Corporate governance and risk management Course 2022

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT 1
Corporate governance and risk management
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City and State
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CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT 2
Corporate governance and risk management
The focus of this paper is to conduct a governance and risk management audit on one
organization. The organization chosen is Scentre Group Limited. This is a shopping center
Company with retail destinations. The company does not operate independently but operates
under its parent company Westfield. It uses the Westfield brand in New Zealand and Australia.
Its major obligations include leasing, design, construction, property management, and funds/asset
management. The company also carries marketing activities, which are central to its operations.
Carrying a governance and risk management audit on Scentre Group Ltd will detail how the
company is strategizing to stay afloat especially following the arrival of Amazon in the
Australian market. This auditing will focus on internal operations of the company with a very of
its processes and people.
Overview of Scentre Group
Scentre Group is one business that understands that for it to succeed it has to promote
itself to shareholders, stakeholders. For a business to succeed or to attract shareholders, it has to
continuously promote itself. In their study Petersen, Kushwaha, and Kumar (2015, p.44) found
that the financial decisions consumers are determined by cultural dimensions as well as
marketing communication. Thus, Scentre Group is strategically promoting itself with a few to
influence its customers, who are retail outlets to consider buying their products and services.
There are several ways in which the company promotes itself to shareholders and stakeholders.
Annual financial reports

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT 3
Westfield Scentre Group as responsible business releases its financial reports annually.
By doing so, the business is able to inform especially its shareholders its performance.
Shareholders are investors which this company has to report to. For the year ended, 31 December
2018 the company as usually released its financial report. In this report, the joint chairman and
the chief executive officer began with a letter to security holders. In other words, the CEO wrote
this letter in a view to recognize the support of its investors to that point when the report was
released. The letter also underscored the performance of the company, something that is central
to all security holders. In essence, this letter served the purpose of assuring the stakeholders the
commitment of the company going forward to keep the business afloat. Researchers such as
Garcia-Torea, Fernandez-Feijoo, and de la Cuesta (2016, p. 214) analyzed if the board of
directors which the CEO is a member protect the interests of shareholders. In their analysis, it
came out that board of directors is mandated to protect the interest of shareholders. From the
shareholder perspective, it is the sole responsibility of the board of directors to protect the
interest of shareholders and be assured through the board that their interests are protected.
That said, letter of the CEO to security holders was a guarantee to them that their
interests are at the heart of the Scentre Group. Also, the CEO as the top-most leader and manager
at the company is mandated to report to the shareholders because they are the ones that support
the company. Without the support of shareholders, the business risks a collapse because it will
not have resources to run its business activities. Besides, the financial report informs the
performance of the business financially. This is where the shareholder will be interested because
their return on investments will depend on profit. If the profits are high, it means that
shareholders dividends will be revised upwards. Summarily, Scentre Group promotes itself to

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT 4
shareholders through its financial reports. These reports influence the investment decisions of
shareholders.
Online presence
Scentre Group Ltd has its websites which it uses to promote itself and keep its
stakeholders updated on its activities. Today, businesses are required to have an online presence
which helps the company communicate all the time to their stakeholders. Organizations without
an online presence in the current business environment are likely to fail. Hence, Scentre Group
through its website communicates to investors, consumers and other people interested in
knowing what they do. The Group’s website is simple, it structured as follow, “About, Investors,
Careers, Our Portfolio, Retail solutions, news and insights” (Scentre Group, 2019). A
stakeholder that will be interested in getting essential information about the company’s history,
investment or career opportunities needs just to browse through this website to get all the
information. Apart from, the website, the organization operates other social media accounts on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The objective of doing this is to promote the
company and establish strong links or connection with stakeholders such as consumers, clients,
and investors.
Policies
Scentre Group promotes itself through sustainability policies. In 2018, the group released
its sustainability report that detailed its commitment to protecting the environment. According to
the company they have been consistent in reporting indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions,
water, energy and waste to affirm their commitments to protecting the environment. From this
report what one understands is that Scentre Group has sustainability policies that guide and direct