One of my favorite quotes in motivating internal auditors of the urgency to change when warranted is drawn from the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who noted, “All change is preceded by crisis.” While I do not believe the profession faces a full-blown crisis in 2016, there are certainly imperatives to change as there always are for professions that are growing and evolving.
A great resource to gauge what those imperatives are is The IIA’s annual North American Pulse of Internal Auditfrom the Audit Executive Center, which has become an important tool for CAEs who have come to rely on its trending data.…
The IIA Research Foundation undertakes a global survey every five years to assess the state of the practice of the internal audit profession. This Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) research has been undertaken periodically for decades, and it has provided a rich window into the profession for The IIA, academic researchers, internal audit practitioners, and others around the world.
The CBOK 2015 Practitioner Survey, the third global initiative of its kind, was offered in 23 languages with participation from 14,500 practitioners representing more than 150 chapters and 106 institutes in 166 countries/territories. By the time all of the research is analyzed, more than 25 reports will be produced based on the CBOK results, all of which will be accessible and downloadable from the CBOK Resource Exchange website.…
On a recent trip to Paris, I arrived at the airport on the first day of a taxi strike protesting Uber, the rival upstart that has upended historical urban transportation services. With no taxi service available, I ended up taking the Metro from the airport to the station closest to my hotel. Suffice it to say, it was no treat trudging the last mile on city streets with luggage in tow, even in a city as beautiful as Paris.
The experience got me to thinking, however, about disruptive innovation and the risks it poses to organizations beyond obvious issues of competition.…
The IIA has unveiled proposed changes to its International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards), and announced a 90-day exposure period — Feb. 1 to April 30 — for public comment. The IIA has again proposed numerous changes that will raise the bar for the internal audit profession. I encourage every internal audit practitioner to review these important proposed changes, and to weigh in by participating in the survey.
I’ll go over some of the proposed changes below, but I’d like to make a point about the crucial role that the Standards play in the day-to-day operations of internal audit functions around the world.…
A recently released EisnerAmper report, Concerns About Risks Confronting Boards – 2015 Survey, includes an interesting warning the authors describe as “risk, no action.” The report identifies reputational risk, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance as the top three risks driving concerns among board members. No real surprises there. But there remain troubling gaps between what board members acknowledge as risks and the actions they or management take.
For example, while identifying reputational risk as the top risk, the survey found little board knowledge about one of the biggest vulnerabilities to organizational reputation — social media. According to the survey, just 6 percent of board members feel they are well-versed in social media risk.…