Top Management is a term prevalent in Compliance circles, particularly in international standards. It refers to the Business Leaders, Senior Executives, SMTs, Directors, The Board, – each company may use different terminology but it refers to those who steer the company vision and direction, make policy, strategy and commercial decisions and take responsibility and accountability for the organisation.

It is vital for Top Management to demonstrate commitment to a company’s compliance programme. As auditors, we are looking for evidence that Top Management have established policies and objectives, drive understanding and awareness, provide the right level of resource, measure and analyse their processes, and ensure a focus on customer satisfaction all in support of the continuous improvement of their processes for quality, environmental, health and safety, information security, business continuity etc.