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You almost have to get lost to find Ocean Bio-Chem, a Fort Lauderdale company that makes the Star Brite brand of cleaning products for boats. It’s hidden away in the back of an industrial park alongside Florida’s Turnpike. Walk into CEO Peter Dornau’s cramped ground-floor office, and Jake, his chocolate Labrador, follows you in.

You get the picture. It isn’t exactly the IBM corporate campus or Coca-Cola’s headquarters.

Nevertheless, Ocean Bio-Chem’s shares trade on the Nasdaq, and like all companies listed on major exchanges, it must adhere to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the stiffened financial reporting requirements introduced in the aftermath of the Enron and fraud scandals.

Sun-Sentinel: Small businesses struggle with Sarbanes-Oxley

Reeling from the Sarbanes-Oxley blues, backdating scandals, and intense pressure to perform, CFOs (and their bosses) are vacating their offices at an alarming clip.

For years, companies have complained about the short-term focus of Wall Street. Now Wall Street has good reason to complain right back about them. Reeling from the Sarbanes-Oxley blues, backdating scandals, and intense pressure to perform, CFOs (and their bosses) are vacating their offices at an alarming clip. Various surveys estimate the average tenure of a CFO at anywhere from four and a half years to a mere 17 months.

This can’t be good. As Bob Brust, former CFO of Eastman Kodak, comments (see “The Tenure Track”), “If you stay with a company for only three years, you never get to see whether the decisions you made were good or bad; it usually takes five to seven years to really see the results.”

CFO.com: The Three-year Itch?

ALL BUSINESS: Rolling Back Sarbanes-Oxley Corporate Reform Law Will Hurt Investors

Critics trying to build support for a rollback of corporate reform laws argue that they’re way too costly and have taken all the fun out of doing business in America. Those are lame excuses.

The latest rant comes from Shutterfly Inc. chairman Jim Clark. He said he is leaving the online photo company because the Sarbanes-Oxley law has taken reform “too far” and was crimping his ability to lead the way he wanted.

Next time he reads about another company swept up in the stock-options backdating scandal or hears of increased fraud in foreign financial markets, then maybe he’ll wake up to the benefits of reform.

Sarbanes-Oxley — or Sarbox, as it’s come to be known — was passed in 2002 after scandals that led to the collapse of Enron, WorldCom and others. It has forced companies to rethink how they handle everything from their disclosure of information to shareholders to the independence of their boards.

It’s despised in many corners of corporate America. Those who complain often focus on the time and expense needed to put policies and procedures in place. Of particular hatred is Section 404, which is designed to ensure companies’ books are in order by forcing them to take on the laborious task of reviewing their internal controls.

Yahoo!: ALL BUSINESS: Sarbanes-Oxley Is a Must