Social media represents real opportunities and real risks and therefore demands a disciplined approach.

Regulatory reform for the financial services industry has become a topic of national and international debate. Once these regulatory changes go into effect, it will be a whole new ballgame for the industry.

“Early Movers” develop the ability to articulate and monitor strategy deployment while also anticipating and managing the associated opportunities and risks. These companies enjoy improved performance and a strategic advantage over their competitors.

Companies will continue to face a rapidly evolving business environment and unexpected developments in 2012. With this in mind, boards of directors must consider top challenges for their organizations as they plan for the year ahead.

Board members need to establish effective risk oversight. The risk oversight process ensures that the company has in place a robust process for identifying, prioritizing, sourcing, managing, & monitoring its critical risks.

Smaller public companies have been required to comply with the management assertion requirement of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for their annual report filings for fiscal years ended on or after December 15, 2007. Are you in compliance? \r\n

Internal audit plays a critical role in helping companies successfully “manage the change”. Internal auditors must continue to enhance their skills and educate themselves on new technologies and competencies.

Nearly one in three large companies indicate that limited short-term credit availability has forced capital spending cuts, frozen or reduced hiring, and led to staff layoffs, cutbacks in inventory, and store and factory closings.

Social technologies offer new ways to acquire and serve customers. Protiviti helps organizations create social business strategies to engage – not manage – their customers. We also help companies build internal communities that improve business processes. Protiviti will benchmark your current state of social business to what others are offering and work with you to build a plan to get to the next level.