In this episode, Marie Hache joins Kevin O'Connell to discuss the risks associated with communicating ESG claims and commitments made during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the importance of aligning those commitments with your organization's purpose and value.

We discuss the following questions:

1:49 - With many companies having financial difficulties in the current situation, is ESG still relevant in today’s world?
2:47 - Research shows that funds and indices designed with an ESG focus have been outperforming more traditional ones. Are both regulators and customers showing increased interest?
4:27 - How do we expect COVID-19 will impact the way companies address ESG and how they demonstrate their value and purpose?
6:15 - What are the examples of key considerations to keep in mind related to external disclosures and commitments in the context of COVID-19?
7:14 - How could having a multidisciplinary committee in place help mitigate some of the risks?
8:44 - Is employee engagement important in meeting these commitments?

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/esg-covid-19-commitments.html

In this episode, Julie Holden and Michael Isaac join Lillian Borsa to discuss re-thinking resiliency and the steps you can take now to strategically revise your business continuity management (BCM) program in the wake of COVID-19.

We discuss the following questions:

2:11 - How do you define business continuity management?
3:04 - What are some key lessons that organizations experienced during the pandemic and what they should be thinking of and doing to be better prepared going forward?
4:40 - What should organizations be thinking about and doing going forward?
9:27 - How are we seeing companies use technology to enable their response?

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/rethink-resiliency-business-continuity-covid-19.html

In this episode, Elizabeth McNichol and Carrie Duarte join Jill Pavlus to discuss how data and technology help you manage your operational risks as you implement and monitor your return to work strategy.

We discuss the following questions:

0:57 - What areas are organizations focusing on when it comes to de-risking their return to work plans?
4.49 - What are some ways that we are helping our clients with their return to work strategies?
8:08 - Sharing a recent example, how does this all fit together?
10:44 - How are we seeing our clients leverage technology?
11:47 - Can you use an existing GRC technology for this monitoring and framework enablement?
12:44 - How does this environment provide us an opportunity to rethink how de-risking can result in a reduction in cost?

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/derisk-return-to-work-technology-data.html

In this episode, Michelle Hubble joins Mike Maali to discuss the focus areas and process to successfully manage a SOX compliance change management program.

We discuss the following questions:

0:37 - What do organizations need to consider when managing their SOX change process?
2:08 - How important is scoping the SOX program first?
6:01 - How important is digitally upskilling a SOX program?
6:48 - How should you engage stakeholders as you begin to lay out the digitization journey?
10:15 - Why should you engage with external auditors in a more informed way while going through this change?

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/sox-compliance-change-management.html

In this episode, Jaime Phillips and Jeff Sorensen join Michelle Hubble to discuss the four key pillars to digitizing a SOX compliance program and how to address the associated challenges.

We discuss the following questions:

0:41 - Why do organizations need to focus on the entire program when looking to digitize a SOX program?
2:20 - What are the four key pillars that are important when digitizing a SOX program and the challenges around them?
8:18 - What are companies tangibly doing to address these challenges?
9:14 - As these technologies are not one size fits all, how should organizations think about the technologies and processes as well as the impact they will have?
10:55 - How is a control owner going to benefit from SOX digital capabilities?
12:55 - How much time should it take to make sure the business requirements are set before starting to think about technology solutions?
14:39 - How can you start using these new digital skills when wanting to test manual controls, automated controls or IT general controls differently?
16:14 - What are some additional takeaways when looking to digitize your SOX program?

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/pillars-digitize-sox-compliance-program.html

In this episode, Michelle Hubble and Jaime Phillips join Mike Maali to discuss how to rethink your SOX compliance program.

We discuss the following questions:

0:37 - Why is now a good time to rethink your SOX program?
1:13 - As controllers are taking greater ownership of full programs within an organization how does that align with the organization’s objectives?
2:38 - How do transformations throughout the organization impact controls and SOX?
3:52 - What does a SOX transformation look like?
5:06 - What are the expected benefits of a SOX transformation?
7:10 - What are key things organizations should do when planning to rethink their SOX program?

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/rethinking-sox-compliance-program.html

In this episode, Lauren Massey and Dhiraj Malhotra join Mike Maali to share a real example of how one company got started with internal audit transformation and the tactical next steps you can take to bring this model to life. 

We discuss the following questions: 

0:46 - What activities can help you pull together all of your needs to begin your internal audit transformation? 
3:25 - What stakeholders are normally involved in this type of activity? 
6:07 - What are typical outputs that come out of this type of activity? 

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/internal-audit-transformation-steps-case-study.html

In this episode, Gena Wilson joins Kevin O'Connell to discuss how to navigate the risks and challenges associated with migrating to the cloud while continuing to drive trust and transparency to stakeholders.

We discuss the following questions:

0:44 - Should companies be doing more to confirm the cloud environment they are using is sufficiently secured?
1:34 - What other risks are associated with cloud computing and how can companies manage them?
2:49 - How to maintain control and oversight within the cloud environment?
5:06 - What are we seeing from a regulatory and compliance requirement perspective?
6:33 - How are companies handling requests from their clients around cloud computing?
7:19 - What are companies with SOC reports considering moving to the cloud thinking about?
8:43 - What are some key takeaways when thinking about migrating to the cloud?

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/cloud-risks.html

In this episode, Jenna Switchenko joins Kevin O'Connell to discuss how critical it is for organizations to maintain proper controls and governance when implementing robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent automation to scale.

We discuss the following questions:

0:32 - What are we seeing broadly from an adoption and use perspective of RPA?
1:15 - What should we be concerned with when thinking about scaling my RPA tools in the organization?
3:57 - How would you recommend introducing bots and their controls into SOC reports?
4:44 - What are the pros and cons of hybrid governance models and federated governance models?
6:34 - What are the risks associated with the creation of citizen-led automations?
9:40 - What are some key takeaways around managing RPA and intelligent automation risks?

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/rpa-intelligent-automation-risks.html

In this episode, Dhiraj Malhotra joins Mike Maali to discuss how internal audit can shift to a more proactive risk focus through a data-enabled risk assessment process to develop continuous risk sensing capabilities.

We discuss the following questions:

0:50 - How might the risk assessment process change as the internal audit evolves?
4:25 - What is the importance of linking the single source of truth to business issues?
5:20 - What types of tools and capabilities will internal audit need to create these risk sensing capabilities at scale?
7:43 - How often does this capability need to be reviewed or monitored?
10:30 - What capabilities will internal audit need to interpret the results and act on them?
12:03 - What is the ideal process to initially set up this data platform and who should be included?
15:37 - What are key takeaways for organizations to think about?

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/risk-assurance/podcasts/continuous-risk-sensing.html