What does the future hold for the internal audit profession? Protiviti explores this question at some level in every annual edition of Internal Auditing Around the World®. While no one can predict the future with any real certainty, they can confidently face it if they stay attuned to change and constantly evolve their skills, knowledge and mindset so they can better meet the challenges of tomorrow.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, especially, many of these organizations have started to see returns on their hard work. In Volume XVII of Internal Auditing Around the World®, we reported that the functions most effective at helping their organizations manage through the crisis were those that had already embraced next-generation internal audit practices. They were proactive in building a solid foundation for the future and, by doing so, built a more resilient and nimble internal audit function that was ready to meet the challenge of unprecedented business disruption head-on.

A year later, disruption persists. While the world is learning to live with the pandemic, it’s against the backdrop of rising inflation, ongoing supply chain issues, a hot war in Ukraine and other geopolitical tensions, and myriad other complex challenges, including climate change.

In this edition of Internal Auditing Around the World®, we asked internal audit leaders to consider what they and their teams have learned from the pandemic experience so far, and how it might shape the function’s future. We presented them with this question: “As we evaluate the impact of the pandemic on organizations, how will internal audit use it as an opportunity to address the workforce and organization of the future?”

Featured Companies

The organizations profiled in the latest edition represent a cross section of countries and industries, including Ahold Delhaize, AstraZeneca, Bacardi, Commerzbank AG, ConocoPhillips, DKSH, Ooredoo, SoFi and Zimmer Biomet.

The new edition of Internal Auditing Around the World addresses how internal audit functions are using the pandemic experience to design a workforce and organization of the future. Nine organizations were interviewed and their experiences dealing with this transformation are presented as case studies in the book.