To Article Post: Wow that Sox!

Soxdummy

Niclas Winblad of MarketEDU writes regarding Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).
"The act was implemented as a reaction and means to control companies involved in fraud, such as Enron and WorldCom. Despite the good intensions, the question is whether SOX actually exerts a cost or benefit on companies and society.
....However, all the “suffering” may be worth it in order to catch the single bad guy who tries to cause trouble. So overall, airport security or SOX, as annoying as it is to the honest people or the world, may in fact be a huge benefit considering the possible price to be paid for poor security or lack or financial reporting laws."

We agree that such controls can be annoying and We agree with Niclas that it may be worth it. We also know Niclas, that there are plenty of companies who will make a wide berth in order to skirt the question of weather their company would pass even a minimum SOX audit.

No company will use it unless it is absolutely required of them. Even if required it may not matter if they fail an audit. If the SOX audit is not reported on and turned into an actionable matter unless there are grave problems which were seen in Enron and other notable news, then why would they care to do it at all?

Sarbanes-Oxley in our opinion is a far too difficult means of preventing a wrong. This is one clear example of why companies show disdain and disrespect for formalized Quality and quality employed individuals and teams. Quality professionals face a continued upward battle in corporate America because it has not seen that the best way to improve is to respect the fact that people can be taught to improve their work processes if allowed, given respect and given the proper and sufficient resources. Also, much can be gained from employing 'best practices' from a wide range of process improvements and solutions to problems.

Take for instance the global success of Toyota (TM) as just one example. The United States was once the leader in innovation, in fact the leader in many things. Now it seems to have lost the pioneering spirit and support of government. Instead the U.S. sits back and watches as the rest of the world especially developing countries, grow, innovate, and prosper. It sits back while jobs are lost to those same countries and sees more venture in war and oil.

Perhaps the U.S. should find a new focus on excellence rather than go on with the idea of capital expansion at all cost including that of the workforce. Perhaps a new focus has to take place in the workforce by companies honoring employees and then perhaps companies will find that profits can rise from employee loyalty and the attainment of excellence!

With this attainment, wrong-doing will dramatically decrease as excellence will not be conducive to wrong-doers.