Get ready for a ChatGPT showdown! Abbas Al Lawati and Alex Rusate go head-to-head, tackling an easy and a tough question. I then throw them a curveball to put their skills to the test! CHECK IT OUT HERE: http://tinyurl.com/35e8t288

Have you ever used humor to ease the tension and create a friendly atmosphere during audit projects? A timely joke often makes complex reviews feel more manageable. Don't miss an engaging discussion with Aziz Fatalyiev and Yevgenya Rossova, IIA Presidents of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, on the significance of humor in auditing. How do you use humor in your audit projects? Share your stories in the comments below!

Internal Auditors do not have business acumen. That is a common complaint about the profession. So, what steps are you taking to bridge this gap within your team? How do you plan to enhance your business acumen through training? Join Sowmya Krishnan and Shagen Ganason for an insightful conversation on this topic.

Linh Truong provides a detailed approach on how to do it! Video episode: http://tinyurl.com/3ux4neeh

What does it take to become a CAE? What does it take to keep your CAE job? What are some characteristics of future CAEs? Listen to Antonius Gunadi, an experienced audit leader, for his insights!

Ever wondered what former internal auditors think of internal audit? I was curious, so I asked within my company. Join me for insightful perspectives on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Internal Audit from Kelly Bucher, Director Technology Planning, and Ben Lewenczuk, Assistant Treasurer, both from Casey’s.

Alex Rusate was a member of the IIA pilot mentoring program with only about 20 participants. The program has grown to more than 800 participants across the globe. What can you do as a mentor and mentee to make the most of the program? How has it helped Alex? Listen in to find out!

Dr. Hernan Murdock has released a novel titled "The Change Agent". The book follows the journey of a Chief Audit Executive (CAE) faced with the ultimate challenge: transform and enhance the internal audit department or risk outsourcing the function. What would you do under those circumstances? Even if not currently facing this challenge, the book offers valuable insights for those seeking to improve their internal audit function. I hope you enjoy it!

Do you follow up on management action plans? Rarely we should, in Norman Marks' view. Mary Ann Khalil disagrees with that. In her view, what is not documented is not done. Anthony Garnett tends to agree with Mary and also thinks we should follow up on the risks instead of the exact actions agreed on. In his opinion, we should give management some time to respond to our findings, sometimes maybe even up to six months. After all, we at times deal with very complex issues. The crockpot versus microwave method. What do you think? Do you agree? Listen to this AUDIT TRUEL for great insights from three influential thought leaders. Many thanks for Mansour Lo for the idea for this episode!

What is the difference between a boss and a leader? What should you do to be a good leader and not a bad boss? Listen to Nichole Thompson for her insights on the topic!

On February 24, 2022, Iryna Unguryan's life took an unimaginable turn as Russian forces invaded her home country of Ukraine, forcing her to flee and leave everything behind. In this moving and motivating episode, gain a brief insight into her resilient path and discover what internal auditors can learn from her story to enhance their approach in the face of uncertainty.

Should we outsource Internal Audit? That was the crux of the debate between Alex Sidorenko and Doug Anderson. The only thing they agreed on was that Internal Auditors need more business acumen. What are your thoughts? Should it be outsourced?

What are the benefits and challenges of a guest auditor program? What does it have in common with the book 'To Kill a Mockingbird'? What does a guest auditor think of the internal audit process? Listen to Gijs Hendrix for his insight on guest auditor programs, and Raycardo Leite for his experience with it as a non-audit professional. Check Gijs' extensive research on the topic here: https://tinyurl.com/4pvsvum7

What are the successful traits of an internal auditor? Humble? Sure, but when is it okay to brag a little? Great communicators? Sure, but what are practical tips to get better at it? Listen to Shagen Ganason, CAE in South Korea, for his insights.

You are interviewing for a Chief Audit Executive position. What should you do to prepare? What should you avoid doing? What should be your priorities after joining? Listen to Chifundo Biliwita for his insights after recently going through that journey.

How do you audit culture? How do you differentiate when culture is a symptom and when it is the root cause of an issue? Can a small ‘culture issue’ turn out to be much more than that? Listen to James Paterson, author of Beyond the Five Whys, to find out!

What does magic have to do with fraud? What is the relation between the COSO framework and the rubik's cube? Listen to John Tonsick to find out! Check the video episode here: https://tinyurl.com/pt9zepd3

How can internal auditors balance the conflicting priorities of various stakeholders, such as investors, regulators, employees, and the wider community? What is the best to engage with those stakeholders? And if we have not met their expectations, what can we do to regain their trust? Listen to Sundaresan Rajeswar, CAE in Qatar, for a masterclass on the topic!

