Can your organisation continue to prosper as conditions change?

Organisations are facing greater challenges than ever before.  As a leader if you feel that you are facing more change than ever before, you are not alone.  The nature, scale and frequency of change is increasing which is putting tests on the resilience of all organisations.

Increasingly, the term resilience is popping up with a number of variants - enterprise resilience, organisational resilience, business resilience and others.  Some variants are narrow dealing only with a part of the problem.  Resilience from a HR perspective often talks about personal resilience - in other words, the ability of an individual to bounce back in the face of adversity - something akin to personal tenacity.  Resilience from a risk perspective is often limited to business continuity or crisis management.  Both models tend to plan for and react to disaster rather than empowering organisations and leaders to navigate strategically.

TDA takes a holistic view of resilience using the models embodied in the Resilient Futures Network models to answer the simple question for leaders - “How can we continue to prosper as conditions change?”.  Our models bring together the key aspects of strategy, risk, governance, leadership and assurance to allow for organisational resilience and transformation.

We can assist in a range of ways depending on the needs of the organisation with a range of modules and entry points including:

• Primer - introduction to the concepts of resilience and and understanding of why this is business critical and a potential source of ultimate competitive advantage for your organisaton
• Initial diagnostic - initial assessment of key conditions and capabilities required
• Strategic risk assessment - a deep understanding of emerging conditions, key depedencies and how this will affect the organisation’s business model going forward
• Resilience capability assessment - does the organisation have embedded resilience?  What maturity level is the organisation at now?  Where does it need to be?
• Catalytic projects - demensioning catalytic projects to transform the organisation
• Resilient leadership - training leaders within the organistation on key capabilities to allow for organisational transformation
• Program and project management - ensuring what needs to happen does actually happen

After nearly 20 years working in risk and organisational transformation roles I’m convinced that the next five years will be the most disruptive we are likely to see for a generation.  Those who understand and embrace the concepts will be incredibly well placed to create shareholder wealth and outcomes for their stakeholders.  Those leaders which don’t get their head around resilience are likely to preside over  significant value destruction and be the case studies for poor governance of the future.

For a briefing, please contact Todd Davies direct.

Need more information first?

Read Todd’s latest articles on the Resilient Futures Network which demonstrate how key events are unfolding today and how outcomes could be different by embracing organisational resilieince.

It seems that my piece in the June edition of Risk Management Magazine caused some contraversy, and even drew a letter to the editor from the President of the Risk Management Institution of Australia.  This is all healthy debate as it forces us to assess whether learned approaches are still relevant, or whether we’re just keeping a wary eye on the deckchairs (while forgetting to look out for icebergs).

To see the rebuttal, have a look at page 3 of the July edition of Risk Management Magazine here.  And to see the original article which caused the contraversy, click here for page 3 fo the June edition.  (Now locked down, here’s the web version).

For more information on how strategy, risk, governance and assurance come together, please click here.

The number of software offerings in the space has increased, and the marketing spin is increasing which means that unless you are a highly experienced and sophisticated buyer with a track record in software selection in this space, your chances of making a poor selection are high.

TDA understands the GRC market.  We understand the strengths and weaknesses of different providers and can guide you through the selection process.

We can help you:

1. Understand the different possibilities including in this space such as continuous control monitoring, computer-assisted audit techniques, audit follow-up, data mining, control self-assessment, SOX compliance, risk assessment, legislative compliance, policy compliance, legislative training and integrated solutions.
2. Be very clear on what your specific needs are, including developing your strategy for enterprise governance.
3. Determine whether you require a generalised or niche solution
4. Understand what the most cost-effective solutions are
5. Be clear on which solutions have the strongest support base and longevity
6. Negotiate the right price

For more information, contact us.

Silos.  It’s a word that can fill you with dread if your responsible for the governance of an organisation, yet they keep on appearing.  Organisational theory is currently aguing for matrix structures, but if you’ve ever tried to run one you’ll know that shared accountability without the right tools is the same as no accountability at all.  Silos are alive and well.

TDA has track record in brining these functions together for greatest impact.  We can help to ensure:

• Duplication between assurance functions is minimused
• Assurance programs are focused on what really matters
• Risk management has a top-down view of strategic risks
• Emerging risk capability informs the strategy and risk functions
• Strategic risk insight informs the strategy process
• Strategy drives capability development

To find out more, contact us.

I’m really pleased to announce that the Resilient Futures website went live today.

Resilient Futures was formed in April 2008 as a result of a number of practitioners in various fields believing that the current thinking in their respective professions was inadequate in dealing with the problems of tomorrow, and that resilience thinking and the concepts underpinning it provide much needed clarity in a rapidly changing interconnected world.

The Resilient Futures partnership consists of a divergent practitioners in strategy, risk, urban planning, leadership development and networked systems.  There is a range of innovative but practial thinking coming out of this one and I encourage you to have a look around, read a few articles, download a whitepaper or two, and subscribe to the RSS feed.

I particularly encourage you to have a look at my recent article Are you being a reckless leader without realising it? which gives a feel for where some of the thinking is heading, or our offering on emerging risk analysis here.

Resilient Futures can be found at www.resilientfutures.org.

Thanks to everyone who attended the Canberra meeting, it was great bunch of people with some great questions and discussion and a relaxed format. 

