Master vital emerging risks in internal audit, from fortifying organizational resilience and navigating macroeconomic uncertainty to optimizing workforce and IT/data governance.
With Digital Disruption, AI, Economic Changes and overall business changes, the world has become a very different place. Internal auditors are faced with a tremendous impact on their audit plans, causing refocus and realignment of not just projects, but resources. As a profession, internal auditors have traditionally focused on past events or as some would say, taking the “look in the rear-view mirror”. Most financial or accounting professionals can look at previous year data and tell management where past mistakes were made.
With the evolving landscape, risks and the economy, internal auditors must look to stretch their skills to areas that are most valued by their organizations. Today’s, insight may well be tomorrow's hindsight.
Stakeholders seek to navigate the future more than revisit the past or dwell in the present. We need to concentrate on the risks of tomorrow if we are to not only protect but enhance value for our organizations. We must start looking beyond the horizon to identify emerging risks.
This is part one in a four-part series in which we will take a deep dive into the individual’s suggested risk areas. In this session, we will examine three areas of focus and some of the most impactful risks that Internal Audit should focus on during the new normal.
• Heightened Focus on Organizational Resilience
• Elevated Macro Environment Uncertainty
• Humanization vs. Dehumanization of the Workforce
After reviewing these areas, we will then link them to “Hot Spot” topics as identified by the Gartner Group that internal audit should be attuned to in years forward. Within each part, as we delve into the hot spot areas, we will discuss internal audit’s role and objectives as well as potential audit tests that should be considered when evaluating the particular hot spot.
This session begins by examining the three focus areas previously listed, and then begins to delve into the first two Hot Topic areas of IT governance and data governance.
Prerequisites
No advanced preparation or prerequisites are required for this course. However, it is recommended to take the other Internal Audit Emerging Risks course series by Lynn Fountain.
Lynn Fountain has over 45 years of experience spanning public accounting, corporate accounting and consulting. 24 years of her experience has been working in the areas of internal and external auditing. She is a subject matter expert in multiple fields including internal audit, ethics, fraud evaluations, Sarbanes-Oxley, enterprise risk management, governance, financial management and compliance. Ms. Fountain has held two Chief Audit Executive positions for international companies. In 2011, as the Chief Audit Executive for an international construction/ engineering firm, she was involved in the active investigation of a joint venture fraud. The investigation included work with the FBI and ultimately led to indictment of the perpetrators and recovery of $13M. Ms. Fountain is currently engaged in her own training and consulting business and is a regular trainer for the AICPA. Ms. Fountain is the author of three separate technical books. “Raise the Red Flag – The Internal Auditors Guide to Fraud Evaluations” was published by the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation. -“Leading The Internal Audit Function” and -“Ethics and The Internal Auditor Political Dilemma” were published by Taylor & Francis In addition Ms. Fountain was a contributing author to the certification program exam for the National Association of Accountants. She also has certificate programs on various on-line platforms. Ms. Fountain has performed as an adjunct instructor for the School of Business for Grantham University and developed the first internal audit curriculum for the School of Business at the University of Kansas. Ms. Fountain obtained her BSBA from Pittsburg State University and her MBA from Washburn University in Kansas. She has her CGMA, CRMA credentials and CPA certificate (non-active).
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