www.controllerverein.com Controlling - Creating Future

Publisher: International Controller Association ICV | Poznań Office

Dear Readers! The year’s end is a good time for changes. Last year in December we did give you the first issue of the ICV Bulletin. And this De-cember—what has changed in the ICV? But don’t we change all the time? We do gain new members all the time, not only indivi-dual, but also company members. We organize conferences and regional workshops — just to mention Controlling Competence Stuttgart. Thanks to engaged managers and good leaders there are new mem-ber countries in our Association! Milena Heim is the Head of the Work Group England and Slavko Simic— Work Group Bosnia and Herzegovina. And other Work Groups work also very hard organizing meetings and gaining new valuable members! And we planned at least as much interesting events for the next year! In this issue we present two of them —dedicated especially for the non-German speaking mem-bers: the VII International Controller Congress in Poznań and a new regional event:1st Congress of the ICV in Barcelona. I am looking forward to seeing you all there! You will also get to know a man with an interesting pas-sion. You would never guess what Conrad Günther, the Managing Director of the ICV does in his free time! Next ICV Board Member in the series presenting the Board with the tongue in cheek is Conrad Günther. Much pleasure while reading!

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New

Year full of successes! I keep the faith that the

next year will be even more prosperous and

rewarding for all of you!

Yours

Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska

ICV Board Member

International

Controller Association

ICV Bulletin | December 2012

Green-Controlling-Prize 2012 goes

to Hansgrohe SE

“Green Controlling - Green Profit - Green Future“ On Thursday (November 29, 2012) Hansgrohe SE from Schiltach in Black Forest has been awarded with the Green-Controlling Prize of Péter Horváth’s Foundation in collaboration with International Controller Association (ICV) for Controlling Solutions “Green Controlling - Green Profit - Green Future“. The 10,000 EUR prize was given for the second time during the conference “10th Controlling Competence Stuttgart - CCS 2012”. Jury chairman Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Péter Horváth (Horváth AG, IPRI gGmbH, director of ICV Ideenwerkstatt) handed the prize to Hansgrohe controller team in IBM forum Ehningen during the con-ference “Controlling Competence Stuttgart – CCS 2012”.

The Green-Controlling Prize of Péter Horváth Founda-tion was given for the second time during the southern German ICV conference “Controlling Competence Stuttgart”. The ICV had already taken up the theme of “Green Costs” in 2009 in his Innovators Panel, the “Idea Workshop”. A White Paper has already been pub-lished in end of 2010. In the meantime some ICV Work Group works go on with this topic. Péter Horváth’s Foundation in collaboration with International Controller Association (ICV) will promote the most inno-vative and most effective "green" controlling solution.

In this issue:

ICV Statement “Modern Budgeting”

Plan the new year 2013 with the ICV!

Board’s Christmas Letter

© International Controller Association ICV | Poznań Office

ICV Bulletin | December 2012

Modern Budgeting ICV Controller Statement

The newest ICV Statement created by the members of the Work Group “Modern Budgeting” is one of the achievements in year 2012. It has been also translated in English at once. You can download the whole State-ment on the ICV Homepage, For members only. Here we present only a fragment of this work.

Management accountants and controllers are intensively involved in planning. They discuss the advantages and dis-advantages of certain planning methods and instruments, and regard planning as the most crucial tool to control enter-prises. As correct as that may be, one should never forget that plans rarely unfold as intended for various reasons. This is to do with the nature of business and economics being evolutionary processes with an open outcome:

Certain events in the economy cannot really be fore-

seen. Constant change, a plethora of influential factors and the sheer impossible task of predicting

certain information, such as decisions and purchases, do

not allow for exact forecasts.

In addition, new ideas, innovations and products are

constantly being created. Some manage to take hold, others disappear. It is hard to predict which of those will remain.

Under these circumstances, we can deduce that the benefit of good planning is not being able to define what is going to happen in the future. That does not render planning super-fluous or useless, though. Plans are necessary to allocate and distribute resources (finances, capacities and staff) and to synchronise these resources within a budget. Resources are always in limited supply and many applications will com-pete for access to them at the same time. Companies can prepare well for the future by considering their options early. They can gain a head start and will have mentally prepared themselves for changes and new developments by the time they occur. With that in mind, all companies are well-advised to continue to intensify their efforts in planning and budgeting, and to continuously develop and improve them.

There is of course no single patent type of planning for all and sundry enterprises; planning is always company-specific. It can, in fact must, differ from company to com-pany. This is true even if two different companies are active in the same sector and are of a similar size and type of or-ganisation. In spite of that, there are several basic princi-ples which should hold true for all businesses and should represent these core values. These are the values dis-cussed in Modern Budgeting.

