logo-newlogo-newlogo-newlogo-new
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Audit Trail Academy
  • Advisory Services
  • Books
✕
  • Home
  • Chambers on Internal Audit
  • Internal Audit Trends and Priorities
  • ​How Agents of Change Can Shape Internal Audit’s Future

​How Agents of Change Can Shape Internal Audit’s Future

When You Spot Fraud, Don’t Break the Eggs
March 17, 2021
My 500th Blog Post: Final Reflections from The IIA
March 28, 2021
March 22, 2021

How-Agents-of-Change-Can-Shape-Internal-Audits-Future

As most of my readers are aware, I will be stepping down as president and CEO of The IIA in a few days. While I am looking forward to beginning a new chapter in my nearly 50-year career in internal auditing, I am happy to have completed a significant goal before my final day on the job at The Institute.

Last week, my latest book, Agents of Change: Internal Auditors in an Era of Disruption, debuted at The IIA’s annual General Audit Management virtual conference. The book is being described as the third in a trilogy. When I put pen to paper on my first book, Lessons Learned on the Audit Trail in 2014, it was not my intent to create a series. However, in retrospect, my published works do reflect the rapid evolution of the profession over the past decade. And, humbly, I submit that they tell a powerful, intriguing, and important story.

Lessons Learned was a semi-autobiographical story that shared a bit of wisdom I had gleaned from a career that included public-sector, private-sector, and nonprofit internal auditing. Five years later, I offered an updated look at the audit trail in a second edition to the original manuscript, titled The Speed of Risk. In between, in 2017, I wrote Trusted Advisors: Key Attributes of Outstanding Internal Auditors, which examined the characteristics of internal audit leaders who had earned a seat at the corporate table. Those two books were intended to inspire readers to grow professionally and spark a drive for continuous growth and learning.

The final installment, Agents of Change, is much more a call to action. From my vantage point, I have seen a tumultuous start to the 21st century. The first decade brought corporate scandal and a bevy of new financial control regulations, characterized by the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The second decade brought ubiquitous cyber threats, a new focus on protecting privacy, corporate failures brought about by toxic cultures, and a reckoning of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace with the #MeToo movement. The third decade is proving to be even more disruptive, with powerful social justice movements; a shift in how corporations and investors view environmental, social, and governance issues; and the impact and consequences of a global pandemic.

One does not need to be overly perceptive to understand that change and disruption are happening faster and faster. What I see for the profession in the next decade is a critical turning point. Powerful forces driven by technology, macroeconomics, geopolitics, disruption, and rapidly accelerating and complex risks will reshape internal auditing. It is up to us to decide whether we will lead in that reshaping, or allow others to determine our fate.

Agents of Changetakes a hard look at how the profession must adapt and change to meet the growing needs of our organizations and stakeholders. Frankly, it sets a high bar that will require updating processes, transforming internal audit’s relationship with technology, learning to promote and market the value of independent assurance, and becoming catalysts for transformational change that creates value for our organizations.

This will not be easy. Indeed, there are many among us who will need to reinvent themselves to become agents of change. However, I sincerely believe the desire to effect change burns within every internal auditor. It may be a raging passion for some, or a smoldering ember for others, but it is there. It is nourished by the core principles articulated in the International Professional Practices Framework — integrity, competence, objectivity, alignment, quality, self-improvement, communications, insights, being proactive, and promoting improvement within the organizations we serve.

The cover of Agents of Change features a diverse group of people, each with a look of steely determination. If the image suggests a collection of would-be superheroes, that was the intent. Now, more than ever, internal audit needs to be led by superheroes.

In the weeks and months ahead, you can expect to hear more from me as I seek to illuminate the potential for this important profession that serves the public interest around the world. In the meantime, I urge you to pick up a copy of Agents of Change from the Internal Audit Foundation and answer the call to action outlined between its covers.

Share

Related posts

March 20, 2023

New Report Reveals Surprising Insights from Internal Audit Executives


Read more
March 13, 2023

New IIA Report Is a Timely Benchmarking Resource for Internal Auditors


Read more
December 8, 2022

Here Comes 2023! What’s Keeping the C-suite Awake?


Read more

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What’s Trending

03-20-23

New Report Reveals Surprising Insights from Internal Audit Executives


03-13-23

New IIA Report Is a Timely Benchmarking Resource for Internal Auditors


03-02-23

6 Things Audit Committee Members Often Won’t Say to Internal Audit


Read More

Archive

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009

Contact Us

PO Box 1441
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32170

+1-407-463-9389
rchambers@richardchambers.com

About AuditBeacon.com

AuditBeacon.com is a resource center for internal auditors and risk professionals from around the world. In addition to more than 500 blogs authored by Richard Chambers, the site includes links to news and insights on internal audit and other information that illuminates the value of this important profession. AuditBeacon.com is provided as a service by Richard F. Chambers and Associates, LLC.

Copyright © 2023 Richard F. Chambers & Associates. All Rights Reserved.
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Audit Trail Academy
  • Advisory Services
  • Books