“The scary thing is that if large companies, who can afford whole departments focusing on compliance, risk and governance, can fail, how vulnerable are smaller entities to these challenges?” states Pretorius. The advantage for smaller companies is that usually there is a closer monitoring and greater visibility on day-to-day business activities. However, many Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs) neglect implementing a practice to analyse, plan and manage compliance in their business.
At a basic level, compliance is to meet the legal obligations of the company and this can seem daunting to a small enterprise. Pretorius says that it is important that compliance does not become a hindrance to the agility of a smaller company. “Imposing too many checks-and-balances may unnecessarily encumber a business and its ability to affordably apply compliance.”
So the question is, how do SMME’s approach compliance in a pragmatic way which achieves the requirements while not stifling operations? Pretorius provides the following guidelines: