As Internal audit leaders go about their work, there are many decisions to make: How to assess risk? What to audit? How to acquire the expertise needed to execute certain audits? What audit technologies to adopt? How to build the internal audit team? And on and on. Sometimes we make Read More
These days an internal auditor is required to be a jack-of-all-trades. To complete the diverse set of audits that cover every facet of the organization, the internal audit team must collectively possess a vast array of skills that run the gamut from traditional financial talents to marketing, HR, and technology Read More
A short while ago, I was talking to an internal audit manager whom I had been helping with her audit of enterprise risk management at her company. Not surprisingly, her team found a great many issues. Communicating her opinion, that the risk management team and related activities were not seen Read More
We all know that internal auditors play a unique and complex role at the organizations where they work. They must serve many constituencies and customers, including the operating units they audit, the board and senior managers they report to, not to mention fellow employees, consumers, regulators, and citizens at large Read More
When you go to the doctor, do you want them to tell you what’s really wrong with you so that you can begin to treat the actual illness? Or are you content with that doctor only treating the symptoms, leaving the actual illness undiagnosed? Of course not. Well, issuing reportable Read More
Activision Blizzard, one of America’s largest video game developers, has received widespread criticism from several employees and a lawsuit in California for what some call a “frat boy” workplace culture. Now its CEO is promising a full review and series of initiatives to address the problems. Employees at the video Read More
In the current business environment, senior management is asking some internal audit functions to do more work that resembles quality assurance. There are several reasons for this, but generally those reasons fall under the heading of business process disruption in one form or another. These may be disruptions to the Read More
As more Americans receive vaccinations and the rate of COVID-19 cases steadily declines, more companies are planning for employees to return to their offices. Even as they do, work promises to look different than it did before many started working from their dining room tables and basements. Perhaps nowhere is Read More
May is Internal Audit Awareness Month. To celebrate the occasion, I am sharing my top five best practices for writing good internal audit reports. Internal audit reports are changing rapidly, from a stodgy, long and boring report that is partly there to serve as evidence that you conducted an audit, Read More
The recent hack of the Colonial Pipeline, which has crippled the transmission of fuel in the Southeast United States, serves as a stark and alarming reminder to all businesses of the vulnerability of information systems to security breaches, hacks, and ransomware attacks. Over the last several years, most businesses have Read More
