View from the institute: Vision – our three-year objectives

Every business, regardless of size and sector, is navigating its way through constant change and disruption. Internal auditors know this – and understand the effects of such disruption – more than anyone. The Chartered IIA is not immune and, as a small business itself, must also adapt, change and constantly assess its resilience.

With this in mind, and with a new Chief Executive on board working closely with the Council, it seemed the perfect time to reassess where we are today and where we want to be in three years’ time. We have therefore produced a new three-year plan, setting out clearly our core purpose and the objectives that will help us to achieve this better and more sustainably.

The document begins – and is centred on – a clear articulation of our purpose. This is important because everything we do flows from it. It enables us to align staff and Council towards common goals. When everyone is clear about their purpose, it is far easier to put resources in place and ensure that all our day-to-day work supports our key objectives. We therefore strongly urge members to take a few moments to read our statement document and find out more – because, at heart, it is all about you.

For a start, we state that our purpose is to “champion and support internal auditing for the benefit of our members, organisations and society”. The institute is the “voice of the profession” and we “champion and promote the valuable contribution our members make to good corporate governance, strong risk management and a rigorous internal control environment,” which in turn enables them to ensure the long-term success of their organisations.

We are also “dedicated to supporting, educating, training, developing, promoting and advocating for the internal audit profession”. These elements of our work are essential to ensure a pipeline of qualified, professional and knowledgeable internal auditors in the future and to ensure that government, regulators and business leaders are aware of, and value appropriately, the important work they do. Crucially, we state that “we act in the public interest by delivering these key services”.

Communication with members is another priority. We must strive both to provide members with the information they need to do their jobs, and listen to what they have to say. This is why we urge everyone to read our full statement document and let us know if there’s anything we have missed out. We also invite you to attend our AGM, which this year will take place on the first day of our annual Internal Audit Conference – 3 October.

To support our statement of purpose, we have articulated four three-year objectives:

1. Developing and supporting talent for our members and our
own organisation.

2. Building knowledge and understanding for our membership
and our own organisation.

3. Influencing for the profession.

4. Creating a sustainable and resilient Chartered IIA.

Each of these is subdivided, providing details about what they will entail – from “celebrating excellence in the profession” via the Audit & Risk Awards and stories about successful members, to building research partnerships, developing new talent and influencing policy makers. All are important.

Sustainability is, of course, a vital ingredient to achieving these objectives. The institute cannot support its members and provide the resources members need if it is not sustainable and resilient itself. This is why it was good to see a recent statement from our Chief Financial Officer, Paddy Padmanathan, setting out how the institute’s financial health has improved over the past few years.

We are particularly conscious of our responsibility to maintain and enhance the institute’s resilience to change and disruption. The internal audit profession more than any other understands the importance of strong corporate governance. We are therefore well aware that managing the institute is about more than just doing the right things – we must create and maintain a stable basis to give longevity and credibility to the things we do.

In future issues, we will explain how we hope to improve the way members can interact with the institute and how we plan to improve members’ experience when contacting us. We will examine how these objectives will improve what we offer members and what they will mean in practice – from the ways we run our courses, forums and events, to vital information about changes to our certifications and Standards, our guidance on technical and best practice and the work we do to influence policy debate.

Last, but certainly not least, we are passionate about pursuing the objective to encourage more people to join our profession. This is important for the future of internal audit and vital for all our members who must consider the talent pipeline into their teams. In this issue, we consider the role played by internal audit apprenticeships and celebrate the fact that the numbers of internal audit apprentices are increasing. However, we must – and will – do more.

Setting out a purpose and objectives is one thing – the next step is to ensure that we act on them. We will keep members fully informed as we align our activities and start to make progress. We may not be able to predict the future, but we can ensure we are well placed to help internal auditing survive and thrive, whatever fortune throws our way. 

This article was published in July 2023.