Navigating the Storm: Crisis Management for Resilient Firms
Whether it is changes in the market, a global pandemic, or loss of a
supplier, at some point, most organizations will face a crisis. How you respond
can make or break your organization. This intensive seminar on crisis management
and business continuity planning will equip you with the knowledge and skills to
manage crises confidently and ensure that your organization stays resilient.
Resilient organizations recover faster from crises. Learn what successful
organizations do. Failing to plan for the next crisis is planning to fail.
Topics Discussed
- The need for crisis management and business
continuity plans
- Risk assessment and identification
- How to develop a crisis management framework
- Crisis communication strategies
- Business continuity planning essentials
- Keys to crisis leadership and decision making in a crisis
Objectives: Identify potential threats and conduct rapid risk assessments.
Develop a comprehensive crisis management plan tailored to your organization.
Implement effective communication strategies during a crisis and before. Create
a business continuity plan with essential recovery strategies. Lead your
organization confidently through crises and make informed decisions under
pressure.
Proven Strategies for Effective Fraud Detection and
Prevention
Fraud impacts over 80% of all organizations, costing over $10 billion
annually. Do you aim to fortify your organization, or your client's, against
fraud risks? We address how to instill a robust anti-fraud culture, and give you
the tools needed to proactively prevent, detect, and manage fraudulent
activities. Prevention is vital for success. Do not wait to protect the
organization.
Topics Discussed
- Understanding fraud
- How are frauds caught?
- Where, how, and when to look
- How to reduce your fraud risks
Objectives: Identify key fraud indicators and red flags within organizational
processes. Implement strategies to establish a strong anti-fraud culture. How
are culture and fraud connected? Enhance awareness of fraud risks and prevention
techniques. Learn the tools to evaluate and improve internal controls for
proactive fraud management.
CFO or Detective? A Guide to Conducting Effective
Investigations
CFOs are on the front line of managing risk within the organization, often
including investigations into suspected theft or fraud. Fraud investigations are
not accounting audits. Many lack the training needed to conduct a fair and legal
investigation. This course will provide the essential knowledge and skill to
conduct successful internal investigations. The goal is to ensure that when a
case is referred to law enforcement, or results in other legal action, the
findings will be admissible and robust. How to respect the rights of all parties
involved, preserve evidence, use proper surveillance, and how to distinguish
between company materials and individual property? Proper investigations are
intricate. Be aware of the risk to the organization and to the investigating
team. The goal is to lead and plan internal investigations with confidence and
legal integrity. Be aware and be prepared.
Topics Discussed
- What is an investigation and when is it warranted?
- How to prepare for an investigation
- Who should conduct it and defining the boundaries
- When to outsource vs. conduct the investigation
internally
- Evidence collection and preservation
- The paper and data trail
- Witness statements
- Employee rights during investigations
- Investigative techniques (data analytics,
surveillance, interviews)
- Reporting results
- When to take the next step – the legal process
Objectives: Understand the proper process to conduct an internal
investigation. What are some of the risks, legal issues, and pitfalls?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning: Practical
Applications for Finance
Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and Machine Learning (“ML”) are being
deployed in organizations large and small at a rapidly increasing rate. Your
organization is testing, deploying, and refining AI-powered applications across
a variety of departments and business functions. Why should this matter to
accounting, internal audit, finance, and cyber professionals? Should our teams
be testing and deploying also? How and why can AI be used in accounting and
auditing? During this interactive session we will demonstrate and describe the
differences between chat-based AI search tools and more robust AI-powered
applications, e.g., an app to help prioritize and dispatch IT help desk tickets.
The session will include example policies for responsible and ethical AI and
resources to help curious professionals learn more about these subjects. These
technologies are powerful and quite capable: They are not without risk. With
great power comes great responsibility. These technologies can also be misused
(accidentally or intentionally) to destroy value instead of creating it. We will
also discuss which is the greater risk: a) not using these new technologies or
b) misusing these new technologies. Leading organizations have been using AI and
ML. Successful leaders must be aware of the pros and cons and how to properly
utilize these tools.
Topics Discussed
- Explain AI and ML and describe potential
finance-related applications for both.
- Demonstrate the growth of AI.
- Discuss practical applications and risks for AI and
ML, specific for accounting and finance.
- Bookmark and share examples of ethical policies to
help mitigate these risks.
- Demonstrate prompt engineering tips to yield desired responses from
Generative AI tools like Chat GPT, Gemini, Perplexity AI, and Microsoft
Copilot.
Objectives: Recognize and accept that AI and ML are important new
technologies that will impact nearly every organization. Understand the risks,
advantages, and the issues of deploying AI and ML. Better understand how to
optimize the effectiveness of AI and ML.