Define what is fixed globally versus locally adaptable, assign clear ownership per property, set review requirements matched to actual risk, and audit periodically — governance that exists only as an unenforced document does not actually govern anything.
The foundational decision is what stays fixed across every market — brand, compliance requirements, sometimes platform — versus what individual markets can adapt. Without that boundary explicit, every local decision becomes a negotiation.
Every property needs a named current owner, not an assumption that whoever built it is still responsible. Reorganisations are the most common way ownership silently disappears, leaving properties unmaintained.
Rules that are written but never checked drift within a year. See website governance for how we build in periodic audit specifically to catch that drift early, rather than discovering it during a crisis.
Yes, and often most urgently for affiliate sites, since local affiliates frequently adapt global templates and content in ways that drift from approved standards over time. See local affiliate websites for the affiliate-specific version of this governance problem and the approach that keeps local flexibility from becoming inconsistency.
Governance should be reviewed at minimum annually, and again whenever a significant organisational reorganisation occurs, since the ownership and reporting lines that governance rules assume can shift with a reorganisation, leaving the written rules technically in place but with no one clearly responsible for enforcing or updating them.
Rules that are not being followed often indicate the rules themselves are not practical to apply in daily work, not simply that teams are ignoring them. Review the usability of the rules before adding further enforcement, since enforcement alone rarely fixes governance that was not realistic in the first place.
Day-to-day ownership works best with a named global governance lead supported by regional points of contact within each affiliate, rather than governance sitting solely with a central team with no local visibility. That combination keeps global consistency achievable while still giving local teams a clear person to raise a practical exception through.
Tell us your structure and we will tell you what governance model would actually work.