Richard Chambers has shared his valuable insights in another post. In Europe’s Internal Auditors Are Already Identifying the Risks for 2021 he makes a number of excellent observations, especially his opening paragraph:
As we enter the fourth quarter of a historically difficult and disruptive year, internal audit leaders around the world are looking to next year with some degree of trepidation. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that new risks can emerge at lightning speed and have profound impacts on our organizations and lives.
I also like that he pointed out that internal auditors (at least in Europe, which is where the data is from) are spending their time addressing what were perceived as the top risks.
While he references a report from a consortium of European internal audit associations (ECIIA) that sought to understand what practitioners believed were the top five risks to address in 2021, he said:
As the COVID-19 marathon continues to reshape the risk landscape, internal auditors must be keen to the changing needs of the organization and pivot to address those quickly and effectively.
It’s not just COVID that could be “reshaping the risk landscape”. Organizations and practitioners should be thinking about an uncertain global and national economy, the potential for unrest…
