Characteristics of a Company

Any Company Private or Public formed and registered according to The Company Act of 1956 has the following salient features:

A separate legal entity An artificial legal body or person An organized and incorporated body Perpetual succession Limited range of liabilities Common seal Right to enter in contracts Right to own property Right to sue Flexibility of investment

Governance

Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes. These processes and systems are typically administered by a government. In the case of a business or of a non-profit organisation, governance relates to consistent management, cohesive policies, guidance, processes and decision-rights for a given area of responsibility. For example, managing at a corporate level might involve evolving policies on privacy, on internal investment, and on the use of data. To distinguish the term governance from government; "governance" is what a "government" does. It might be a geo-political government (nation-state), a corporate government (business entity), a socio-political government (tribe, family etc.), or any number of different kinds of government, but governance is the physical exercise of management power and policy, while government is the instrument (usually collective) that does it. The term government is also used more abstractly as a synonym for governance, as in the Canadian motto, "Peace, Order and Good Government".

The word governance derives from the Greek verb [kuberno] which means to steer and was used for the first time in a metaphorical sense by Plato. It then passed on to Latin and then on to many languages.[

Types of governance

Global governance
see the main article at Global governance for a more detailed explanation.

In contrast to the traditional meaning of "governance", some authors like James Rosenau have used the term "global governance" to denote the regulation of interdependent relations in the absence of an overarching political authority.[6] The best example of this in the international system or relationships between independent states. The term can however apply wherever a group of free equals need to form a regular relationship.

[edit] Corporate governance

See the main article at corporate governance. Corporate governance consists of the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way people direct, administer or control a corporation. Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the many players involved (the stakeholders) and the corporate goals. The principal players include the shareholders, management, and the board of directors. Other stakeholders include employees, suppliers, customers, banks and other lenders, regulators, the environment and the community at large. The first documented use of the word "corporate governance" is by Richard Eells (1960, pg. 108) to denote "the structure and functioning of the corporate polity". The "corporate government" concept itself is older and was already used in finance textbooks at the beginning of the 20th century (Becht, Bolton, Rell 2004). These origins support a multiple constituency (stakeholder) definition of corporate governance.

[edit] Project governance

See Main article Project governance.

The term governance as used in industry (especially in the information technology (IT) sector) describes the processes that need to exist for a successful project.

[edit] Information technology governance

See Main article Information technology governance.

IT Governance primarily deals with connections between business focus and IT management. The goal of clear governance is to assure the investment in IT generate business value and mitigate the risks that are associated with IT projects.[7]

[edit] Participatory Governance

Participatory Governance focuses on deepening democratic engagement through the participation of citizens in the processes of governance with the state. The idea is that citizens should play a more direct roles in public decision-making or at least engage more deeply with political issues. Government officials should also be responsive to this kind of engagement. In practice, Participatory Governance can supplement the roles of citizens as voters or as watchdogs through more direct forms of involvement.
[8]

[edit] Non-Profit Governance

Non-profit governance focuses primarily on the fiduciary responsibility that a board of trustees (sometimes called directors -- the terms are interchangeable) has with respect to the exercise of authority over the explicit public trust that is understood to exist between the mission of an organization and those whom the organization serves