Lightning Oak
Insights library
Every briefing, article and press piece on this site, newest first, with its headline and a one-line summary. The Insights page shows the six most recent of each kind. Briefings answer one question with their sources, and articles and interviews open as summaries with a link to the original.
Briefings
Plain answers with their sources
When does a private equity-backed company need internal audit?
Unless a rule or agreement requires one, the board decides when internal audit is needed, and the changes that follow a deal tend to strengthen the case.
What does the failure to prevent fraud offence ask of a board?
A large organisation can defend the offence by proving reasonable fraud prevention procedures, and the guidance makes prevention a board responsibility.
What changes on the board when a founder-led company takes investment?
An investor commonly nominates a director, yet every director owes duties to the company, so settle how decisions and conflicts work before signing.
What makes a board effectiveness review rigorous?
A questionnaire is unlikely to show the real dynamics of a board, so a rigorous review should rest on the time the reviewer spends with directors.
What should a buyer check in an FCA-authorised firm’s governance?
Board papers show a buyer how a regulated target runs in practice, and approval from the regulator depends partly on the same governance.
How should internal audit prepare for an external quality assessment?
An external quality assessment tests evidence an internal audit function already holds, so preparation starts well before the fieldwork.
Where does a board’s assurance for Provision 29 come from?
A Provision 29 declaration rests on evidence the board gathers itself, and the opinion of the external auditor does not cover it.
Which governance and controls come first in a 100-day plan?
Once a business changes hands, the first thing to put in writing is who may decide what, before old habits set the pattern.
Should internal audit report to the chief financial officer?
A line from internal audit to the finance chief needs safeguards that an audit committee chair can see and check.
Articles
Written for professional bodies
Fractional chief auditors
What makes a fractional chief auditor a real appointment, not a compromise: a place in the charter, ownership of the plan and reporting straight to the audit committee.
AI buck stops with boards
The authors argue that boards have scaled artificial intelligence faster than they have governed it, and that the old principles of oversight need applying harder.
Governance meetings: ten critical considerations
For the Internal Audit Community at the institute, the authors set out the ten points that decide whether a governance meeting ends in a sound decision.
Press
Interviews and profiles
From audits to advice: the risk and governance expert helping founders find success
Elite Business asks James when founders should bring in outside help. He links a founder who takes every decision to a lower valuation.
What search and rescue taught one charity trustee about the boardroom
Charity Today asks James about boards, from what search and rescue taught him to well-meant reporting that misleads, income concentration and AI.
Getting to know you: James Walker, founder, Lightning Oak
Business Matters asks James about the question behind Lightning Oak and why challenge without support is just criticism.
The secret helpers trying to find Brits who go missing every 90 seconds
Mirror Online looks at Missing People’s network of ‘secret helpers’, with James explaining how London Search and Rescue uses its live briefings.
Search and rescue volunteer’s passion
The Sunday Mirror on James’s search and rescue volunteering, from an early-morning search for a missing six-year-old to why the work keeps him grounded.
Comment
Comment in the business press
If you reach for a person when the problem is a process, you’ll end up paying for both
Why more people rarely fix a broken process, and the questions a board can ask before it approves more headcount.