Consider another example, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in the U.S. in response to the Enron, WorldCom, and other corporate scandals. While it appears that Sarbanes-Oxley may be having a positive effect in improving or at least sustaining trust in the public market, it is also clear that this has come at a substantial price. Ask any CEO, CFO, or financial person in a company subject to Sarbanes-Oxley rules about the amount of time it takes to follow its regulations, as well as the added cost of doing so. It’s enormous on both fronts. In fact, a recent study pegged the costs of implementing one section alone at $35 billion – exceeding the original SEC estimate by 28 times! Compliance regulations have become a prosthesis for the lack of trust – and a slow-moving and costly prosthesis at that. Again, we come back to the key learning. When trust is low, speed goes down and cost goes up.
From “The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything” by Stephen M. R. Covey
