Strategic Risk and Emerging Risk Auditing Training Course

Course Introduction

Strategic risk and emerging risk auditing enables organisations to assess whether significant uncertainties that could affect strategic objectives are properly identified, evaluated, governed, monitored, and addressed. This course develops advanced audit capabilities for examining strategic risk management, risk appetite, decision-making, organisational resilience, emerging threats, external change, and management responses to uncertain and rapidly evolving risk environments.

The Strategic Risk and Emerging Risk Auditing Training Course focuses on the complete risk assurance lifecycle, from understanding organisational strategy and risk context through risk identification, assessment, audit planning, evidence gathering, control evaluation, scenario analysis, reporting, and follow-up. Participants will learn how to move beyond traditional compliance-oriented auditing and provide meaningful assurance over risks that may materially influence strategic objectives, value creation, sustainability, and organisational resilience.

Strategic risks can arise from changes in markets, competition, technology, regulation, geopolitical conditions, business models, stakeholder expectations, financial conditions, supply chains, and organisational capabilities. Emerging risks may be difficult to define because their likelihood, timing, consequences, or interconnectedness remain uncertain. The programme therefore equips participants with structured techniques for assessing risk signals, assumptions, vulnerabilities, dependencies, scenarios, risk indicators, and management preparedness without relying solely on historical information.

The course places particular emphasis on evaluating whether management has established effective governance and decision-making processes for uncertain and potentially high-impact risks. Participants will examine risk appetite, strategic planning, board oversight, risk ownership, escalation, scenario analysis, stress testing, horizon scanning, key risk indicators, strategic assumptions, and risk response strategies. Practical audit approaches will help participants assess whether risk management information is sufficiently timely, reliable, forward-looking, and actionable.

Emerging issues addressed throughout the programme include artificial intelligence, digital transformation, cyber disruption, climate and nature-related risks, geopolitical instability, supply-chain concentration, technological dependencies, demographic and workforce changes, regulatory developments, economic uncertainty, and evolving societal expectations. Participants will consider how these developments can create interconnected risks and how internal audit can provide assurance over management's ability to anticipate, monitor, and respond to them.

By completing this programme, participants will be equipped to conduct sophisticated, risk-based audits of strategic and emerging risk management processes. The course strengthens professional judgement, critical thinking, scenario-based analysis, risk intelligence, stakeholder communication, and assurance planning, enabling auditors to provide useful insights into strategic vulnerabilities while maintaining appropriate independence and avoiding responsibility for management decisions.

Duration

10 days

Who Should Attend

• Internal auditors responsible for strategic risk, enterprise risk, governance, and emerging risk assurance engagements.

• Chief audit executives and audit managers developing risk-based internal audit strategies and annual audit plans.

• Enterprise risk management professionals responsible for strategic risk identification, assessment, monitoring, and reporting.

• Risk managers evaluating emerging threats, interconnected risks, strategic vulnerabilities, and organisational resilience.

• Governance and assurance professionals supporting boards, audit committees, and executive management with risk oversight.

• Compliance professionals assessing regulatory, legal, policy, and external developments that may create strategic exposure.

• Strategy and corporate planning professionals integrating uncertainty, risk intelligence, and scenario analysis into strategic decisions.

• Business leaders responsible for identifying and managing risks that could affect strategic objectives, growth, performance, or resilience.

• Financial and investment professionals evaluating market, economic, capital, liquidity, and strategic risks.

• Technology and cybersecurity professionals assessing emerging digital, technology, artificial intelligence, and cyber-related strategic risks.

• Sustainability and ESG professionals evaluating climate, environmental, social, stakeholder, and transition risks affecting strategy.

• Supply-chain and procurement professionals assessing strategic supplier dependencies, concentration risks, and external disruption.

• Consultants and assurance professionals conducting enterprise risk, strategic risk, resilience, and emerging risk assessments.

• Professionals seeking advanced capability in forward-looking risk analysis, strategic assurance, and emerging risk auditing.

