People trade financial products and information across a hardware platform of screens linked by telecommunications networks. The order flows are matched, cleared, settled and paid through manual and electronic processes. This is the software that runs the hardware. And this is the challenge of the new Millennium. As the world becomes more integrated into a global economy, each corporation and nation struggles with the need for integration into global norms and the search for self identity.
Globalisation is as much a challenge to individual identity as nationalism.
We each have to find our own niche or role in the global economy. The reason why corporate governance is such a sexy topic is that corporations today are the key components of national and global markets. To put it simply, in a competitive world, the efficiency of economies depends critically on the efficiency of their enterprises, irrespective of whether they are public or privately owned. Indeed, corporate competitiveness is no longer about possessing the competitive edge in technology, but a combination of technology and managerial processes that delivers new products and services cheaper, faster and better than the competitor Technology and knowledge per se are not useful unless they are managed well. And good management is all about corporate governance.