Reader, for many people, the New Year means a new story. It sounds nice. But beginnings are not nice.They are hard. They take energy. They require discipline and focus. If today you are stepping into the role of Head of Internal Audit or Audit Manager, let me say it directly: Now it will show whether you have what it takes. The first 3 to 6 months will decide everything.In this period you will either deliver a result, or the company will label you as average. And average today does not mean...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Ahoj Reader We’re working on our plans and goals for 2026. And this is the one idea that matters to me the most when it comes to improving audit quality. No theory. No slogans. Just something that hit me hard and changed how I look at my work and my team. So I wanted to share it with you — as I was sitting, thinking, and looking ahead to what’s next. I gave up. Not on audit. Not on the profession. Power idea: I gave up the illusion that I can handle everything alone. For a long time I...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Peaceful Advent Sunday Reader, this will be a calm Sunday read.No dashboards. No tools. Just one practical thought. Quality data is not an IT topic.It is about money, time, and decisions. One simple question to start with: How many reports in your company are still created by manually retyping numbers into Excel? Most companies work like this: the data exists in a system, someone copies it manually, a final report is created, and after some time, no one knows where the number really came...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Ready Reader for main priority of 2026 Sales: The Risk That Will Decide Who Grows in 2026 — and Who Doesn’t KPMG has correctly identified the dominant risks shaping 2026.AI and digital disruption. Cybersecurity. Geopolitics. Supply chains. Regulation. Business continuity. All of them matter.But from our real audit work, we see one additional risk that has a more immediate impact on financial results than any other: Sales. A company can have world-class IT, perfect compliance, and strong ESG...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Which of your partners is your biggest risk today Reader? Thanks Reader for spending 120 seconds of your Sunday with us. The number of zombie companies in the Russell 3000 has reached the highest level in almost four years.These are firms that can no longer cover the interest on their debt from their operating cash flow.They spend more on debt service than they are able to earn. In practice, this means one thing:their financial problems can quickly become your financial problems. Bloomberg –...
5 months ago • 2 min read
Which of your partners is your biggest risk today Reader? Thanks Reader for spending 120 seconds of your Sunday with us. The number of zombie companies in the Russell 3000 has reached the highest level in almost four years.These are firms that can no longer cover the interest on their debt from their operating cash flow.They spend more on debt service than they are able to earn. In practice, this means one thing:their financial problems can quickly become your financial problems. Bloomberg –...
5 months ago • 2 min read
A practical question Reader today: How quickly can you close one problem across all your plants? In manufacturing, one rule holds true: if an issue appears at one site, there is a high chance it exists elsewhere. The difference between an average and a well-managed company is not whether problems occur, but how fast you can verify and close them across the entire organisation. 3 steps that determine the performance of the whole group: 1. Verify across all plantsWhen an auditor identifies an...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Great Sunday morning Reader Onboarding That Determines the Success of an Internal AuditorThank you for reading — and thank you Simona from Hungary for the inspiration. When I look back at my early years in internal audit, one thing is clear.Most problems did not come from processes.They came from how people were brought into the job. My first day looked like this:no handover, no manual, no plan.Just a laptop and the expectation that I would “figure it out.” Before me, four attempts to build...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, wishing you a bright Sunday morning. Nothing weakens an internal audit function faster than hiring the wrong auditor.Not weak processes. Not missing data. Not management resistance. One wrong hire and suddenly: team started collapsing, audits stretch into months, findings lose depth, managers stop taking the team seriously, and control slips away before anyone notices. I learned this the hard way after interviewing and training more than 600 people.The pattern is always the...
5 months ago • 4 min read