By Blandine CORDIER-PALASSE, Revue RH&M n°57, p.50
The "good" General Counsel and legal experts are no longer the ones standing in the way. They support managers and operational staff and propose solutions to facilitate and secure business.
Michelin has the best image of the CAC 40 according to the 2015 Reputation Awards1. "It's the culmination of a strategy that has always consisted of pushing the elements of our DNA - trust, employer brand and social commitment", Claire Dorland-Clauzel points out. She is a member of Comex and Director of Brands and External Relations. More structured and hierarchical than the Anglo-Saxons, French groups are finally aware that reputation is a real asset, to be managed at the highest level of the company".2 ".
The law helps to preserve our reputation...
...in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Properly assessed, legal risk can become an opportunity. Poorly managed, the consequences can be dramatic. In particular in financial and competitive terms, but also extra-financially, in terms of image and reputation.
Legal issues are particularly important in group strategy. Le legal director also becomes an advisor to the Chairman or Chief Executive Officer. He is now a stakeholder in all strategic discussions and decisions. Over 50% of legal directors now report to the Chairman or CEO3.
Like other departments, the Legal Department is involved in defining overall strategy. Legal strategy must be aligned with business strategy. The aim is to support development, defend interests and preserve the Group's assets, image and reputation. Michelin's legal department has even turned it into a profit centre.
The involvement of our legal experts as proactive business partners, working with senior management and operational staff at a very early stage in projects, strengthens the Group's legal culture and creativity. This is a competitive advantage. It enables us to identify the value and impact of a project, to ensure that all operations comply with increasingly complex and interdependent international standards and regulations, and to understand, anticipate and prevent risks.
Is compliance really integrated into your operations? in the culture of your company? It's not just there to provide evidence for the authorities. Compliance assesses the often composite ethical risks that can have an impact on reputation, in agreement with risk management, depending on the business model and the countries in which the group operates. It enables operational staff to be involved in setting up a dashboard with a risk map to help them improve their operational performance and efficiency.
Promoting compliance with rules and standards and, more generally, with ethics builds a virtuous image and reputation and, as a corollary, increases the company's profitability. trust capital - a key factor in performance and value creation.
Now you understand...
...the benefits of having a legal department to support and facilitate business by identifying risks, assessing them and specifying how far to go
...and the essential role of the General Counsel, an increasingly cross-functional and strategic role in preventing and managing financial and non-financial risks - legal, civil and criminal - and preserving the company's human, economic, image and reputational capital.
1.RepTrack survey by Burson - Marsteller/Reputation Institute conducted in February 2015 among 1,081 people.
2.Kasper Ulf Nielsen, Partner at Reputation Institute
3.Mapping of legal departments 2014 by Lexqi Conseil, in partnership with Cercle Montesquieu and AFJE
