The internal audit function must adapt to meet the evolving demands of the turbulent Fourth Industrial Revolution. By embracing the concepts of intelligent organizations, digital business agility and a flux mindset, internal audit can maintain its significance and relevance and become a key player in driving organizational innovation for success.
Here are nine key practical tips for how to use internal audit to drive organizational innovation:
- Embrace a forward-looking approach—Shift from a traditional retrospective analysis to a more consultative and predictive approach.
- 培养不断变化的心态澳门赌场官方下载 and feel comfortable with change as an ongoing aspect of the business in addition to developing more effective response skills to cope with change.
- 变得敏捷澳门赌场官方下载 agile culture and methodologies in the audit process by promoting quick execution and being responsive to changes in the business environment. Audit plan methodology and procedures should be adapted accordingly.
- 扮演推动者的角色—Implement content validity approaches, such as an expert panel inter-rater agreement for reconciliation, to overcome setbacks arising from professional disagreements among decision-makers concerning innovation within the organization.
- Lead a decision-driven culture—Strengthen the factual foundation of your audits through professional and academic research, 基准测试, advanced data analytics and methodologies. Leverage advanced data analytics tools and techniques such as artificial intelligence to gain insights from large datasets and codified knowledge. 分析趋势, patterns and anomalies to efficiently and effectively pinpoint areas that require attention.
- Master technology knowledge and proficiency—Stay informed of recent digital 技术. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the potential impact of these 技术 on business processes, products and services by actively applying these 技术 in internal audit processes, gaining valuable hands-on experience.
- Promote collaboration and knowledge sharing——开放的沟通, idea-sharing and collaboration are key to driving creativity and exploring new possibilities. Act as a platform for the expression of unspoken internal and external perspectives.
- 敬请关注—Continuously invest in professional development and stay informed about industry trends, 技术, emerging risk and best practices related to innovation. Attend relevant conferences, seminars and training programs.
- Conduct an open-innovation approach—Expand your incoming knowledge funnel by engaging with other auditors, industry experts and professional networks. Seek external perspectives and benchmark against industry standards to gain better hyper-sensitivity skills and foster creative insights.
编者按: For further insights on this topic, read 诺姆Koriat’s recent Journal article, “Internal Audit as a Driver of Innovation,” ISACA杂志，第4卷，2023年.