Course Objectives

• Develop an advanced understanding of strategic and emerging risk auditing principles, governance expectations, professional responsibilities, and risk-based assurance methodologies.

• Apply structured approaches for understanding organisational strategy, strategic objectives, risk appetite, critical assumptions, value drivers, dependencies, and vulnerabilities relevant to audit planning.

• Identify and assess strategic risks arising from internal capabilities, external developments, business models, markets, technology, regulation, stakeholders, and organisational transformation.

• Develop practical techniques for identifying emerging risks through horizon scanning, weak signals, trend analysis, external intelligence, scenario development, and structured professional judgement.

• Evaluate the effectiveness of strategic risk governance, including board oversight, executive accountability, risk ownership, escalation, risk appetite, reporting, and decision-making arrangements.

• Assess whether strategic risk identification and assessment processes adequately consider uncertainty, velocity, interconnectedness, concentration, potential impact, and changing organisational circumstances.

• Examine risk response strategies and controls to determine whether management has appropriately considered avoidance, mitigation, transfer, acceptance, adaptation, and resilience options.

• Apply scenario analysis, stress testing, sensitivity analysis, and strategic assumption testing to evaluate organisational preparedness for significant and uncertain risk events.

• Analyse key risk indicators, early warning signals, risk data, trends, external intelligence, and management information to identify deteriorating conditions and emerging strategic exposures.

• Apply root cause analysis, systems thinking, and professional scepticism when evaluating complex strategic risks, recognising interdependencies and distinguishing symptoms from underlying vulnerabilities.

• Prepare high-quality strategic risk audit findings and recommendations that communicate material exposures, governance weaknesses, control gaps, uncertainty, implications, and opportunities for improvement.

• Strengthen forward-looking assurance through continuous risk monitoring, emerging risk assessments, integrated assurance, risk intelligence, technology-enabled analytics, and dynamic internal audit planning.

Comprehensive Course Outline

Module 1: Foundations of Strategic and Emerging Risk Auditing

• Principles, objectives, scope, benefits, professional responsibilities, and assurance concepts associated with strategic and emerging risk auditing.

• The relationship between organisational strategy, enterprise risk management, governance, risk appetite, strategic decision-making, resilience, and value preservation.

• Roles of internal audit, risk management, strategy functions, executive leadership, boards, audit committees, and operational management in strategic risk governance.

• Independence, objectivity, professional judgement, professional scepticism, ethical conduct, competence, and quality considerations in strategic risk assurance.

Module 2: Strategic Risk Governance and Risk Management Frameworks

• Strategic risk governance structures, board oversight, executive accountability, risk ownership, escalation mechanisms, committees, and management responsibilities.

• Integration of strategic risk with enterprise risk management, strategic planning, performance management, capital allocation, investment decisions, and organisational resilience.

• Risk appetite, risk tolerance, risk capacity, risk limits, strategic thresholds, and approaches for assessing alignment between risk-taking and organisational objectives.

• Audit criteria, risk frameworks, policies, methodologies, governance documentation, and management information used to evaluate strategic risk oversight.

Module 3: Strategic Risk Assessment and Audit Planning

• Identification of strategic objectives, value drivers, critical assumptions, dependencies, vulnerabilities, and risk factors influencing organisational performance.

• Risk-based strategic audit planning, including audit universe development, engagement objectives, scope, criteria, resources, timing, and audit programme design.

• Assessment of strategic risk maturity, historical risk events, management priorities, external developments, control effectiveness, and previous assurance results.

• Stakeholder engagement, preliminary risk intelligence, strategic document review, audit scoping, and development of focused strategic risk audit procedures.

Module 4: Strategic Objectives, Assumptions and Business Model Risk

• Auditing strategic plans, business models, growth assumptions, competitive positioning, market expectations, strategic priorities, and organisational value drivers.

• Evaluation of critical strategic assumptions and whether management systematically monitors the conditions on which major plans and decisions depend.