One look at the companies which make up over 6,000 mem-bers of ICV, its pertinent analysis and empirical studies, proves that planning and budgeting remain the most impor-tant issues and instruments in controlling. Despite this im-portance, discussions continue to question the efficiency and effectiveness of budgeting. The resulting criticism of both planning and budgeting processes has become more intense due to ever changing business environments, above all through increasingly dynamic markets. The approaches to solutions that have developed from this situation are only appropriate to a certain degree. On the one hand, they do not represent a complete concept, but merely provide key terms for a multitude of ideas and stru-ments for making improvements. On the other hand, they

Why „Modern Budgeting”?

hardly ever hold their own, and implementation of such ideas would be highly questionable in the majority of companies. Hence, an adequate concept for problems that could be ap-plied in practice has been missing thus far. The “Internationaler Controller Verein (ICV)”, an international association of controllers, therefore founded an expert work group in November 2007 with over 50 members active in research and consulting, with experience in a whole host of industries and companies. In the last four years, the work group has developed a scientifically profound, consistent and practical concept: “Modern Budgeting”.

A fragment of the Preface by Siegfried Gänßlen, Chairman of the ICV

Modern Budgeting… … leads back to the core values of planning via an integrated conceptual approach which is linked to strategy, objectives and management system. With this approach, budgets should be implemented consistently, simply and above all flexibly, while still adhering to strategies. Modern Budgeting does not imply having to invent new tools or even concepts. Modern Budgeting comprises six recommendations to devise plans and budgets in two categories:

Recommendations:

Simple: lean procedures; only concentrate on control-

relevant content; only apply beneficial instruments and methods; use only few entry values; find an optimum level of detail; sometimes “top-down” is sufficient.

Flexible: Be open to change; sensitivities and scenarios;

also relative goals based on benchmarks; (rolling) fore-casts; flexible and controlled (re-) distribution of resources.

Integrate: Strategy, planning, reporting and forecasts must

be interwoven. Concrete objectives derive from one an-other. Partially couple budgets with systems for bonuses and incentives. Don’t just pursue short-term objectives.

Foundations:

Mapping the Organisation: concrete, unambiguous targets;

oriented towards the overall objective; organisations must find short and rapid decision-making channels.

Mapping the Value Chain: Understand your own supply

chain and business model. Objectives, bottlenecks and restrictions determine planning.

Clarifying and Communicating Intentions: Make objectives

and intentions clear and understandable; communicate the plan’s core values and transform them equally on all lev-els; delegate responsibility for implementation with prem-ises and avoid top-down loops in setting objectives.

The ICV (Internationaler Controller Verein) Work Group Spain was founded in 2010 in order to expand the Control-ling know-how in Spain. Within the ICV there is a core group of 8 members who organize all activities. This group meets once a month in the German Chamber of Commerce in Spain and organizes different activities such as monthly informal reunions or the so called Stammtisch, which take place in the „heart“ of Barcelona. These reunions are held with different speakers like professors of Universi-ties, CFO´s, etc. who give lectures on subjects of actual importance. Up to twice a year the core group of the ICV assists in the organization of Breakfasts together with the company Ernst & Young. Furthermore, another important event is the Controlling Seminar, that is organized twice a year for two days with different subjects, „Controlling – the modern focus“ and „Sales Controlling“. This year´s highlight of the ICV agenda was the visit to the winery Torres in Vilafranca del Penedés close to Barcelona in order to get to know how the Controlling department works. The family business, Torres, is the biggest winery in Catalunya with 1.300 ha of own vineyards, homesteads, wineries and wine stores in 140 countries, heading Spain. The visit of the company was impressive, apart from the Controlling subject, because of the whole fermentation proc-ess and the kind of investments in the infrastructure in order to maintain and protect the nature. The end of the visit in-cluded a wine tasting with three wines of which each of them expressed its own character reflecting not only its fla-vor but also its broth taken out of the wide variety of grapes and of course of the different kinds of barrels used. The ICV Spain year-end closure is generally celebrated with a dinner for all members and non-members of the ICV-group. This year especially, a Stammtisch was included beforehand, discussing „Transfer prices“. For more information about all activities and the ICV Spain, you can find us on these homepages: www.circulocontroller.com, www.controllerverein.com, www.LinkedIn.com/groups/circuloCONTROLLER, www.ahk.es

© International Controller Association ICV | Poznań Office

ICV Bulletin | December 2012

Barcelona, Spain The core group of the ICV is proud to announce the 1st Congress of the ICV that is organized together with ACCID (Associació Catalana de Comptabilitat i Direcció) as organi-zation team. This Congress will take place on the 6th and 7th of June 2013 in the installations of the University UIC (Universidad Internacional de Catalunya). The organization team invited interesting speakers such as Mr. Karl-Heinz Steinke, Corporate Controlling at Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Mr. Dietmar Pascher, Partner and Trainer at Controller Akademie, just to name two of them. For further information about the program and how to register, please contact Maribel Fernandez of the German Chamber of Commerce in Spain (maribel.fernandez@ahk.es).

