Constant change

Responding to regulatory change has dominated business activity in Canada during the past two years, according to an Ipsos-Reid/KPMG survey.

In a poll of 202 senior financial executives, 70% said their companies had been involved in regulatory compliance initiatives. But new regulations were not the only change driver — other projects respondents took on during the past two years include performance improvement initiative reviews (59%), process re-engineering (59%), expanding into new markets or introducing new products (58%) and IT systems initiatives (57%).

The survey also found there was room for improvement in projects undertaken. For example, only 25% found process re-engineering projects were successful and only 23% believed performance improvement initiatives were a success.

Furthermore, 76% of companies took on unplanned projects, which can be highly disruptive and often use more time and resources than planned projects. But there is an upside to unplanned changes the report says. The self-examination in responding to regulatory change has helped companies gain a better understanding of their internal controls and processes, and this will create a foundation for parallel business improvements.

John Tabone is CICA's manager of innovation