Your company gets a hint of a significant cybersecurity breach. What are the first three actions you would take? How has the digital transformation in recent years changed corporate governance? What theoretical governance principle is the hardest one to implement? Listen to Lior Segal, Chief Audit Executive in Israel, for his thoughts on these topics.

How would the auditing process work if every strategic decision translated into ethical credits or debits? If a company uses an ethically sound strategy that jeopardizes its competitiveness, what advice would you provide to its strategic management team? If you were a character in a science fiction novel set in a future where AI runs strategic management, how would you ensure these AI systems maintain ethical practices? Listen to Matej Drašček, Chief Audit Executive at LON Bank in Slovenia, for this take on the topic.

If auditors had to come up with ground-breaking ideas, what would be the first project they should launch? If auditors were to present at a TED Talk, what paradigm-shifting ideas should they share? Listen to David Dufek, Chief Internal Auditor at Principal Financial Group, answer these and many more questions about audit innovation. Oh, and learn why he would give a below bronze medal to ESG auditing. I fully agree with him on that one.

If you had all the resources, how would you build an audit department from the ground up? Listen in to this engaging debate between Trent Russell, Host of the Audit Podcast, and David Hill, CEO of SWAP Internal Audit Services.

Special episode with my Director, Kara Falco. Listen in to learn about what traits she looks for in an internal auditor, how she would approach auditing if there were no auditing standards, and lessons learned from her career progression at Casey's.

Summary of the IIA International Conference in Amsterdam from the perspective of 11 audit thought leaders.

Imagine you have access to a time machine that allows you to go back in time to any specific event. How would you use data analytics to uncover hidden patterns from that event? How will internal audit evolve with continuous monitoring? What innovative approach can you share to handle large datasets? Listen in to Mauricio Imenez, Director of Data Analytics at Grupo Bimbo, for his insights!

Is SOX ruining Internal Audit? Listen in to this engaging debate between Tim Leech, Managing Director at Risk Oversight Solutions, and Norman Marks, renowned audit leader and author of the Management's Guide to SOX. Check Norman's YouTube channel here: https://tinyurl.com/29rfnckv And blog here: https://tinyurl.com/5fw2ptee Check Tim's article here: https://tinyurl.com/sv5bjvnh

If your audit department could have one Artificial Intelligence 'superpower', what would it be? What are some bias risks that you see with AI? If we were to fast-forward to 2030, what do you think an 'AI auditor' role might look like? Listen in to what Alan Maran, CAE at Chewy, had to say about the topic. I hope you enjoy it!

Why should you care about KRIs? If you had to implement them, how would you go about doing that? Thoughtful panel discussion on the topic, featuring Linh Truong, Marco Nutini, and Robert Berry.

Do we need Internal Audit where we are not wanted? A profound and philosophical discussion, but at times a semantic discord, between Marcel Scholte and Sabrina Segal. Who do you agree with?

Edwin Dorsey exposed care.com by creating a fake Harvey Weinstein account. In this episode, he shared his favorite ways of finding dubious companies, some of the financial information he looks for to expose a company, and some techniques employed to find wrongdoing. I hope you enjoy it! Bear Cave newsletter: https://thebearcave.substack.com/

Audit recommendations are useless. That was Robert Berry's proposition. They waste time and negatively affect relationships with clients. Qadir Abdul's position was that they are not useless. Recommendations are part of the dynamic of change. What do you think?

Last December I wrote this article with my friend Alex Ruehle on how to pitch Internal Audit to Elon Musk: https://tinyurl.com/ub5dcfjn We received several responses from the Internal Audit community and selected four (LinkedIn poll limit) to participate in a MASKED PITCH competition. What is a MASKED PITCH competition? Well, have you heard of the MASKED SINGER competition? It's similar, but we anonymize the Internal Audit pitch to Elon Musk. What is your favorite pitch? LinkedIn link: https://tinyurl.com/28vfa8zt LinkedIn IIA group link: https://tinyurl.com/ym83z75t

Are auditors responsible for finding fraud? That was the debate between Alaba Awolaja, Chief Managing Consulting at GOARISC and Oversight, and Emmanuel Johannes, CEO at Kepler Associates. The audit profession has had recent developments in this space lately: - Last December, three audit and risk officers at Wells Fargo faced potential multi-million dollar fines for their role in the fake account scandal - Last month, the UK parliament proposed a bill making "failure to prevent fraud" a criminal offense As one would expect, this is a hot topic, so...it was a passionate debate! Both agreed that auditors are not proficient in detecting fraud. What are your thoughts?