There was a particular interest in what this will mean to other sectors.  While it’s difficult to predict in detail, I’d suggest that the one to watch is the new recommendation 7.2.  The crux of the wording of this is that rather than just going through a process, management now need to form a view on whether their risks are being effectively managed and report this through to the Board.  This means that risk management can no longer suffice as a standalone process, but must be truly embedded into the governance processes of the organisation, and that due diligence will have to be done on the output of any risk process.  As I found in my last head of audit & risk role, such a signoff requires significant gear changes in thinking to make it effective and relevant.  It’s going to be an exciting time for risk management for those people on the front foot.

Download the presentation here:
Updated ASX Corporate Governance Principles & Guidelines

If you are looking for assistance with compliance with the Principles & Recommendations, please click here.

Strategy, risk, governance and assurance

“Corporate governance, sustainability and strategy have become inseparable.  They are inextricably linked.” Mervyn E. King

A lot of firms specialise in strategy, risk, governance or assurance, but few seem to bring them all together. In everything TDA does, we bring the other disciplines to it, whether using risk management to underpin delivery of your strategy, or getting strategic alignment with these areas.

Please click on a link below to find out more.

Governance & Leadership

• Enterprise Governance - getting everyone on the same page
• Enterprise Resilience - positioning for prosperity in the face of dramatic change
• Compliance with the ASX Corporate Governance Council Principles and Recommendations

Strategy

• Relevance regained – strategic planning for NGOs
• Emerging Risk Analysis - seeing what’s around the corner before it hits

Risk & Assurance

• Fine tuning your Internal Audit function - Internal Audit transformation & quality reviews
• Getting the most out of internal audit sourcing - outsourcing, cosourcing and partnering
• Navigating the GRC maze - understanding GRC solutions and software selection
• Getting what was promised - project assurance and project risk management

Todd is a highly sought after speaker, commentator and evangelist in the fields of business, risk, governance and internal audit.  He is a regular commentator on topics such as emerging risk, resilience and makes an effort to stretch people’s thinking and point out the ’elephants in the room.’ in these areas.

Recent Articles

• AXA, Perpetual, Challenger - As the backloop grows stronger it draws more entities in | resilientfutures.org  | Oct 27 2008
• Resilient leadership? | resilientfutures.org  | Aug 29 2008
• Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme – Main Event or a Side Show? |  resilientfutres.org | Aug 23 2008
• Shell shocked | Risk Management Magazine | July 2008
• What can we learn from the WA Gas crisis? | resilientfutures.org | Jun 20 2008
• GRC - The Great Risk Con | Risk Management Magazine | June 2008
• Allco, ABC, Babcock. Should we have seen these coming? | resilientfutures.org | Jun 15 2008
• Are you being a reckless leader without realising it? |  reslientfutures.org | May 18 2008  

Recent Publications  

Todd regulary contributes to a range of publications and guidance.  Some of these are listed below.

• Guidance to implementing Principle 7 of the ASX Corporate Governance Principle & Recommendatons - Recognise and Manage Risk (2007 release) | IIA-Australia
• Supplementary guidance on Principle 7 - Recognise and Manage Risk (2008) | ASX Corporate Governance Council
• Parliamentary inquiry into Internal Audit | NSW Department of Premier & Cabinet
• Principles & Recommendations of Good Corporate Governance (2007 release) | ASX Corporate Governance Council

Speaking circuit

Some of his recent speaking engagements. 

• Audit Opinions - Part of the process or optional extra | IIA National Public Sector Conference
• Building a Good Audit Committee  | SOPAC - IIA’s premier regional conference for Australia, South Pacific & Asia (with Jon Isaacs - prominent Audit Committe Chair)
• Futurecasting | Mega trends for forecasting, strategy and risk in a rapidly changing world - ACL user’s forum
• ASX Corporate Governance Council’s Revised Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations | Intitute of Internal Auditors Canberra Chapter
• Internal audit as a change agent | ICAA Business forum Victoria (CPE week, Melbourne)
• From the Backroom to the Boardroom - a new horizon for Internal Audit | IIA Western Australian Internal Audit congress, Perth
• Fundamental change in the Audit Profession… Where is it going, how will it affect you and what do you need to do about it? | NSW Internal Audit congresses, Sydney, Penrith (IIAA)
• Corporate Governance and Risk Management for Not for Profits and NGOs | Australian Society of Association Executives, Sydney (AuSAE)
• Pulse Radio - a case study in radical innovation | LQA Innovation program, Melbourne 
• Fundamental change in the Audit Profession… Where is it going, how will it affect you and what do you need to do about it?  | Association of University Auditors (ACUA) Australian National Conference, Sydney.

Copies of these presentations are available here.

Public comment

Todd was recently appointed as the Institute of Internal Auditors of Australia’s Policy Director and is their spokesman, technical advisor and author on technical, policy and advocacy matters in relation to governance, risk, control, audit, assurance and related matters in Australia.  Copies of his statements, presentations and articles are available at www.iia.org.au.

Academia

In addition Todd has been a guest lecturer and tutor at the following:

• Advanced Management Accounting Module | Institute of Chartered Accountants - (CA Program)
• Cashflow forecasting, financial modelling and valuation models | Edith  (National Enterprise Workshop)
• Company Law - Edith Cowan University | (Bachelor of Business Program)