The first article in this series explored the first characteristic – business alignment. In this next installment, we explore characteristic #2 – internal audit stakeholder relationship management through the examination of three areas: operating as risk and control experts, deploying sophisticated stakeholder management skills, and focusing on the business customer:
- Internal audit risk and control experts
- Seamless internal audit stakeholder relationship management
- Customer outcomes
Internal audit risk and control experts
High performance internal audit teams do not simply point out control failures and track management action toward rectifying these issues, they proactively advocate for effective internal controls, educate the business on what this means, and identify how they can go about achieving this. This creates a greater chance of real sustainable improvement throughout the organization’s control environment.
Significant enhanced value can be delivered through the audit function taking the lead on educating and training everyone across the organization on what internal controls are, how they work, and where they can go wrong. In short, moving from commenting from the…
