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In this week’s video I discuss and provide my comments on Richard Chamber’s recent blog post “The Road Ahead for Internal Audit 5 Bold Predictions for the 2020s.”
I’m not so sure they are really “bold” but are some things you should be thinking of as you move into 2020.
A link to Richard’s blog is included below.
Have a great week 🙂
Transcript
welcome to another edition of the chief
00:03
audit executive briefing haiya this week
00:06
I wanted to talk a little bit about
00:08
Richard chambers most recent blog post
00:11
this called the road ahead for internal
00:14
audit five bold predictions for the
00:17
2020s so you know first off I’m not so
00:21
sure that these are really that bold of
00:23
statements but I wanted to go through
00:25
and just kind of talk to you about each
00:27
one of them because I think that really
00:30
they are things that you should be
00:32
considering especially as we’re moving
00:34
into 2020 now the first one that he
00:38
talked about is what he calls the rise
00:39
of uber auditing and and what that’s
00:43
meaning is it’s referring to the fact
00:45
that a lot of jobs an internal audit may
00:49
end up becoming short-term contracts
00:51
freelance type work which is its normal
00:55
I mean that’s expected we’ve been seeing
00:57
this trend for quite a while and of
01:00
course this is also going to affect our
01:03
profession as well
01:05
now with this a couple things for you to
01:08
think about so the first thing is yes
01:10
you may start using more outside
01:13
contractors to be able to help you in
01:15
your auditing and this makes a lot of
01:18
sense especially the more specialized we
01:22
get in some of the particular audits
01:24
that’s probably going to be a good
01:25
opportunity for you to bring in people
01:27
to help you on some of these more
01:31
specific type of projects that require a
01:34
higher level of expertise so that’s
01:38
going to be normal and again I think
01:40
you’ll be seeing this but also with us I
01:43
want to bring up another point that
01:44
again we’ve been seeing a lot too so he
01:47
makes reference to Eber and what you
01:50
we’ve been seeing in the news as well is
01:52
even though a lot of companies are
01:54
trying to move from employees to
01:58
independent contractors there’s been a
02:01
lot of companies that have gotten in
02:02
trouble for that and so this can also
02:05
relate to a risk in your organization as
02:08
well is to make sure that you are
02:11
actually
02:13
doing what you need to do so that it
02:16
doesn’t come back and bite you in the
02:17
butt later on it’s it’s the independent
02:21
contractor is getting to be a very
02:24
complex area and especially because
02:27
there have been some new laws and other
02:29
things that have come out there’s been
02:32
one in California and you’re gonna see
02:34
more coming out throughout the next year
02:37
so because usually once California does
02:40
something many of the other states start
02:42
to do that as well so I think that’s
02:44
going to raise a risk for most of your
02:46
organization’s that you’re going to want
02:48
to start thinking about your independent
02:50
contractor relationships and make sure
02:52
that you are modifying based on some of
02:55
those new laws or regulations the next
02:59
point was about data ethics and
03:01
artificial intelligence governance will
03:03
become the next decades culture audits
03:05
again I know a lot of people are still
03:08
struggling with trying to do culture
03:10
audits in we’re not really there yet
03:14
but I do agree with him that things
03:16
around data ethics around privacy are
03:20
going to be more and more important in
03:22
the future in fact again there was just
03:25
a recent bill that was proposed in
03:27
Congress this week to actually set up a
03:30
separate privacy regulator to be able to
03:34
help manage privacy around social
03:36
networks and some of the things like
03:38
that so that is going to be an area
03:41
again privacy will continue to be a
03:44
bigger and bigger thing now the third
03:47
point was the torch will be passed a new
03:49
tech savvy and tech fearless generation
03:51
I don’t think there’s anything bold
03:53
about that I think we’ve known that for
03:55
a long time we need to improve the IT
03:59
skills in our audit departments because
04:03
more and more of what we do is in
04:05
technology and requires those skill sets
04:08
the fourth one is about the image of
04:11
internal auditors as bean-counters will
04:13
finally end I hope that is the case I am
04:18
probably not as as optimistic about that
04:22
as what he may maybe
04:25
portraying their and here’s the reason
04:27
why a lot of Internal Auditors are still
04:30
focusing on accounting finance financial
04:33
reporting controls internal controls
04:36
around financial reporting we’ve been
04:37
stuck in that for a long time since
04:40
socks and we do have to break out of it
04:43
and I think that we can and we should
04:46
you know and the way to really be doing
04:50
that is through more risk-based internal
04:52
auditing and again not in the way that a
04:54
lot of times the ia talks about it
04:56
because they’re they’re talking about
04:59
risk usually at a very low level in the
05:01
organization but the way that risk-based
05:04
auditing was intended to begin with that
05:07
those of us in the profession that have
05:09
been talking about this for the last 10
05:11
or 15 years is where we’re focusing more
05:14
on the objectives of the organization
05:16
we’re partnering more with with
05:20
management and I think that is where
05:22
that’s going to help us to get out of
05:25
that bean-counter mentality he is as we
05:29
are helping management in auditing those
05:32
areas that relate to the key objectives
05:34
of the organization and really doing
05:36
risk-based internal auditing the way
05:39
that I teach it I think that really will
05:42
help us kind of get rid of that that
05:44
stigma from from a bean-counter
05:47
perspective but it means that we’re
05:50
gonna have to do a lot of things
05:51
different in the future the fifth one is
05:55
around scandals will heighten awareness
05:57
that internal audit serves the public
05:59
interest now there’s going to be a lot
06:03
of other scandals that come out we’re
06:06
due for another big issue where there’s
06:10
lots of corporate failures other
06:12
governance issues and scandals that will
06:15
come out now I don’t think that the
06:18
scandals by themselves will turn the
06:23
public’s attention and say oh we need
06:25
more internal auditing I think that’s
06:27
something that we are going to have to
06:30
help with and again that’s where
06:33
risk-based internal auditing can come in
06:35
and help as you are seeing other company
06:38
he’s going through these scandals you
06:41
know and going to your management trying
06:43
to help figure out do we have some of
06:45
the same issues here what can we do to
06:48
try to help you know change or do better
06:51
so that we don’t get pulled into those
06:53
same sorts of scandals some of that goes
06:57
back again the like what I was talking
06:58
about before with the independent
07:00
contractor status you know and like I
07:04
said there will be more scandals there
07:06
will be more regulation there will be
07:09
more laws that come out of it whether or
07:11
not internal audit is viewed by the
07:16
public as as kind of the savior on the
07:18
white horse to come in and save
07:21
everything I’m not sure about that but
07:24
again we need to be trying to do that
07:26
and to try to help out so that we can
07:30
end up providing more value to our
07:32
organizations because ultimately you
07:35
know unless we are doing that unless we
07:38
are actually focusing on the key
07:41
objectives of the organization and
07:43
helping the organization to meet those
07:46
objectives showing that we can actually
07:48
do that and then really moving into that
07:51
trusted advisor role that’s where we
07:55
really can help out in our organization
07:59
and again I’ll talk more about trusted
08:01
advisor because again I think a lot of
08:03
times people end up being either
08:06
frustrated ignored or tolerated
08:09
instead of being seen as a trusted
08:11
adviser but I don’t have time to talk
08:13
about that this week so anyway those are
08:16
some of my thoughts around richer’s most
08:19
recent blog and with that I wish you a
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great week ahead and look forward to
08:26
talking to you next week see ya