Poznań, Poland

What factors determine development and success of your enterprise?

What new trends and solutions appear

in the controller’s work?

What experiences have other controllers and CFOs from all ICV member countries?

VII International Controller Congress

Controlling Intelligence Adventure “Increasing efficiency—new role of controllers”

In seven years since its beginning in 2007 the Controlling Intelligence Adventure in Poznań, Poland has gained the reputation of the only international congress of the ICV. Next year it takes place on April 18-19, 2013. It has also gained many faithful participants who are there every time and is still gaining new fans. English as a second conference lan-guage, top quality technical knowledge, interesting speakers from many countries and many reliable enterprises and ex-perience exchange with new business contacts — all this make the Congress an obligatory event for all controllers and chief financial officers as well as the managers who want to improve the results of the company. For it’s neces-sary in the today’s world to search for new possibilities and ways to improvement, it’s also necessary to lifelong learning — that’s why we invite you to participate in this interesting event! For more information contact: Anna Włodarczyk, anna.wlodarczyk@icv.pl.

Plan the New Year 2013 with the International Controller Association! What plans do you have for the New Year 2013? What will you change in your life? You have already determined your plans for the next months for sure—not private, but also professional goals!. You want to develop yourself, perfect your skills, ob-tain interesting experiences, enclose new friendships and acquaintances in your branch... You should definitely note down events organized by the ICV. In this issue we present two of them: 1st Congress of the ICV in Spain and 7th CIA in Poland.

What did the participants say about the last Congress? “I wish such events to keep abreast of financial matters.” Mirosław Sekuła, Polish Vice-Minister of Finance “Great controlling minds gathered together!” Aleksander Socha, Business Controller, RAMIRENT S.A.

Poznań

© International Controller Association ICV | Poznań Office

ICV Bulletin | December 2012

How to make the Controller happy? By Hans-Peter Sander ICV Press-Manager Board Member of the CA Controller Akademie AG… Managing Director of the International Controller Asso-ciation ICV… Chairman of the publishing house for Controlling Knowledge AG… Conrad Günther has been an extremely effective association manager for more than 20 years!

Conrad Günther is like an institution Who in the German-speaking Controlling-community does not know him? Conrad Günther is like an institution; all thanks to his personality and his leading roles. One has met him already at a seminar of the CA Controller Academy, at a Controller Congress in Munich, during the event of the Inter-national Controller Association (ICV) or at the meeting of the International Group of Controlling (IGC). One can see the 53-year-old also as a cello player at a concert, as well as with his 3 children at a sport competition or at a school event, and sometimes even on a safari in South Africa or on holi-day in Florida.

A quiet but powerful man He never put himself in the spotlight. He speaks thoughtfully and clearly and when needed, also diplomatically. He is a careful and experienced organiser, who holds the strings discreetly but firmly in his hands. Conrad Günther is a member of the Board of the CA Controller Academy AG, the Managing Director of the International Controller Association (ICV) and the Chairman of the publishing house for Controlling Knowledge AG (VCW), which is re-sponsible for the "Controller Magazine", which is also a me-dium of the International Controller Association eV.

International Controller Association has grown with him since 1990! When Conrad Günther became the head of Controller Asso-ciation in 1990, he welcomed the 1,000th member. The fact that ICV has now over 6,500 members and more than 80 regional professional and working groups in 16 European countries, is a result of his successful path as the Associa-tion manager and a team player. Those who work with him, have already experienced that his attitude and the way of thinking and behavior in everything he does is based on one sentence that is the main principle of the CA Controller Academy : 'We want to make controllers happy'. For over 20

years he has been tirelessly, objectively and discreetly, but very effectively offering his help to self help.

Always spreading the Controlling philosophy Conrad Günther does work consistently on spreading the Controlling philosophy of its pioneers - especially of Dr.

Albrecht Deyhle - who from the beginning was oriented on the Controller image of business part-ners, as it is practiced now by the ICV, the IGC and other Controlling institutions. Although the

perception of the Controller has changed in the public and the business view, and the amount of Controllers who meet the requirements increased, Conrad Günther claims that he does not lose ground: Controllers must always go back to thinking about "rationality assurance", also as Manage-ment's business partners. He has recently said in an inter-view: "For the future Controller it is necessary to take up and fulfill the role of a business partner, which includes participation in a strategic decision making process. However, in my opin-ion Controllers need to be precise as if “counting peas'“ (from German: peas counting = nitpicking). Otherwise it might happen that there will be no peas, just apples and pears thrown into the same pot" - The statement that could not describe better the Controlling institution, Conrad Gün-ther.

