Strategic Audit

A Strategic Audit by definition is “a formal examination of how successfully an organization is operating and how well it is using resources to work towards its goals over time.” In essence, a strategic audit looks at a company’s business plan and strategy and identifies areas that can be improved to keep the company moving forward. Typically, a strategic audit would come about as the result of four indicators:

• A performance gap identifying that the strategy is not working

• Identified concern in that high-priority items in the strategic plan are not being accomplished

• A shift in the external environment resulting in a reevaluation of the strategy; or

• At the request of management.

Upon identifying the need for a strategic audit, the next step would be to prepare the audit plan. The time frame can vary depending on the magnitude of the business or depth of the audit. In the plan, management would provide the audit team, which can be an internal group or external vendor, with an complete understanding of the strategy in place, an explanation of the short-term and long-term goals of the business, and the market information they would need to better define a benchmark and fully understand the end goal of the business.

Once the audit team has a full understanding of the