Edition 32 | 28 April 2026

Welcome to The Perspective. Each week I share a few reflections on work, leadership, and clarity. Not to add more noise, but to slow things down just enough to think properly. Some ideas are practical, others more reflective, but all are chosen with the same intent: to help us navigate complexity with a steadier hand.

This week’s note centres on something that is often misunderstood, not because it is complex, but because we tend to expect it to be something more than it needs to be.

What External Audit Is Actually There To Do

I caught myself thinking recently about something I used to say quite often earlier in my career. As an audit manager, there was a phrase that came up regularly before going out to a client: “let’s go and add value.” At the time, it felt right. It sounded like the expectation: that audit should contribute something beyond the core work.

Over time, that view has shifted. Working on the other side of the table, first as a Financial Manager, then as a CFO, and more recently sitting on Audit Committees, you start to see the role more clearly. External audit isn’t really there to add value. It’s there to provide assurance. And that distinction matters more than it might seem.

When audit tries to be something else, more advisory, more consultative, more involved in solving the business, it can lose sight of what it is actually meant to do. The moments where it works best are usually quite simple: when the team understands the control environment and leans on it, when the focus is on real areas of risk rather than ticking off checklists, and when the process runs efficiently without redoing work that has already been done properly.

From an Audit Committee perspective, what you’re really looking for is clarity. A view you can rely on, and confidence that the important areas have been properly tested. Not more commentary, not longer reports, just assurance that does what it’s meant to do.

The more I’ve thought about it, the more it feels like we may have overcomplicated something that is actually quite straightforward. External audit doesn’t need to add value. It just needs to do its job exceptionally well.

👉 I shared a shorter version of this on LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago:

View the post and comments on LinkedIn

Lessons from a Business Mastermind

Episode 5: Know What You Sign

One principle that stands out in Indra Nooyi's leadership is her refusal to be a pass-through.

She read everything. Asked questions. Went into the detail before approving anything.

Not because she didn’t trust her team, but because she understood that responsibility ultimately sits with the leader.

The Lesson:

You can delegate tasks, but you cannot delegate accountability.

If your name is on the decision, your understanding must be too.

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On My Desk

Last Thursday I was at the launch of From the Cape Flats to JSE, the story of Brimstone, told by a writer who started with it as a research project at university and turned it into a book.

It was my first book launch since my own, and it made me notice things I couldn't notice before. The quiet work that goes into it. What it takes to turn a life's work into something you can pass across a table.

I worked at Lion of Africa a decade ago, when it was part of the Brimstone group, so I knew fragments of the story. The launch made me want the full version, which I will dive into soon.

An extraordinary story, told by someone who took the time to do it justice.

Closing Perspective Not everything needs to be expanded. Some roles are clear in what they are meant to do. Some systems work best when they stay within that clarity. And in many cases, the real value comes not from doing more, but from doing the right things properly. Clarity has a way of simplifying what we often make unnecessarily complex. And once that clarity is in place, the rest tends to follow. Keep thinking. Move forward. — Yusuf Visit my website

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