XII Chair Cees de Boer on the collaboration needed to make SBR work
The XBRL Consortium has a new Chair. Cees de Boer was elected at the Board’s 18 December meeting and brings years of relevant experience to the role. Cees is a member of the Deloitte Netherlands Executive Committee, serving as CFO and COO since 2007. He is also part of the Netherlands SBR Council – a leadership group drawn from the public and private sectors who work together to guide the development of Standard Business Reporting in that country.
In this talk from the most recent XBRL International Conference, Cees explains how a virtuous circle of improvement has been created to enhance reporting at all levels. The roadmap in the Netherlands started with a strong vision to cut red tape, followed by a commitment to collaboration, coordination, compromise and THEN standardisation. During this process government agencies often had to consider policies that were not, in the short term, in their self interest. This was, as de Boer explains, a very delicate balancing act.
As you will see from the video, the benefits from SBR in the Netherlands are far ranging and go beyond reducing the costs of compliance. He gives an example from the banking sector, highlighting the way that businesses that file with banks , in XBRL can receive preferential rates for loans as the format enhances transparency and reduces risk.
Keep an eye on SBR – as well as the Netherlands it has so far been successfully implemented in Australia and programs are being launched in Finland in Turkey too.
