Innovation for Audit Managers

In this ever changing world, it's important for auditors to stay relevant, to come up with new ideas, to be innovative. Hello, I'm Kathy Chambers, edutainer for ACI Learning. Joining me is Dr. Hernan Murdock. Welcome Dr. Hernan. Nice to be here with you. Let's begin by learning more about you. Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Yes, I've been in the profession for many years, in fact, decades. And over the years I have audited a variety of different industries, everything from manufacturing to telecom to hotel and hospitality. I've done a lot of work in the United States and abroad, small and large organizations. And as I've been in this profession for so many years, I've also seen a lot of the transformation that has happened. I am certified as an internal auditor. I also have certification in risk management assurance. And I bring all of this as I have researched a lot of topics that have impacted the profession over the years. Some of my books involved tools and techniques for internal auditors, which I have updated many times to make sure I reflect a lot of different tools that we can use to be more effective in our work. Also were books on management techniques and different things that are impacting the profession as an operational auditor. So as we talk about innovation, I look at it as a concept. I see it as a practice and trend. And I also see it as something that provides a lot of opportunities for us to be able to increase our awareness of what the possibilities are. And how we can rebrand ourselves and help internal audit become a better contributor to value creation in their organizations. Well, these lessons that you've put together for our viewers are really exciting because it talks about innovation. Why is it so important to be innovative as an auditor? The world is changing. Organizations are changing and adapting to the world in which we now live and work. And internal auditors need to be responsive to a lot of these dynamics. There are a lot of different things that need to be looked at within organizations and expectations continue to increase. Our stakeholders expect more from us. We need to think differently and act differently. We need to help the organization make decisions that are going to help them be successful in the short, medium, and long term. So by looking at it from an innovative perspective, we're able to then think in terms of how we can go about making internal audit a better player, more valuable contributor. And helping internal auditors do a better job at what they need to do. One of the best parts about these lessons is that you introduce the viewers to all these amazing tools. Can you give us kind of an example or behind the scenes look at what our viewers are going to learn from this? Yes, so some of these tools are geared towards managers and what they can do from the perspective of helping to mobilize their staff, generate ideas, how to prioritize the dynamics that they want to focus on. And how they can include the staff in this process. Some of these are also going to be outward looking in terms of how we can help our clients also, so we can facilitate these conversations more effectively with them. And then some of these are some of the things that we can then consider in terms of enhancing our policies and our procedures within audit. New tools that auditors can use as they're going about their work, doing assurance, and doing consulting work. So a lot of different dynamics from a management perspective, from a practitioner perspective, how we can use them within audit, and outside as well. Gotcha, Hernan, can you expand on what our viewers are going to learn about working with clients? What are some innovative ways or maybe things that they haven't tried before that they'll learn throughout these lessons? A big part of this is changing the way we think and how we proceed. So we have a long tradition in internal audit of doing things a certain way. We have our methodologies, we have our tools, and they go to tools from that perspective in terms of what we usually use when we're doing a review. But there are so many other things we can do. So part of it is thinking creatively about what we need to get answers to. And then what tools are going to be helpful to us and able to accomplish these things. As managers, we need to know these things, but we also need to be able to mobilize our staff. So the idea is to help us think more broadly and how the tools that are going to help us get these things accomplished. What are some things that our viewers will learn as they try to take all these ideas and have them be sustainable, right? Have them not change and make them effective within their organization. What are some lessons that the viewers will learn there? So part of it is going to be how to make sure we broaden our horizons and how we are going to think more creatively about what we need to do. But not only to think about these things, but also how to implement them, and implement them sustainably. So that they are going to stick and they are going to help us elevate our work and be able to then become that next level from which we're going to continue to grow and improve. So the idea is to think about new ways of doing things, being able to implement them effectively, and make sure that those things are going to give us the value that we hope that these ideas are going to create. And hopefully, they will. Thank you so much Dr. Hernan for putting together all of these great lessons. To our viewers, we hope you enjoy them in innovation for audit managers. [MUSIC]