‘CS works as the eyes and ears of the board’

‘CS works as the eyes and ears of the board’

FPJ BureauUpdated: Sunday, June 02, 2019, 01:16 AM IST
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S. N. ANANTHASUBRAMANIAN, the Vice President of ICSI, spoke to the Free Press Journal about the significance of the convention that he said will not only transform delegates but the Institute in itself. “To have a convention in English weather like conditions, we have to transform,” he joked, after he explained how and why a CS has to work as the eyes and ears of a corporation in these times.

What is the convention set to achieve?

A national convention of this size is expected be a sort of a platform to provoke and promote different streams of thought among members of the community at large. In that context, what we want our members to do and to help provide a perspective of what is happening and also give them an opportunity to think through and also think out of the box. For that, the main theme is ‘Transform, Conform and Perform’. The theme has been chosen because today we are living in a world that is volatile, turbulent and the only way to survive is to challenge the status quo.

What should a CS be responding to these times?

For that purpose, one should have a clear vision in terms of what one needs to do. And in that context, we have to keep on challenging the status quo to keep transforming. We have sessions on economic volatility because we need management processes and study how company secretaries are already laying a role. We have also talked in terms of financial markets, have also chosen the SME sector and a field where CS will play a larger role in terms of becoming a conscious keeper or the whistle blower. The Company Secretary is the eyes and ears of the board.

The role has grown…

Company Secretaries perform the role of a custodian of the company’s interest. And in that context, there are institutions where they have to weigh on certain issues and ensure that they are the keepers of the company’s conscience. And there are also going to be occasions in the future, where CS will have the blow the whistle because if they come to know there is wrongdoing, mere complaints may not be enough.

That will become perfunctory, technical complaints and that’s why the word chosen in the theme is ‘conform’ and not ‘confirm’. Conform is of a higher order. This is with a view to enable our members to agitate their minds, their intellect and to see that they go back refreshed and challenged. They have to wear the thinking cap.

This is a large conference for ICSI as an institute?

In fact, ICSI in the process of this convention itself has transformed. To have a convention with 1,200 people in Aamby Valley with weather like the countryside in England, we have to transform. And form tomorrow, we have to perform!

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