If you’ve ever watched MythBusters, you know the thrill of seeing someone take a widely accepted belief and put it through a wall of fire, explosives, or a surprisingly calm science experiment. Sadly, we don’t have a crash-test dummy named Buster, but we do have some myths that we’re more than ready to blow up.
GRC can get a bad rap. Somewhere along the way, a handful of myths about how it should work have taken on a life of their own.
We hear these misconceptions all the time, often from well-meaning teams just trying to keep their heads above water. So in the spirit of clearing the air, let’s bust a few of the most common GRC myths we’ve come across.
Myth #1: You don’t need a platform for SOX compliance.
Technically? Sure. You can manage SOX in spreadsheets and shared drives, just like you can eat soup with a fork. But at a certain point, the mess catches up with you.
We’ve seen it play out over and over: version control issues, missed control testing deadlines, frantic evidence collection, and documentation scattered across inboxes and shared folders. It’s not just chaotic, it’s risky. Manual processes leave you exposed to audit findings and burnout.
A proper platform centralizes your control framework, automates evidence collection, and creates a clean audit trail that doesn’t require a detective to follow. Plus, it helps your team focus on the actual substance of compliance instead of playing Excel Jenga all year long.
Myth #2: It’s better to just build something in-house.
Tempting, especially if you’ve got a capable IT team. But ask anyone who’s tried: building a custom solution that actually works for GRC isn’t a weekend project.
We’ve met companies that spent years building an internal tool, only to discover that it couldn’t scale, lacked critical features, or didn’t match how their teams actually work. And every time regulations shift, your dev team has to pivot to make updates (assuming they even have the bandwidth).
Buying a platform means skipping the growing pains. You get pre-built workflows for SOX, Risk, Audit, and more, with configuration options that don’t require a help desk ticket. More importantly, you’re getting the benefit of ongoing product development, compliance expertise, and support.
Myth #3: We’re too small to need GRC software.
We hear this a lot from growing companies. But here’s the catch: the earlier you set up a scalable foundation, the easier it is to grow into your compliance needs.
Think of it like bookkeeping. You wouldn’t wait until you hit $100M in revenue to start using accounting software – so why treat risk and compliance differently? When processes are lightweight but consistent from the beginning, you avoid the mess that comes from trying to retrofit a mature program into a disjointed system later.
And it’s not just about size. Even smaller orgs face vendor risk, financial reporting obligations, or industry-specific regulations. A GRC platform can help teams of any size get proactive, stay organized, and show leadership that you’re serious about risk and control.
Myth #4: Risk management is just a checkbox exercise.
This one hurts. If your risk process feels like a once-a-year fire drill, you’re missing the point and the value.
Too often, risk assessments become something teams rush through in Q4 to satisfy a policy requirement, only to shelve the results until next year. But effective risk management is a living, breathing process that should inform real business decisions – from where investments are needed to identifying how projects should be funded.
With the right tools in place, risk becomes more than a report – it becomes a language your entire business can speak. You can tie risks to controls, map them to processes, flag incidents and emerging threats in real-time, and respond with agility – not just hindsight.
Myth #5: Nobody outside of compliance cares about this stuff.
Try telling that to your CFO during an audit finding or your CISO after a data breach.
GRC isn’t just a back-office function anymore. It impacts brand trust, financial health, strategic agility, and operational resilience. When compliance breaks down, everyone feels the effects. And more often than not, leadership teams want to know what’s being done to manage that risk.
The good news? When GRC is connected and collaborative, it becomes easier to engage cross-functional teams. A platform that pulls together the right data, tasks, and reporting can help make risk and compliance visible, relevant, and dare we say – useful to the rest of the business.
Final Thoughts
We get it, GRC can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re stuck wrestling with myths that have overstayed their welcome. But the good news? You’re not stuck.
At Empowered, we’re all about helping teams cut through the noise, simplify their processes, and actually get value from their compliance and risk efforts. Whether you’re just starting your SOX journey or rethinking your entire approach to GRC, we’re here when you’re ready.
In the meantime, if you hear someone say “you don’t need a platform for that”… you know what to do.
