Global Chairman of the Board of Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA, 2020-21), Jenitha John.
Doha: For internal auditors and their organisations, resilience demands far-reaching transformation, especially during this unprecedented and challenging environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic, noted the Global Chairman of the Board of Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA, 2020-21) Jenitha John (pictured) at a virtual event hosted by IIA’s Qatar Chapter, recently.
“Resilience in times of crisis means the capacity to rebound, ability to achieve, and capability to succeed. Today’s crisis requires organisations to bounce back and bounce forward to achieve far-reaching transformation.
Most of us have experienced business, either progressing or regressing within an evolving risk landscape. So much has changed-perhaps permanently,” said John while addressing Qatar Chapter members at the special event in the talk titled ‘Reimagining Resilience.’
John is Chief Executive Officer at the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) South Africa. She has more than 26 years of experience in internal auditing, including as a Chief Audit Executive. Recognised as South Africa’s internal auditor of the year in 2014, John has addressed conferences worldwide on a wide array of topics.
Over the past five years, Audit hotspots have been around data privacy, information security, cybersecurity, fraud, risk culture, geopolitical uncertainty, and changing consumer behavior. However, hotspots that emerged in 2020 are business continuity and crisis response, sustainability, and operational resilience. Looking back at events that changed the business world from 2001 onwards indicates that though change is constant, the velocity of risk increased.
She enlisted strategic response to COVID-19. These are the assessment of short-term and long-term impact, business continuity plan, scenario testing for response capabilities, evaluation of the third-party relationship, and regular updates or top management discussions.
“If we look at lessons learned by internal audit in terms of what went right are quick update on audit plans, reassessed risks swiftly, went out of regular audit to assist business priorities, and proved additional value by being agile and flexible. What went wrong are hesitation in taking on high profile role, key risks not adequately mapped, delay in understanding risks, and not involving soon enough,” said Jenitha.
Internal Auditors in the ‘Novel’ tomorrow should be visionary to use hindsight to probe changes, understand challenge perspectives, have the clarity to cultivate opportunities, and imbibe agility to harness innovation. John used the acronym ‘TACTT’ - Technology, Agility, Collaboration, Talent, and Tenacity, to elaborate on how to become Resilient. The parting message was, “Let us work together to Rescan the landscape, Refocus on new realities, Reshape audit perceptions and Reinvent internal audit.”
“The presentation had a far-reaching effect with a futuristic view of the emerging new realities much beyond the internal audit profession. Auditors over 100 were spellbound by the depth of details and deliberations on factors favoring sustainability, the reasoning for remaining relevant, and how to reimagine resilience”, said Sundaresan Rajeswar, the IIA Qatar Board member who coordinated the event.
Fahad Al Marri Chapter Senior Vice-President welcomed the gathering. Girish Jain, Murali Krishnan, Murtaza hosted the webinar.
