SUPPORT CENTER
Q&A 2nd Qtr 2002

Date: 5/15/02

QUESTION: I have recently been appointed as the owner of a very complex business system. It impacts the operations of several organization units. There are several vice presidents and senior vice presidents involved. Initially I was excited about the idea since I believed that I could make a difference and solve the organization wide issues, which have adversely impacted customer service in our company. Now I am frustrated. Everyone expects me to solve the problems but I have no control over the areas where the action needs to be taken. I sense that I am being set up. Do you have any thoughts?

ANSWER: You are. (Sorry - I know that is not the answer that you were looking for.) The concept of an owner sounds good in theory because it gives the illusion that someone is taking ownership for the issues. It sounds good to everyone except the poor "owner" who quickly finds, as you have, that you are now blamed for everything but have no control over anybody.

The vice presidents have abdicated their responsibility to establish effective Governance over the process. Until this is done, you, or anyone else in your situation, will not be effective. It is not easy to get them to correct this situation from your position (I am assuming that you are not a vice president). I suggest that you refer to our Practical Governance and Risk Management book (available on this web site) to understand the role of Governance in cross functional processes and then work with your vice president to get those critical governance processes established. Without Governance, you are being set up to fail.

DATE: 4/30/02

QUESTION: What is the ideal number of people to have on an RBIA audit team?

ANSWER: Two to three, including the audit executive.

DATE: 4/15/02

QUESTION: Where can I get information on Best Practices for Sales & Marketing Operations? Looking for information on auditing these areas.

ANSWER: I recommend that you begin your search for best practices for sales and marketing operations with your company's marketing department. There is so much variety as to what works and what does not work in the sales and marketing world that the subject of best practices has to be looked at in light of the industry, geographical and market segment that you are dealing with. What may be a best practice in one industry may be a guaranteed failure in another. Your sales and marketing department would know where to find best practices for their market situation.

As for auditing sales and marketing operations, we suggest that your audit executives and the VPs in the Sales and Marketing areas discuss the specific risks in your company, in your market segment, in your industry and your geographical region that threaten their ability to meet their business objectives. Then follow the Risk Based Integrated Auditing process from that point. We have used RBIA very successfully in sales and market environments. One reason why RBIA works so well in these areas is RBIA's focus on helping executives be successful in accomplishing their business objectives. Sales VPs are very focused on accomplishing their selling objectives.

DATE: 4/3/02

QUESTION: We attended an IIA session on your Risk Based Integrated Auditing approach and liked it so much that we implemented it. Our audit managers are having a lot of trouble making the transition to the audit executive role and I don't feel that we are making the right connections with company management. Any ideas?

ANSWER: One day RBIA overview sessions for IIA Chapters do not provide you with all the information that you need to implement RBIA and make it work. To solve your problem, you and your General Auditor should attend one of our seven, regularly scheduled, RBIA four day seminars (the next one is in Newark, NJ on April 22). This will give you a better perspective of how RBIA works and we can discuss your implementation issues in detail.

From your question, I assume that you have taken your existing Audit Managers and assigned them the Audit Executive role. If your audit approach prior to RBIA was a traditional "corporate cop" type approach, you may be setting those audit managers up to fail by having them perform the audit executive role. You simply cannot "beat people up, play gottcha, copy their laundry all over the place" one day, and have those same audit managers say to those who have been on the receiving end "we're here to help you be successful" tomorrow. That simply doesn't work.

There are a lot of things that you have to do to implement RBIA successfully. The above issue, and many other implementation issues are covered in our "Implementing RBIA" guide available on this web site. It will help you address a lot of issues that you are struggling with.

The Best of the Best for 2006

RBIA Gold Medal
Ms. Martha Mimica, Florida Power & Light

RBIA Silver Medal
Mr. Bill Egan, Scotts Company

RBIA Bronze Medal
Mr. Dan Ashley, Qwest Communications

Congratulations!
prior year winners

SOX 404 RISK CONTROL MANAGER 2.1 SOFTWARE


a cost effective way
to document controls

AUDIT TEAM MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM (ATMS) SOFTWARE


best value available for
small audit groups

Updated: February 2, 2007