Customer Reviews

Internal Control: A Manager's Journey

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book will benefit both the new and seasoned professional. Its good for new managers and auditors wanting to get a broad understanding of internal control. The Picketts touch on just about every element of control and give good examples on application. New professionals can use this book as a development tool. I expect they will need to research some of the topics more.

I found the book beneficial because it helped me bring together my understanding of control and the link to our changing business environment. That is, a business environment that wants to balance control with creativity.

I found the writer's style enjoyable and made reading on a dry topic bearable.

Topics covered include: Objectives, Risk, Policy, Internal Control Elements, and how they fit together.

Spencer Pickett did an excellent job in explaining internal control. It's a broad introduction covering most aspects of the issue. The business novel style, successfully used by Blanchard, Goldratt, Landsberg etc. starts with a promising, crisp first chapter of 15 easily digestable pages. However, the remaining chapters are chunks of about 50 pages of nearly endless discussions of topics in the context of a dreadlock holiday. It's like half a bottle chilled high quality red wine in the morning. The high quality is in the examples and topics, the less digestable part is the story. On the other hand, without the story, it would be as dull as a Cobit or Basel2 manual.
Fair introduction!

This book did an excellent job of covering the entire gamut of internal control from the enviroment to procedure writing. The chapter on concepts of control was particularly well written.

This book definitely prepares you for the next step-writing an I/C policy for your business.

I don't have time to wade through this.... Had to go buy something more suitable.

I have taken up the book based on the reputation of Mr K.H. Spencer Pickett and was disappointed with the way the book was written.

It feels like reading a textbook where everything is covered with little focus and superficial knowledge is imparted. The only thing that helps is the way the book is written using a story of a manager whose company is in trouble. This helps to reduce the boredom of wondering what the author is trying to tell us.

Many theories are presented but the book lacks examples from real life situations and companies.