Date: 3rd May, 2014
Good day Readers!!!!
May is being celebrated as the month of spreading awareness on Internal Audit among stakeholders, professionals and public at large. I am proud to be part of this fraternity and it’s exciting to listen story from the mouth of the horse – It’s like Jaffrey Archer is telling story about his detective novel, Pierce Brosnan (007) is telling story about making of Golden eye…….
Why is it so special about it????? Because they are the one who has thrilled about it and has 360⁰ experienced about it and that you can experience in their sharing also with their expression, punctuations, emotions as compared to a person who has read the story or seen the movie.
On this exciting day, I also thought to share what I feel as internal auditor on rise of internal audit out of my 17 years professional journey. It was expected to not to write jargons & theories on internal audit since it is well written many places. I thought what else can be best, than to share how do I see world of internal audit as an internal auditor. I am sure it would be interesting for readers also to see internal audit differently. Many times we get criticism of being theoretical & impractical in carrying out our duties, so let’s see practical side of life of Ia (internal auditor)……….
Being internal auditor, before beginning my journey how can I forget to give disclaimer that please don’t wear your glasses of professionals in reading this article to find mismatch between your knowledge of world and my knowledge of world. Intention as mentioned in the title is more to share story from the mouth of internal auditor about internal audit and not to audit the article, which typically back of the mind happens usually for internal auditor, so my fellow brothers and sisters if you are reading it…..seat back, relax, enjoy & cherish your past memories.
In late 80s and early 90s the world was different. We are calling it as Retro style with bell bottom pants, Elvis Presley styles haircuts, audio cassette players and certainly we were also in Retro mode at that time. Profession was emerging from the clouds, when it wasn’t known and preferred career destination. Perhaps only big empires were only hiring it and objective was more control oriented. Sample checking, physical verification, books of accounts, trial balance etc. were routines, followed by report on paper. Perhaps it was much centered on financials & reporting areas. In my eyes at that time, people & business wasn’t so much greedy behind economic goals. Life surrounding us were having time for personal life & family.
Then time came in late 90s & end of 20th Century. Millennium change, globalization were buzz word at that time. Bill gates & technology experts were busy on teaching to computer how to read 1999 + 1 = 2000. Many of controls were surrounding how successfully system adopts this change from 1999 to 2000. IT (Information Technology) was around business to help business in data gathering, storing and using it in faster way. For us, life was slowly changing since business complexity was increasing. Earlier practices and scope of internal audit wasn’t enough to help business in getting satisfaction on existence of controls & sustainability of business.
Our scope expanded from a simple auditor to a helping hand to the business, who can rely on an independent person to see how operations are working, whether meeting business, legal, economic standards or not. Now by this time, slowly pressures was on rise in economy, work & life. Awareness and demand for our profession was on rise. Still internal audit was a support function. On personal side, still person was able to go home and take dinner with family happily.
Oh my god……… then race of economy, globalization, profit, numbers, and success has started growing exponentially in 21st century. Human & business greed has started shaping world on fast track. Need for more, new, innovations, creativity are buzz word. Certainly there is negative side of this development also. Major turnaround in my profession I can recall was the time around collapse of energy behemoth Enron and emergence of SOX. IT has taken charge of the business and now business is much surrounding IT. Complexity of business, processes, economy, IT, legal & regulatory requirements increased so much and that has made our current Avatar of Internal Auditor - from helping hand independent person to a must needed professional & trusted advisor.
In these days buzz words in our fraternity is IT & process controls, Segregation of Duties, Continuous improvement, Compliance, Assurance, Fraud Detection & Mitigation, Change management etc. Today internal audit is no more a support function. We are as good as business man. I can say perhaps internal auditor would be the best person who has 360⁰ view of the business. He is like sitting on the tower and can see how business is operated down. Earlier mostly finance professionals were part of this profession but today people from all fraternities are part of this profession.
Today’s best practices includes thinking internal audit as strategic business unit where they can develop talent and then people can take higher roles or special roles in the organization. It’s not surprising where now from internal audit, people are taking roles in operations, finance and many other important positions in the organization.
Personally it’s quite exciting to recollect the transition & rise of internal audit from passive role to active role in business.
This global development has benefitted everyone, but always benefit has cost to pay. Personally, I believe in balancing, work life & personal life. Time to time, I referred about changes that has happened in personal life of every one and so of ours also. In this developing and fast growing life, change in life is evident by increased work pressures, ever changing challenges in work & business environment, more & more time behind work, scarcity of time for life & family, increased health hazards and many other things that you are already experiencing in today’s life.
Nevertheless, by virtue of history of development & professional zeal of continuous improvement, I believe time will come when perhaps current business & life goals surrounded by economic development will transform into better living, making earth good place to live, usage of renewable energy & resources, social responsibility above economic goals, being human etc.
Let me end this journey with the proud feeling of being internal auditor and part of this ever changing profession which has not only led me to assess business deliverables but also personal deliverables towards my life, family, society, profession etc.
With best compliments………..
Parth Dave
FCA, CISA, CIA, CRMA
You can reach me on – parthkdave@gmail.com
