IAPA circulate March edition of the CEO Blog

Welcome to my third blog...

Dear All, here you are the third issue of my "Blog". 

Welcome to the third month of the year—or, if you were born before 150 B.C., 
the first! “According to the oldest Roman calendars, one year was ten months long, beginning in March and ending in December. It may sound crazy, but you can still see traces of this old system in our modern calendar: because December was the tenth month, it was named for the number ten in Latin (decem), just like September was named for seven (septem). So, what about January and February? They were just two nameless months called “winter,” proving that winter is literally so awful it doesn’t  even deserve a spot on the calendar 🙂 ” So, the spring is coming to the Northern Hemisphere, sorry for the Southern Hemisphere we will get it back from you ;), now it is our turn fellows.

Financial Dashboard 
We have added 2 new countries and firms to our international family. Estonia 
and Madagascar, so our figures have been shifted up slightly.

• Ranking (Turnover, Coverage) - 9 Globally; 6 in Europe, 2 in the UK
• Turnover                                    US$1,4B
• Employee Number                     10,643
• Partner Number                         1,349
• Total Offices                               340
• Total Members                           195
• Total Countries                           72

Let me remind you the dates of IAPA 2019 Conferences to put in your diary ...

• IAPA EMEA Regional Conference, Mallorca, 2-5 May 2019
• IAPA USA Regional Conference, New York, 28-30 June 2019
• IAPA Canadian BHD Regional Conference, Alberta, 4-8 September 2019
• IAPA UK200Group Regional Conference, Liverpool, 13-15 November 2019
• IAPA International Conference, Singapore, 21-24 November 2019.

What is NEW! ...

• NEW! IAPA General Members’ App:  As promised, it done! We are launching 
  “IAPA App” for our members only usage on 1 April 2019. Joy will send you the
  link how to download and register to the IAPA App from Apple IOS, Android from
  Google Play and Web App.
• NEW! First “Marketing & Member Services Manager” is appointed!
  • I am glad to inform you that Ms. Taberna Sansom is starting with us as 
    “Marketing & Member Services Manager” on 16 April 2019. Welcome to 
    the IAPA Family Taberna! She will be attending our EMEA Conference in 
    Mallorca, Spain, so you will get a chance to meet with her face to face 
    over there.  Here you are, another reason to register to the conference 😉  
• NEW! Corporate Video
  • As promised, this is done too! I am really pleased to deliver another
    initiative by our management: the IAPA Corporate Video.
  • I hope you enjoy it. You can watch it from the following the IAPA TV link: 
    https://youtu.be/8Xtc6IBERcI
• NEW! Members Videos
  • This was an idea that came from the 2018 EMEA Conference in Oslo, 
    Norway speed networking session.
  • Now we have 10 member videos; you can watch all of them from the 
    following IAPA TV link: 
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ikl4Ji0BHUSKjap81F2Vw
• NEW! Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) Event Date Update
  • I would like to update you the date of our joint “Facilitating International
    Business” FIFO event with UK200Group in Manchester.
  • We have shifted the event date from 12 July 2019 to 27 September 2019. 
    Please mark your calendars. Already booked the hotel, it will be in Crowne 
    Plaza Manchester Airport Hotel.
  • This will be a FREE OF CHARGE event and we welcome all IAPA and UK200Group 
    Members. So, there will not be any attendance fee for our members or guests. 
    It will be FREE.
• NEW! IAPA New Website
  • We are working on it and aiming to make it ready by the EMEA Conference. 
    We are on the testing phase as of today. Cross Fingers please!
  • We need your support on the following areas:
    • Please upload your “company logos, contact and branch partner photos”
      to the IAPA Portal.
    • All you have to do is to go into the IAPA Portal and upload the above-
      mentioned items. You can access the portal from the following link: 
      https://iapa.net/login   
• NEW! IAPA USA Conference 
  • USA Regional Conference, 28-30 June 2019, New York, USA
  • We are delighted to announce that registration is now OPEN for the above 
    event, hosted by Schulman Lobel. Special thanks to our member!
  • Open to all IAPA Global members.
  • Working programme including doing business in the USA, IAPA member discussions 
    and guest speakers (YES there will be very good external speakers).
  • Fantastic social/networking delegate and guest programme including “Broadway 
    Show” and “River Cruise”.
  • To register, please go to the IAPA Portal https://iapa.net/portal log in and 
    click on Current Events.
• NEW! IAPA International Conference 
  • IAPA International Conference, 21-24 November 2019, Singapore
  • Thanks to our Singapore member Helmi Talib & Co, we have been able to signed 
    the deal with the conference hotel: It will be in Grand Hyatt Singapore! 
  • I had amazing time in Singapore early this month arranging the conference hotel 
    and venues, thanks for our member firms!
  • Planning to open the registration soon, stay tuned!