• Assessment of business model vulnerabilities arising from revenue concentration, customer dependence, cost structures, market changes, technological disruption, and operational dependencies.

• Scenario-based testing of strategic assumptions, alternative outcomes, sensitivity factors, decision triggers, and management preparedness for material deviations.

Module 5: Emerging Risk Identification and Horizon Scanning

• Principles of emerging risk identification, horizon scanning, weak-signal analysis, trend monitoring, external intelligence, and forward-looking risk assessment.

• Techniques for identifying risks with uncertain likelihood, timing, magnitude, or interconnected consequences before they become established organisational exposures.

• Evaluation of emerging risk registers, monitoring processes, ownership, escalation criteria, risk indicators, management responses, and periodic reassessment.

• Auditing the effectiveness of external environmental scanning across technology, economics, regulation, geopolitics, society, environment, competition, and stakeholder expectations.

Module 6: Scenario Analysis, Stress Testing and Strategic Resilience

• Scenario development techniques for assessing plausible strategic disruptions, uncertainty, alternative futures, interconnected risks, and potential organisational consequences.

• Auditing stress testing methodologies, assumptions, scenarios, data, thresholds, management participation, decision rules, and interpretation of results.

• Assessment of organisational preparedness for severe but plausible events affecting strategy, operations, finances, reputation, technology, workforce, or critical dependencies.

• Evaluation of management actions arising from scenario exercises, including contingency strategies, resilience investments, strategic adjustments, and risk response improvements.

Module 7: External Environment and Geopolitical Risk Auditing

• Assessment of geopolitical, economic, regulatory, trade, political, social, technological, and environmental developments that may influence strategic objectives.

• Auditing processes for monitoring external dependencies, country exposures, market conditions, policy changes, trade restrictions, and geopolitical developments.

• Evaluation of strategic responses to external volatility, including diversification, contingency planning, market adaptation, supplier alternatives, and operational resilience.

• Use of external intelligence, trend analysis, scenario planning, and risk indicators to evaluate management preparedness for rapidly changing external conditions.

Module 8: Technology, Digital Transformation and AI Strategic Risks

• Strategic risks associated with digital transformation, artificial intelligence, automation, cloud services, platforms, data dependencies, and rapidly evolving technology ecosystems.

• Auditing technology investment decisions, transformation strategies, innovation assumptions, implementation dependencies, benefits realisation, and strategic technology governance.

• Assessment of artificial intelligence risks involving model dependence, data quality, governance, intellectual property, third-party services, cybersecurity, privacy, and decision-making.

• Evaluation of technology concentration, legacy systems, digital resilience, vendor dependence, technological obsolescence, and capability gaps that could affect strategic objectives.

Module 9: Climate, Sustainability and Nature-Related Strategic Risks

• Climate physical and transition risks and their potential implications for strategy, assets, markets, operations, financing, supply chains, and organisational resilience.

• Auditing strategic responses to environmental change, resource scarcity, biodiversity impacts, stakeholder expectations, sustainability commitments, and evolving regulatory requirements.

• Assessment of climate scenarios, transition assumptions, adaptation strategies, decarbonisation plans, environmental dependencies, and long-term resilience considerations.

• Evaluation of sustainability-related strategic information, governance, performance indicators, risk reporting, and integration of environmental considerations into strategic decision-making.

Module 10: Strategic Financial, Market and Capital Risks

• Auditing strategic financial risks involving revenue concentration, market volatility, capital availability, liquidity, funding structures, investment decisions, and financial dependencies.

• Evaluation of financial assumptions supporting strategic plans, budgets, forecasts, investment cases, acquisitions, expansion initiatives, and major transformation programmes.

• Assessment of sensitivity analysis, stress testing, financial scenarios, capital allocation, risk-adjusted returns, and management responses to changing financial conditions.

• Integration of financial risk intelligence with broader strategic risk assessments to identify interconnected exposures and potential impacts on organisational objectives.

