About Us
A group of like-minded Internal Audit leaders started exchanging ideas about the challenges facing Internal Audit. Those ideas served as the starting point that became Internal Audit Next. This is only the beginning.
What We Realized
Boards, leaders in the executive suite, and even shareholders do not understand the value a high-functioning Internal Audit team, nor why they are so important.
We found ourselves explaining what Internal Audit was to people who should know already. We also found ourselves trying to explain risk to people who often don’t understand the value or risk based planning, decision making, and risk analysis to inform making better decisions. We also realized that many audit professionals have — unwittingly — fallen into the trap of engaging in what we call, “deck chairs on the Titanic exercises.” What we mean by that is that good controls can exist in a flawed process that doesn’t necessarily add value to the company.
The best companies, best teams, and best leaders, understand that planning and strategy are most effective when leaders and teams have a holistic perspective. The only team within an organization that has a truly holistic perspective is the Internal Audit function. Boards need to be more engaged with the Internal Audit function to help with holding business leaders accountable.
“A year of losses for the S&P 500:
The top index of US stocks hit an all-time high in January 2022. It was downhill from there. The S&P 500 lost 19.4% over the past 12 months, notching its worst year since 2008.”
Where Do We Go From Here?
The more time we spent with our contemporaries in other companies we realized that there were common traps to ineffective Internal Audit functions. They included:
Boards often don’t have a clear understanding of what Internal Audit does and how it can help the Board of Directors make more informed decisions.
Management perceived the work conducted by Internal Audit as a check the box exercise.
CEO’s and the most senior leaders didn’t value the work done by Internal Audit.
Internal Audit often doesn’t help its own case, instead it — often — focuses on the details at the expense of the bigger picture.
“If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.”
Want to Contribute?
We are always looking for like-minded Internal Audit leaders, board members, and business leaders to contribute to this forum. If you have an interest, contact us using the form below.
