BCLC’s journey to embed its social purpose into operations has highlighted opportunities to learn more and share lessons about best practices for companies starting out on the same journey. Last year, BCLC considered the ways social purpose comes to life through the function of marketing with its paper Marketing on Purpose. To take a magnified look at another area of its business this year, BCLC teamed up with Deloitte to study the ways that risk and internal audit leaders are supporting social purpose through the role they play in their respective companies.
Organizations with a social purpose look to leverage every aspect of their business to bring that purpose to life, creating further value for their customers. However, the process of embedding a lens for social purpose into each function – taking it beyond the purpose statement and into practice – can be mystifying without the right tools and perspective. While some organizations have learned to embed purpose in every business area, many are just beginning to consider the right approach when it comes to the areas of risk and internal audit.
The paper resulting from BCLC and Deloitte’s study, How Risk and Internal Audit Operate in Social Purpose Companies, examines how risk and internal audit functions can become equipped to operationalize their company’s social purpose. It offers seven key recommendations for senior leadership, internal auditors and risk managers who seek to elevate the functions of internal audit and risk in their companies. Such recommendations include:
- Embed purpose into decision-making frameworks
- Elevate the advisory role of risk and internal audit
- Focus the risk and internal audit teams on stakeholder value creation
To conduct the study, Deloitte interviewed 12 Canadian and international leaders to understand how their purpose informs the role of risk and internal audit functions in their companies. Members of BCLC’s Board and staff served as advisors and contributors to the report, providing their own insights regarding BCLC’s approach to social purpose.
To read How Risk and Internal Audit Operate in Social Purpose Companies, visit: corporate.bclc.com
Watch the following video from BCLC to learn more about the insights and recommendations included in the paper, as discussed by Jennifer Barbosa and Rao Wandawasi of BCLC and Jeff Sutton and Jordan Marr of Deloitte:
BCLC and Deloitte Risk and IA Webinar
On Wednesday, September 13 from 10:30-11:30 am PDT, BCLC and Deloitte, alongside the support of the United Way BC Social Purpose Institute, are hosting a free, one-hour webinar where panelists will further discuss key insights and recommendations from the paper.
