Daniel Lucien Buehr of Schindler Management spoke about compliance in November at ACC Europe’s 17th Annual Conference. Someone who reported on his session wrote the following: “After conducting extensive benchmarking, Buehr maintained that any company must be spending at least 0.25 percent of revenue on compliance or face governance problems.” This quote comes from notes taken for the “European Briefings” supplement to ACC Docket, Dec. 2010 at 4.
Without knowing more about the source, accuracy and completeness of the cited quarter-percent benchmark, little more can be said. After all, the entire legal function of a company could be deemed a compliance effort and typical legal spending runs around 0.5 percent of revenue, twice the figure cited for compliance.
Still, with the many caveats noted and others not noted, it can be said that Buehr has offered a figure that should stimulate further discussion and research.