“What do you want to be when you grow up?” That’s the question that we ask small children, as they have big dreams, limitless imaginations and no inhibitions and think about what their life can be. My answer was to be a rocket scientist, and work for NASA…seriously! And yet here I am, working with a software company that specializes in governance, risk and compliance. I would have never thought it. And of all the people I’ve spoken with and asked this question of, only one has actually wanted to work in this field since childhood (and she comes from a family of auditors!)
I bring this up because last week, on September 28, I found myself with an incredible group of people at the Institute for Internal Audit’s Atlanta Chapter Annual Conference. What a fantastic experience into the world of Internal Audit. As a little girl, I never imagined myself in this field. Even today, it’s sort of incredulous! Who knew GRC was such an industry.
Let me introduce myself—my name is Lindsay Seitz, and I joined the sales organization for DoubleCheck Software in early 2018. Shortly afterwards, I joined the Institute for Internal Audit as a means of learning about this world—what drives an Auditor? What challenges do they overcome and solve? What do they like about their jobs? What things are trending that affect their performance and job satisfaction? The Atlanta Chapter of the IIA has afforded me the opportunity to use resources and learn the answers to these questions, but more importantly, it has put me in front of people with a true passion for their job on a monthly basis.
After several years in software previously, and a decade before that in medical sales, I was presented with the incredible opportunity to join a group of people who I have seen time and again bend over backwards for their clients, a rare find in this day’s technology landscape. In fact, my first exposure to my current firm was finding a video of the CEO on YouTube giving a video testimonial for a vendor, and he used the term “raving fan.” I came to find out that this is a corporate directive-they are not satisfied until every single customer is a raving fan, and begging us to serve as a reference to potential customers. I see this attitude permeate the organization from the development team, to the engineers, and up through all corporate leadership. I see the way they take it into account when making product improvements that will impact existing customers, in the way they tell stories about the early relationships with long-time clients, and in the way that there is heavy engagement from members of every team before even putting a software demonstration in front of a prospective customer.
While at the IIA’s TAC 2018, I was able to sit in on some valuable sessions covering topics across cybersecurity and how breaches affect financial audit results, automation and data analytic advancements, using culture to create advantages in organizations and everyone’s favorite topic du jour, GDPR best practices. Most excitingly, the President of The Atlanta Chapter, Bill Mulcahy, arranged a few minutes of face to face time for the DoubleCheck CEO, Joe Cincotta, and myself to meet Naohiro Mouri, the Executive Vice President and Chief Auditor of AIG, who is also serving as the 2018-2019 IIA Global Chairman of the Board. The leader of a global organization 200,000 members strong had such confidence and poise in his delivery, which spoke to his wealth of knowledge and lifetime of experience. To meet him was truly an honor.
The next time I have the “what do you want to be” discussion with a little kid, I’ll tell them that no matter where they end up, they should add as much passion and dedication to it as they would if they were a police officer, astronaut or circus performer. I’m surrounded by people in the governance, risk and compliance sector (and the vendors who serve them) that are living proof of that.
