The aim of internal auditing is to add value and improve organizational operations, assisting companies in achieving their goals. Based on years of practical experience, I believe that clearly defining the specific values of internal auditing is the prerequisite for maximizing its effectiveness. The ten major values that internal auditing brings to enterprises include:
1) Strategic Value: Internal audit provides support for strategic decision-making, ensuring that strategic directions are correct and that strategies are effectively executed. Through in-depth analysis of macroeconomic policies, market trends, industry dynamics, and competitors, it supports long-term strategic planning for the enterprise, helping companies discover growth opportunities and optimize resource allocation.
2) Cultural Value: Internal audit helps maintain the ideal corporate culture through independent and objective assurance and consulting activities, reinforcing integrity, compliance, and probity in the company. It ensures that management practices adhere to legal requirements and social ethical norms, preserving the company’s good reputation both internally and externally.
3) Information Value: Through comprehensive financial reviews and risk assessments, internal audit integrates information, providing decision support to senior management. It assists various departments in understanding operational conditions and making reasonable business plans. As experts in data analytics, internal audit can also assist the organization in finding insights in the mountains of data it collects.
4) Asset Value: Internal audit identifies cases of unreasonable resource allocation or waste, offering improvement suggestions. It helps companies optimize resource allocation and enhance the efficiency of resource utilization.
5) Talent Value: Internal audit evaluates the efficiency and effectiveness of human resources management, proposing optimization recommendations. It aids companies in attracting, cultivating, and retaining talent, enhancing the competitiveness of human resources. (See also, “Eight Hiring and Retention Mistakes Internal Audit Leaders Make.”
6) Governance Value: Internal audit assesses the effectiveness of corporate governance structures, suggesting improvements. It assists companies in establishing and maintaining effective governance mechanisms, elevating governance standards.
7) Systemic Value: Through investigations and studies on the execution of systems, internal audit ensures that systems are followed effectively. It promotes timely iteration and refinement of systems, enhancing management efficiency.
8) Synergy Value: Internal audit promotes synergy throughout the company, identifying and evaluating potential barriers and risks in collaborative efforts. It drives the establishment of a unified synergy culture and philosophy, enhancing overall cohesion.
9) Integration Value: By integrating information, resources, operations, and controls, internal audit assists companies in optimizing business processes, reducing operating costs, increasing operational efficiency, and establishing sound internal control and risk management systems.
10) Transformation Value: Internal auditing drives organizational, cultural, and process transformations in companies, consolidating the outcomes of reforms. It helps companies adapt to changes in new environments, enhancing competitiveness.
These top ten values are intricately linked, with strategy and culture at the core, information, assets, and talent as key elements, governance and systems as mechanisms, and synergy, integration, and transformation as actions. Together, they form a logically rigorous whole for value creation in enterprises. Internal auditing serves not only the strategic needs of the enterprise but also plays a significant role in the modernization of national governance systems and capabilities. It is a crucial force in driving corporate reform and enhancing competitiveness. 
The purpose of this article is to get a conversation started on How Internal Audit Adds Value. Please contribute your own thoughts in the comments section below:
Jianzhong Xie, CIA, CAP , is a seasoned economist and 20-year veteran in internal audit and risk management, dedicated to advancing the field through practical experience and insightful thought leadership.
Insightful