I have been advocating for a long time now for changing the name of the game: leaving behind the misnomer “compliance management” and putting the focus on culture, ethics and risk or simply put: good decision making. To use an analogy from the world of sports, more specifically football (I mean the European version where […]
When I was recently making my way through Istanbul to meet my wife for dinner, I was using Google Maps to take me on the fastest route through the evening rush hour. My wife was waiting at a gallery opening in Nişantaşı in the European part of the city and I was coming from Sancaktepe […]
I recently came upon this article titled “The Psychology of Risk” from the RIMS Risk Management Magazine online and I want to add my comments here. On the positive side the author mentions many of the important cognitive biases affecting our decision making processes and skewing the way we assess both impact and likelihood of […]
Independence and Objectivity The hallmarks of the Internal Audit profession are Independence and Objectivity. Without independence and objectivity there can be no truly effective auditing, because conclusions snd expressed opinions could be unfairly biased. “Independence is the freedom from conditions that threaten the ability of the internal audit activity to carry out internal audit responsibilities […]
Trust and reputation are assets. Corporate leaders are realizing that it is no longer sufficient to be just compliant with rules and regulations, and with the letter of the law as it is written today; instead organizations have to aspire much higher and constantly try to meet and exceed stakeholders’ and society’s expectations. Otherwise, trust […]
If you are a parent, you may be familiar with the fact that there’s a big difference between telling your kid who is climbing dangerously on a high tree: “This is very dangerous! Careful, or you will fall down and break a leg”, and saying: “Wow, you are very high up, but if you are careful and watch where you are putting your hands and feet, I trust that you are going to do great. I am here watching you and can guide you. But I know you can do it on your own.”
I recently attended a webinar with the promising title: “Improved Risk Management through Coordinated Assurance”. Some of the content resonated with my own thoughts and the discussions I have led with other internal audit and risk management practitioners in the course of the last ten years under different titles: convergence, combined assurance, aligned assurance. However, […]
When I first started my career, I was an internal auditor and the year was 2005. It was what I would call the “age of internal controls”. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was just a few years old and the German multinationals subject to it had yet to comply with section 404 in their […]
As Compliance professionals we can think of numerous controls and control enhancements to minimize compliance risks. But is risk minimization really the right objective?
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