Nasdaq Governance Solutions / Global Entity Management

    What is Global Entity Management?

    A key component in organizational success, global entity management is the ever-evolving process of overseeing and administering legal entities. An entity can be anything from a corporation, subsidiary, partnership, or official business operation. Typically functioning in multiple jurisdictions, a successful global entity management framework maintains constant compliance within its respective jurisdictions by adhering to legal, financial, and other regulatory requirements.

    ​​​​As legal protocols become increasingly more complex, global entity management aims to uphold and preserve an organization’s reputation by ensuring the entity conforms to local, national, and international expectations and guidelines. This type of governance is crucial to an entity’s success, as it builds trust and fosters valuable relationships with investors, business partners, and other important stakeholders.

    The Benefits of Global Entity Management

    Having a global entity management framework in place helps organizations simplify governance and compliance processes, while also maintaining ethical transparency with important stakeholders. There are several ways global entity management can help an organization prosper and cultivate a reputable brand.

    Minimized Risk

    Multinational organizations face a range of legal, regulatory, tax, and reputational risks. A global entity management framework helps facilitate risk mitigation by ensuring compliance with local laws, having a governance structure in place, and reporting to stakeholders. Administrative guidance in global entity management provides boards and leadership teams more opportunities to confidently grow and develop the business with corroborated data, recommendations, and counsel. This may help organizations avoid penalties, fines, and reputational hits that could hinder new business opportunities.

    Increased Efficiency

    Simply put, global entity management can help create operational efficiencies. It streamlines administrative tasks, saving time and minimizing pain points. With a framework in place to collect and share governance and compliance data, boards and leadership teams can trust the general counsel to provide consistent and accurate regulatory information, allowing them to focus on business management and expansion opportunities.

    Streamlined Compliance

    A global entity management framework can help organizations track their priorities and achieve their goals. Organizations that pinpoint their entity governance concerns and invest in entity management across jurisdictions may be better equipped to improve governance and compliance and address other business objectives. Nasdaq has collaborated with Kube, a global entity management solution, to allow organizations to handle daily operations with efficiency by systematizing important governance data. Kube also provides a centralized view of data across requirements like audits, taxes, C-suite decision-making, and more.

    Improved Investor Relationships

    With a global entity management system in place, organizations have access to key data and analytics, which can be leveraged and shared with stakeholders to provide transparency. A streamlined view of an entity’s finances, documentation, investments, and other valuable resources helps promote a sense of trust between an organization and its stakeholders.

    The Challenges of Global Entity Management

    Due to the complexity of some legal standards, global entity management does come with some challenges.

    Regulations

    It is important for organizations to stay up-to-date with recent global regulations. This means having access to the latest data and analytics to adhere to requirements that maintain business operations and keep investors updated. As organizations face external pressures, it can be difficult for them to manage their entities without a global entity management framework in place. One of the biggest strains for organizations that want effective global entity management is the overall complexity of entity management itself. Even as compliance obligations differ between jurisdictions and become more intricate over time due to new laws and policies, statutory compliance timelines remain a non-negotiable, ultimately raising the stakes for organizations.

    Cost

    Multinational organizations tend to have anywhere between 100 and 500 entities, with some even having upwards of a thousand. The more entities there are to manage, the more likely organizations need to collaborate with third-party service providers, resulting in more expenses and even unwanted complexity in administrative duties and making the overall global entity management process even more strenuous.

    Outdated Processes and Complexity

    Without a global entity management framework that properly aligns with legal jurisdictional requirements, corporate governance can be an unnecessarily stressful responsibility. Outdated procedures and legacy processes can backtrack compliance activity and lead to hurdles such as faulty data and analytics, impractical collaborations, and inefficient processes.

    Plus, global entity management is already a relatively complex obligation with potentially expensive consequences. The possibility of outdated processes guiding leaders and boards to conduct incorrect compliance methods may have a negative impact on the organization. Legacy processes can be replaced with a digital solution that streamlines entity management, as well as help prevent complications, like unwanted damage-control costs and loss of credibility.

    Organizations can benefit from leveraging global entity management software to help alleviate these challenges. Kuberno’s global entity governance platform, Kube, is designed to liberate governance professionals from cumbersome processes, freeing them up to add strategic value to the business.

    Best Practices for Global Entity Management

    It is important for organizations to evolve in order to keep up with investor demands and industry objectives. Establishing an effective global entity management framework is a critical component for organizations, especially those operating in multiple jurisdictions. Below are best practices to consider:It is important for organizations to evolve in order to keep up with investor demands and industry objectives. Establishing an effective global entity management framework is a critical component for organizations, especially those operating in multiple jurisdictions. Below are best practices to consider:

    Invest in a Digital Solution

    Global entity management software, like Kube, can be an effective and efficient way for boards and leadership teams to streamline corporate governance duties and go beyond traditional entity management. Organizations should map out their entity management essentials and narrow down a list of solutions that would best account for their unique needs. Solutions with extensive features, like automation, document management, secure access and SSO, and data insights and reporting, provide organizations with a more efficient way to manage their entities.

    The ability to integrate with other corporate solutions, like tax, finance, and HR systems can also help in simplifying collaboration across functions and streamline processes. Beyond features, organizations should consider scalability and user-friendliness, as well as client support and onboarding. Being able to do more with one solution supports an organization’s success by streamlining their governance and compliance processes.

    Ensure Compliance with Regulations

    Regulatory and compliance changes can happen overnight. Staying informed on these changes and ensuring compliance with requirements across jurisdictions are critical components of global entity management. There are different ways to stay updated, like seeking third-party expert advice, monitoring resources from regulatory bodies, establishing a compliance calendar, and meeting with the general counsel on a regular basis.

    Communicate and Establish Ownership

    Effective global entity management requires extensive collaboration and oversight of important tasks, regulatory updates, and deadlines. Therefore, visibility across the board and leadership team is key. In addition to leadership, organizations should also foster clear communication channels across departments and jurisdictions. Creating an entity governance framework will clarify roles and responsibilities across functions and ensure a consistent approach to entity management across jurisdictions.

    Enhancing Global Operations Through Global Entity Management

    Enhancing global operations through effective entity management is critical for multinational organizations. It helps streamline corporate governance processes, ensures compliance across regulations and jurisdictions, and facilitates communications across boards and leadership teams. Moreover, a trustworthy global entity management solution helps organizations centralize data management, minimize costs, and establish trust and transparency with stakeholders.

    Kube is a global entity management platform that creates a single source of truth for entity data. Kube’s intuitive interface, data-first approach, and efficient reporting functionality is designed to create a seamless experience for collaborating at scale with key entity management stakeholders across complex organizational structures in multiple jurisdictions. Kube can help organizations optimize their global entity management system, take steps to reduce risk, increase efficiency, and save time.

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