An awareness gap of the newly-passed Corporate Manslaughter Act (CMA) has prompted one TMC to launch a new consultancy arm to tackle the corporate knowledge deficiency.
The CMA came into force ten days ago, leading Business Travel Direct (BTD) to set up Planit Consulting to advise corporates of the new legislation but also on wider corporate social responsibility (CSR) compliance issues.
Speaking to ABTN this afternoon (16 April) at the 2008 ITM Conference in Dublin, BTD chief executive Peter Reglar said: ”Most companies have not done a lot of corporate manslaughter [work] and are not up to scratch. It requires another resource that they don”t necessarily have.
”We have identified a gap in the market ” as a TMC it”s about offering advice. This [CMA] is not something that will go away ” the changes are significant.”
Reglar added that BTD was discussing its Planit scheme with ”three [unspecified] of our very large clients who have said they want to take it further,” while it was working through its existing customer base to identify potential new clients.
As well as the majors, Planit will also target small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who may not necessarily have the budget or expertise to embrace fully ” and understand ” the nuances of the new CMA.
”We are looking to provide very straightforward pathways to SMEs who do not have the dedicated security personnel,” said Jennie Beament from Planit Consulting. ”It is about a tailored solution [for] people who have more questions than answers.”
Beament also stressed the rigid nature of CSR policies that will by definition, form a suite of responsibilities around the CMA. ”CSR is not new but its profile has become higher,” she said.
”It is on the statute book and is more than flavour of the month.”
Simon Warburton
ITM - Dublin