Publications

November 23, 2009
A Multigenerational Perspective on Employee Communications
At the cash register, behind the counter and on the sales floor, the 21st century retail workforce – like the general workforce, is becoming increasingly multigenerational. Thus, a retailer’s future success will depend on engaging and communicating effectively with a demographically diverse workforce. This article examines these differences to get a general sense of how attitudes toward work have formed and what motivates performance across the generations.
CONTENT AREA: Articles
TOPICS: Human Resources, Consumer Products & Retail Industry, Change Management, Performance Management/Measurement, Training & Development

November 23, 2009
FEMSA: A time of constant change
Headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico, FEMSA is the largest beverage company in Latin America, exporting its products to the United States and to countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia. In this profile, José Gonzalez Ornelas, chief audit executive at FEMSA, discusses key changes that recently occurred within the internal audit function. Due to the company’s complex technological environment, one of these changes involved establishing a new strategy to strengthen IT audit capabilities.
CONTENT AREA: Performer Profiles
TOPICS: Cross Border & Non-US Issues, Manufacturing Industry, Distribution Industry, Internal Audit, IT Audit, Change Management

November 23, 2009
Optimized Corporate Defense Programs: A Five Step Roadmap
Any comprehensive program for self-defense requires a number of related components to operate in unison in order to be successful. Eight core defensive activities that need to be managed are identified and are deemed to represent the critical components that constitute an organization’s program for self-defense. They are governance, risk, compliance, intelligence, security, resilience, controls and assurance. These defensive activities need to be managed in a coordinated and cohesive manner before it can successfully interact with the other business activities.
CONTENT AREA: Articles
TOPICS: Business Continuity Management, IT Infrastructure, Security, Best Practices, Enterprise Risk Management

November 23, 2009
Process Scalability and the “Circle of Distrust”
With the demands of today’s economy, most companies are being pressed to drive greater efficiency into their operations. Organizations in the technology, media and communications (TMC) industry are no different, and many would argue that they are feeling the pressure even more than those in other industries. Most TMC companies envision medium- to long-term improvements in their markets. Accordingly, many are focusing on efforts that drive increased efficiency and scalability into existing operations, often impacting finance and accounting processes. This article focuses on practical approaches to reducing manual effort and risk in the financial close, consolidate and reporting cycle.
CONTENT AREA: Articles
TOPICS: Close the Books, Financial Reporting, Change Management, Performance Management/Measurement

November 23, 2009
Validation of Operating Effectiveness (“Testing of Controls”) - Part A
This section of Protiviti's "Guide to The Sarbanes-Oxley Act" addresses common questions concerning validating the operating effectiveness of internal controls. Some topics covered are: Who is responsible for validating operating effectiveness? What is “testing of controls”? And, how does management determine the appropriate sampling method?
CONTENT AREA: Questions & Answers
TOPICS: Internal Audit, Audit Testing, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Section 404 - Internal Control Reporting, Process-Level Control

November 16, 2009
Auditing Executive Compensation Policies
As public scrutiny over executive pay continues to grow, compensation committees must elevate their performance from basic oversight to a more strategic decision-making role. In this article, Compliance Week Columnist José Tabuena, discusses why internal auditors are in the best position to support those efforts, and what they can do to help.
CONTENT AREA: Articles
TOPICS: Compensation & Benefits, Payroll, Internal Audit, Audit Committee & Board, Entity-Level Control

November 16, 2009
Risk Oversight: A Board Imperative
Included in the inaugural edition of Board Perspectives: Risk Oversight are questions board members should ask of executive management regarding the organization’s risk management processes. In this newsletter as well as future editions, we intend to explore the right questions without suggesting standard “cookie cutter” answers. Sample questions in this edition include: Is there a robust process in place for identifying, prioritizing, sourcing, managing and monitoring the enterprise’s critical risks in a changing operating environment? Do we understand the risks inherent in the corporate strategy? Is there a sufficient understanding of the significant assumptions underlying the strategy and is a process in place to monitor for changes in the environment that could alter those assumptions?
CONTENT AREA: Newsletters
TOPICS: Corporate Governance, Audit Committee & Board, Risk Management & Assessment, Enterprise Risk Management, Entity-Level Control

November 16, 2009
Utilizing Store Self-Assessments
Recent economic changes have led many retailers to implement a store compliance process to monitor and identify issues and resulting remediation properly. Whether the goal is to reduce shrink or to ensure adherence with regulations, a rigorous store-level compliance process is essential for protecting and substantiating company assets. This article evaluates two options available to help protect and substantiate these assets: traditional store audits and store self-assessments.
CONTENT AREA: Articles
TOPICS: Consumer Products & Retail Industry, Internal Audit, Self-Assessment, Internal Controls

November 16, 2009
What it Means to be World Class
Because internal audit is more visible and accountable than ever, it is important to strive for world-class levels of performance. The CAE and audit committee play an essential role in this effort. No internal audit department can achieve a world-class level of performance without top-level support. In this article, Joel Kramer from the MIS Training Institute describes the chief attributes of world-class internal audit departments.
CONTENT AREA: Articles
TOPICS: Internal Audit, Audit Committee & Board, Best Practices, Performance Management/Measurement

November 16, 2009
What ITIL can teach IT-GRC
In recent years, Information Technology Governance, Risk and Compliance (IT-GRC) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) are acronyms that are gaining more acceptance and popularity within the IT industry. This article compares the concepts of IT-GRC and ITIL, and suggests ways to create harmony between their defined purposes.
CONTENT AREA: Articles
TOPICS: Business Continuity Management, GRC, IT Audit, IT Infrastructure, Risk Management & Assessment, Security Architecture & Models