I would like to remind you about the Member Survey .....

Webinars:

• IDEA Webinar - Advice from the C-Suite: How to get Started with Automated Auditing, 
  8 May 2019
  • https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5559963517928648449
  • (Hosted by Michael Cangemi, president of CanCo LLC who will cover how adopting
    audit technology, including analytics, allows for greater efficiencies in business 
    processes (BPI), resulting in cost savings and valuable organization insights.)
• Coaching that delivers a great performance, June, date to be confirmed
  • (Hosted by Sean McLoughney – Learning Curve Improving Performance)

As you know CaseWare is our Strategic Partner from Canada. So, I strongly suggest you attend
this Technological Webinar.

Third Party Audit Reports

• IIA Report: IIA have just published their 2019 North American Pulse of Internal Audit.
  You can find the report here: 
  https://www.theiia.org/centers/aec/Pages/2019-Pulse-of-Internal-Audit.aspx
• Always an interesting survey on the trends and priorities for Internal Audit. And it also 
  provides some interesting statistics on the use of analytics, which gives us a clear
  indication of the potential growth for technology in audit sector.
• Protiviti: Protiviti have published the results of their 2019 Internal Audit Capabilities
  and Needs Survey, in which they take an in-depth look at the adoption of next-generation
  internal audit competencies such as agile auditing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine
  learning (ML), robotic process automation (RPA) and continuous monitoring, among many
  others, and provide a detailed assessment of how internal audit groups are progressing on 
  their next-generation journeys. So, a very interesting look at future direction of Audit Analytics,
  with similar survey responses to the IIA report. You can download the report from: 
  https://www.protiviti.com/US-en/insights/internal-audit-capabilities-and-needs-survey

Representation ... 

• I have attended the LEG (London Executives Group) meeting in London, UK on 26 March 
  to represent our organization.
• That was a very beneficial meeting in terms of understanding where our market is heading 
  to and also it is always good to touch basis with the sector shareholders and decision makers.
• I had a meeting with AICPA (Association of International Certified Accountants) and we are
  signing a collaboration deal with them early next month, where I will mention the benefits
  to our members in my next blog, stay tuned!

My Visits

• Current Member Visits in March 2019:
  • R. Arora, New Delhi, India
  • AKGVG, New Delhi, India
  • Todarwal & Todarwal, Mumbai, India
  • Ahuja Valecha, Pune, India
  • Manian & Rao, Bangalore, India
  • Helmi Talib & Co, Singapore
  • Fiduciary Asia Group, Singapore
  • SWT Associates, Sri Lanka
• NEW! My New Firm Visits
  • Skata Advisers OU, Tallinn, Estonia
  • CPA (Certification Production Audit), Antananarivo, Madagascar

I would like to say: "Welcome to the IAPA Family!".  We keep on growing!

Asia Pacific Conference ...

• We have conducted a very successful AP Conference in Sri Lanka between 8-10 March 2019.
• Proud to be a part of this organization, it was a very good conference and we had very 
  high caliber members who are real expert on their areas. We had 25 delegates from 15
  Member firms, 13 Countries, 4 Sub-Regions and 2 Regions represented at the Conference.
• I would like to thank to our Sri Lankan member SWT Associates and their partner Wajira 
  Kaluarachchi for hosting this conference. Glad we have you!
• Also, I would like to thank to our Strategic Partner CaseWare for sponsoring to our event.

As I finish my March CEO Blog, I would like to be inspired from a mantra from the ancient Indian scripture Mundaka Upanishad. I had a tremendous time in India in March and learnt a lot of new things from this rich nation and or fellow Indian members.  Truth is justice, fiar play, adherence to the fundamental laws of ethics.  Forming an integral part of the emblem of Inida is the motto "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit: सत्यमेव जयते  satya-meva jayate; lit.  "Truth alone triumphs").  This has been emphasized by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.  He said "When I despair I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won.  There have been tyrants and murderes, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it always". 

So "Truth alone triumphs."

All good wishes,