Fred Garbinski

      Large companies have completed their second year of Sarbanes and the arguments are still being waged about whether these requirements should be applied to smaller registrants. Concerns so far: the negative cost/benefit gap has widened in the second year as benefit decreases outstripped the cost decreases; companies are still searching for how to incorporate Sarbanes into their DNA’s; there is growing recognition that this is not just a finance imitative; and finally, there is a need for a more robust model than COSO to use as a framework to evaluate control.
      This session is designed to explore how Sarbanes and lean can work in harmony with one reinforcing the other. For example, Sarbanes’ annual requirements can be used to ensure processes are reviewed frequently while lean approaches, designed to make those processes more effective and efficient, can serve as a template for compliance with this and other requirements. These and other examples will be used to illustrate how harmonizing Sarbanes and lean can address each of the concerns.