Module 11: Supply Chain, Third-Party and Strategic Dependency Risks

• Strategic supplier dependencies, concentration risks, outsourcing arrangements, critical vendors, logistics networks, infrastructure dependencies, and external ecosystem vulnerabilities.

• Auditing processes for identifying and monitoring critical third-party dependencies and assessing their potential effects on strategic objectives and organisational resilience.

• Evaluation of supplier diversification, alternative sourcing, contractual protections, continuity arrangements, performance monitoring, and management response to external disruptions.

• Emerging fourth-party, technology supply-chain, geographic concentration, resource scarcity, and interconnected ecosystem risks affecting strategic continuity.

Module 12: Strategic Risk Data, Indicators and Risk Intelligence

• Strategic risk data sources, data quality, risk information governance, management information, external intelligence, and analytical processes supporting risk decisions.

• Key risk indicators, early warning indicators, thresholds, triggers, trend analysis, exceptions, and dashboards used to monitor strategic risk exposure.

• Data analytics techniques for identifying deteriorating conditions, unusual patterns, concentration risks, correlations, emerging trends, and changes in strategic risk profiles.

• Continuous monitoring, automated intelligence, artificial intelligence-assisted analysis, risk sensing, and technology-enabled approaches for strengthening forward-looking assurance.

Module 13: Interconnected, Systemic and Compound Risk Auditing

• Systems thinking approaches for understanding relationships among strategic, operational, financial, technology, environmental, geopolitical, and third-party risks.

• Identification of risk concentrations, common dependencies, cascading effects, feedback loops, second-order consequences, and compound risk scenarios.

• Auditing management processes for evaluating interconnected risks rather than treating individual risks as isolated exposures within separate organisational silos.

• Scenario-based assessment of systemic disruption, cross-functional dependencies, organisational resilience, escalation pathways, and management coordination capabilities.

Module 14: Emerging Strategic Risks and Future Risk Environment

• Artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, advanced automation, digital ecosystems, cyber dependencies, technological convergence, and rapidly changing competitive environments.

• Climate change, biodiversity, resource constraints, demographic shifts, workforce transformation, social expectations, and other long-term forces affecting strategic risk profiles.

• Geopolitical fragmentation, supply-chain restructuring, economic uncertainty, regulatory transformation, technological disruption, and changing stakeholder expectations.

• Developing future-focused risk intelligence using trend analysis, horizon scanning, alternative scenarios, weak signals, expert judgement, and structured emerging-risk assessments.

Module 15: Strategic Risk Audit Reporting and Management Follow-Up

• Developing evidence-based strategic risk audit findings that clearly communicate criteria, condition, cause, consequence, uncertainty, risk significance, and supporting evidence.

• Writing practical recommendations that address governance weaknesses, risk identification gaps, information deficiencies, control vulnerabilities, and strategic preparedness requirements.

• Communicating complex strategic risk issues to boards, audit committees, executives, risk committees, strategy teams, and operational stakeholders in a clear and decision-useful manner.

• Follow-up auditing, remediation verification, residual-risk assessment, management action tracking, escalation of unresolved issues, and evaluation of sustained risk improvement.

Module 16: Advanced Strategic and Emerging Risk Assurance Strategy

• Integrating strategic risk auditing with enterprise risk management, internal audit strategy, organisational resilience, governance, strategy execution, and integrated assurance.

• Developing dynamic strategic risk audit plans that respond to changes in organisational objectives, external conditions, emerging threats, risk indicators, and assurance results.

• Advanced assurance approaches involving continuous risk sensing, scenario-based auditing, predictive analytics, strategic intelligence, integrated assurance, and technology-enabled monitoring.

• Building a forward-looking internal audit strategy that provides objective assurance over strategic risk governance while preserving management ownership of risk-taking and strategic decisions.

Training Approach

This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.

Tailor-Made Course

This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808

Training Venue 

The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.

Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant

Certification

Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.

Airport Pickup and Accommodation

Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808

Terms of Payment:

Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.