Assurance 4.0: LRQA introduces the new era of assurance

In an era defined by heightened Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) expectations, fragmented global supply chains and cyber-attacks, a new approach to risk management is providing businesses with greater visibility of these challenges and enabling them to make more informed, data-driven decisions.

Global businesses are facing a rapidly changing world of risk. An evolution in ESG considerations, supply chain complexity, and cybersecurity threats is making it harder for companies to protect their operations and reputations. At the same time, consumers, governments, and investors are expecting higher standards of corporate responsibility than ever before.

Managing risk through an assurance programme has never been more vital, but now a new, digitally enabled approach is needed to navigate these global trends. As industries across the globe digitise, leading global assurance partner LRQA is taking the opportunity to help businesses capture and harness their data to improve visibility, manage risk and protect performance across their operations.

“Today, there is a clear expectation that business performance must navigate political and economic trends and be aligned with the needs of the planet and our communities. This is made harder by the complexity of the risk landscape, from ESG factors, to supply chain crises, to cyber-attacks. A once-a-year snapshot of risk is no longer sufficient. Businesses need to move to a model of continuous assurance in order to identify threats and protect their operations through responsive, data-driven decision making. The era of Assurance 4.0 is here.” says Ian Spaulding, CEO of LRQA.

LRQA has aligned its service portfolio to the key challenges within the era of Assurance 4.0, providing an end-to-end ecosystem of solutions for clients across geographies and sectors:

1.   Navigating the energy transition and achieving net zero 

Transitioning to cleaner, renewable energy creates a complex balancing act: meeting regulatory compliance while managing financial stability and operational performance.

2.   Responsible sourcing 

To maintain trust and promote sustainability, organisations need to ensure they have responsible sourcing programmes and risk management strategies in place to reduce human rights violations.

3.   Achieving product integrity 

Failing to ensure product integrity can lead to recalls, fines, loss of orders and irreversible reputational harm. Organisations need to address the weakest points in their operations (and supply chain) relating to quality and traceability.

4.   Assuring assets and management systems 

To facilitate trade and address stakeholder expectations, organisations must not only drive continuous operational improvement, but also establish systems and programmes to mitigate their and their supply chain’s critical risks.

5.   Strengthening cybersecurity maturity 

To combat the rise of increasingly agile and frequent digital threats, companies need a robust, organisation-wide cybersecurity programme to prevent, withstand and recover from incidents. From this point, businesses can better build out and mature their cybersecurity position.

Kevin Franklin, Chief Growth Officer, for LRQA said:

“Assurance 4.0 is about enabling organisations to better navigate the fast-changing operating landscape, with a sharp focus on evolving risks and opportunities associated with ESG, supply chain integrity and cybersecurity. Businesses need to achieve deep transparency, compliance and operational efficiency like never before, and manage their risks in ways evidenced by data and a dependable and agile assurance partner.

“Businesses that acknowledge, understand and adapt to the era of Assurance 4.0 can proactively future-proof their operations and gain competitive advantage by protecting their reputations in real-time through data-driven decision making, human intelligence, and continuous assurance.”