Combined Assurance: Case Studies on a Holistic Approach to Organizational Governance

Do away with inefficiencies ant take a holistic approach to risk management and assurance. This report takes an in-depth look at how to implement and benefit from combined assurance. Risks today are so diverse that the internal audit function cannot provide assurance on its own; auditors have to coordinate with other assurance providers. Nevertheless, assurance providers often work in silos, leading to inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and a lack of transparency.

There is a clear need to combine and coordinate reporting from various assurance providers. To meet this need, the concept of combined assurance has been introduced, providing a holistic approach to risk management and assurance. For the first time, internal audit researchers have provided an in-depth look at how six multinational organizations are in the process of implementing and benefiting from combined assurance.

Combined Assurance: Case Studies on a Holistic Approach to Organizational Governance provides:

• Critical success factors
• Methods to overcome challenges
• Leadership strategies for internal audit

About the authors:

• Gerrit Sarens, CIA, is an associate professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and has published multiple articles and research reports about internal auditing and organizational governance.
• Loïc Decaux is a doctoral student in management sciences at the Université Catholique de Louvain.
• Rainer Lenz, CIIA, CMIIA, is chief audit executive in an international pharmaceutical company with more than 10,000 employees and businesses in more than 40 countries.