Chevron: Showing good governance

Exploitation of the web makes corporate governance transparent to a wide audience.

The Site

Chevron, the US-based oil company, uses the web to make its corporate governance processes and practices transparent to a wide audience.

Corporate governance is a sub-section of Investors but is also prominently linked from related content panels in the About Chevron section. Material is organised under five headings which appear in the left-hand navigation when the sub-section is open: Governance Guidelines, Committee Members, Committee Charters, Business Conduct & Ethics and Contact the Board. The information is made navigable in several ways: SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) filings going back to 1994 can be searched by date and type; the guidelines and committee charters are available in both HTML and PDF; and additional information (for example, a speech on ‘A Chevron Take on Transparency’) can be accessed from tailored related links panels.

The Takeaway

Corporate governance is an issue that quoted companies have to be seen to be addressing and this is reflected on their websites. These are complex waters but Chevron shows with the organisation and presentation of its corporate governance material that there is no better medium for handling complexity than the web. It confidently exploits the web’s almost limitless capacity for storage and archiving, its searchability and interactive linking that enables users to skim the surface or drill deep into detail.

In providing both HTML and PDF versions of lengthy documents Chevron also makes navigation of their numerous clauses significantly easier – and thus more likely to be read. Too many companies treat their corporate governance pages as a repository for charters and other statutory documents in static format – for them corporate governance online is an exercise in being seen to be fulfilling their obligations and ticking all the correct report headings. Through its use of the web Chevron shows a willingness to explain that implies a much deeper commitment to giving an account of itself.

First published on 13 September, 2007