Internal Audit As a Smoothie Challenge

Presenter: Dr. Ursula Schmidt

Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Time: 1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

Location: Virtual

CPE Credits: 1.5

 

Internal Auditors work hard to create value added, provide assurance, and advise with insight and foresight. At the same time, our role has never been easy: stakeholder relationships are prone to conflict, and we often face a gap between how we see ourselves and what our stakeholders think.

One of the reasons for this gap is related to the nature of our work: a lot of our messages bear an inherent level of pain – and sometimes even annoyance – for the recipient. Be it audit observations, the need for a new policy, detection of fraud, complex audit reports, or even the feeling of being “policed” – such messages are often badly received. Putting it simply, it's hard to control what others think of our role, despite our competency and best intentions. Here´s where the Smoothie Challenge comes into play: it's all about convincing others that our Smoothie tastes great, despite some not-so-great ingredients!

What's the solution? Instead of expecting our stakeholders to change their point of view, this session advocates a different approach. Based on examples of typical internal audit “pain points”, we will dissect the annoyance factor and develop ideas for creating a positive impact. In short, this means creating something positive out of something perceived as negative. By choosing ingredients that are fully under our control – such as our language, an approach of support, the basics of good marketing, and the right attitude – we have a chance to win the proverbial “Smoothie Challenge”.