Awards - Once again are they worth it?

in Nov 2008, I had written a blog on CMMI appraisals and whether they are worth it.
Let me extend a similar thought process to something most talked about these days – Satyam’s ‘asatyam’ saga - One of the biggest corporate frauds in Indian history.

Satyam’s books were internally audited and then externally audited by an auditing agency of repute (in fact considered among the Top 4). The corporate governance of Satyam was considered second best to Infosys to the extent that it was awarded the Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance 2008 by World Council for Corporate Governance (WCFCG). It was also awarded Golden Peacock Award winner for Excellence in Corporate Governance in 2002. The irony being these are the same two years (2002 and 2008) between which Mr. Raju has admitted committing fraud and guess what ‘for corporate governance’ only.

So I am back to my original blog on CMMI… are these audits and governance awards really worth it or have they lost the purpose for which these were created. Audits are performed to ascertain the validity and reliability of information, and also provide an assessment of a company's internal processes & control. Wikipedia says: In financial accounting, an audit is an independent assessment of the fairness by which a company's financial statements are presented by its management. Please note the highlighted words in the definition.
Golden Peacock (IOD) website states: The Golden Peacock Awards are now considered as the holy grail of corporate excellence and its guidelines provide a checklist for improvement and self-assessment in areas of quality, Innovation, training, governance, environment management and corporate social responsibility. This is the only award, which has meticulously defined and transparent selection criteria and is determined by highly elaborate and independent assessment process. Again please note the last three words: independent assessment process.

So once again, we see things been done just for the sake of it losing the spirit and the purpose for which they were defined. If a company as large as Satyam can get away from not just internal audits but from external audits and can go ahead and win one of the most prestigious awards, do such things really serve purpose or are we just trying to get some extra mileage by having them listed against our name…

Do firms from now on still carry ‘Golden Peacock’ mention in their marketing materials? Would clients be satisfied when we say that our books are externally audited by the Big 4? We are slowly loosing the marketing gimmicks and who knows might get back to what works best ‘word of action’.
By the way, Satyam had also won: Award for Best IT practices, Entrepreneur of the Year award, Golden Peacock Award for Innovation and many many more in the controversial aspects…