Annual Audit Plans are useless. Risks evolve and we need to revamp the plan as needed. How should you respond to your Audit Committee if they still ask for an annual audit plan? Will performing a continuous risk assessment really take more time than once a year? What if you don't hear back from the business when you want their input more often? These were the questions answered by Michele Variale, Chief Audit and Risk Officer at Telepass in Italy. I hope you enjoy the episode!

What is better than an AUDIT DUEL? An AUDIT TRUEL! What an instant classic with David Hill, Renato Trisciuzzi, and Tracie Marquardt, as they debated better ways to communicate audit results. What is your strategic communication plan? Can we just use a dynamic dashboard instead of audit reports? Why do we need the audit reports in the first place? Why can’t we let go of these ‘audit traditions’? These were some of the many topics discussed during the debate. I hope you enjoy it!

Is artificial intelligence overhyped? In this AUDIT DUEL, Alex Ruehle, CEO of zapliance, and Darren Roberts, Technology and Digital Director at SWAP Internal Audit Services, debate the issue. Alex says that we can't leave AI to the data geeks and IT auditors, and must embrace the technology so that we are not left behind, while Darren questions what the "A" in AI really stands for, augmented or artificial? And also asks, is ChatGPT just an advanced API? What is your take on the topic?

A large retailer in Brazil recently had a $4 billion "accounting inconsistency." What happened? Was it fraud or an accounting error? If it was a fraud, should the auditors be responsible for it? These were the questions answered by Marcelo Almeida, host of the Voice of Integrity podcast. Marcelo's website: https://compliancebsb.com.br/

Feedback episode. How can you engage with the podcast? There are four ways: 1) Take part as a guest, in short 15 minute-interviews (most of the time). 2) Take part in the AUDIT DUEL segment. Do you have a controversial, non-conformist idea to debate and share with the Internal Audit community? I want to hear from you. 3) Take part in the AUDIT FAIL segment. Do you have a failure experience you can share with the community? Let me know! 4) Provide feedback on topics, future guests, and general comments on what I can do better. Complete the form here: https://tinyurl.com/28bmbv8r

Why do auditors get blamed so much for fraud and is that fair? What is the best free fraud detection tool? What are some other resources auditors should use? These were some questions answered by Haddon Fields. He is the Special Investigations Trainer with The PsyFIN Group which focuses on training investigators, auditors and other investigative personnel in innovative means of investigation, fraud, digital privacy, OSINT, and investigative leadership. He can be found online at: www.psyfingroup.com. Listeners of AuditFun 15 can get 15% of any PsyFIN Group course by using coupon code: AuditFun15.

Why do auditors need to do a better job of marketing themselves? If you had 20 seconds to pitch Internal Audit to Elon Musk, what would your pitch be? If you were asked to create a short internal audit slogan, what would it be? These were the questions answered by Charles Schrock, publisher of the Audit Explainer website, and retired CAE. Follow him for some of the most fantastical internal audit stories. Like how Leonardo da Vinci became famous because of an internal auditor, and how an auditor was instrumental in testing and naming the Pontiac GTO. Fantasy? We call it marketing. theauditexplainer.wordpress.com

Do CPEs lead to new skills? If a doctor or a teacher does not keep up with current practices and knowledge, they get instant 'customer' feedback, but does the same happen with internal auditors? That was one of the many questions raised during the duel by Nicola. Jamie proposed that with the right experts, content, and platform, CPEs add value. What do you think?

In this episode, I interviewed Adefisayo Adefarakan, CEO and Managing Partner of Pharakan & Associates to talk about Quality Assessment Reviews (QARs). Adefisayo covered why Internal Auditors should care about QARs, other than because it’s an IIA requirement, and also discussed some of our blind spots and quick-wins he has learned in performing QARs. I hope you enjoy it! His website: https://www.pharakanassociates.com/

In this episode, I spoke with Barrie Enslin, Managing Director at Pro Optima Services. Barrie shared his Start with Intuition Method (SWIM), and In & Out Audit approach. Auditors MUST look beyond the paper. Over 40% of his projects have paid for themselves, matter of fact these projects have paid for the remaining 60%! How does he do it? Listen in to find out. I hope you enjoy it!