In this issue the caricature of the series presenting the Members of the ICV Board with tongue in cheek. After the Chairman Siegfried Gänβlen and Prof. Dr. Heimo Losbichler it’s Conrad Günther’s turn. The others will come in the following issues of the Bulletin. Do stay tuned! Your Bulletin Team—in the hope that the Board sense of humor...

For the future Controller it is necessary to take up and fulfill the role of a business part-ner, which includes participation in a strategic decison making.

© International Controller Association ICV | Poznań Office

ICV Bulletin | December 2012

Board’s Christmas Letter

Dear executives and top performers at the ICV, dear ICV-members,

a year ago, we wrote that "tax in volatile times" would be the thematic focus of the ICV in 2012. When we look at our en-vironment, we must note that we have hit the bullseye with this subject. Volatility affects us not only with its content but also directly in our role as an organizer. We were able to record an increase of the participants’ number at some of our events in 2012, but on the other hand we had to accept even declines at some other events. Nevertheless, both our Congress and all the regional meetings have been very suc-cessful events, presenting valuable contents, and as always supplying excellent platform for exchanging experiences within the controlling community.

The ICV is very visible by its public events, nevertheless they only represent a part of our all club activities. We reaf-firm our belief that the Work Groups are the core of the ICV. We also wish a lot of joy and success in the work of all those being new to this position! This also relates to Milena Heim and Slavko Simic, who are responsible for building new Work Groups this year.

The fact that we no longer explicitly distinguish between the German-speaking countries and all the "other" countries allows you realize that the internationalization process has taken another step at the ICV. Nevertheless, internationali-zation is an ongoing challenge and we are aware of the fact that there is a lot of work ahead of us. An example of what works really well as far as the internationalization process is concerned, is the management of translation activities.

Like every year, our Think Tank has managed to address the current issues and prepare them accordingly so that they are understandable and manageable for us controller. The title of last edition´s "Dreamcar" sounded "Behavioral Controlling – it depends on the behavior", whereas our cur-rent work is dedicated to the aforementioned theme "Ahead of boom and crisis – let’s make controlling volatility-resistant".

We are very delighted to observe the development in the number of our member companies. We have noticed more than 20 entrants and so we are operating on the im-pressive number of more than 60 corporate members with names such as Beiersdorf AG and 1&1 Internet AG. We are particularly pleased about the fact that the corporate membership is becoming more and more popular outside of Germany. Only in 2012 members like for example Migros from Swit-zerland, Lenzing AG from Austria and Santander Consumer Bank SA from Poland have joined the ICV.

After 7 years because of professional rea-sons Dr. Bernd Schwarze resigned from the function of a board member at ICV. Dear Bernd, we thank you for the excellent and constructive cooperation over the past years and wish you all the best for the future! The ICV members voted on for Mr. Karl-Heinz Steinke, the Head of Corporate Controlling at Lufthansa as the successor of Dr. Bernd Schwarze. At the general meeting we also presented a new honorary member, Mr. Alfred Biel.

We would also like to highly recommend you this year's state-ment of ICV "Modern budgeting". A few weeks ago an expert group of the same name has managed to publish an English version of the statement. You can always obtain additional cop-ies through contacting our office.

We have also worked on a joint position paper of the ICV and the IGC (International Group of Controlling) including the core elements of controlling. The aim of the paper is to formulate basis of controlling understanding developed by Albrecht Dey-hle and to determine a current status of the controller’s role as policy position of ICV and IGC.

We were able to award the Otto Group with the Controller Price. The Controlling Newcomer Award went to Sabine Rosegger of the University Joanneum in Kapfenberg. Green Controlling Price of Péter Horváth Foundation was given to the Hansgrohe. Worth mentioning is that the deadline for applications for the Controller Price 2013 ends on January 25, 2013. The an-nouncement is available for the first time in English .

In November this year in Frankfurt we met within a "small" lead-ership committee meeting of the ICV with the regional dele-gates to discuss about the activities in all regions and to net-work within the professional circle. Finally, we would like to congratulate the Controller Academy, from whom we derive the origin of ICV. The Academy has cele-brated its 40th birthday in October this year.

The study "Operations efficiency radar" which we have already carried out for the 4th time in cooperation with the consulting company Roland Berger is already leading us into the new year. It is all about adjusting lever, for the CFOs to be able to control their businesses efficiently.

The year 2013 welcomes us with many challenges. We, at ICV have quite clearly in mind two of them: it will be about develop-ing the strategy and setting the goals for the ICV. The second challenge is to adapt our website to a new content management system (CMS), as the old one does not meet the technical re-quirements of the future anymore. The Public Relations Com-mittee, led by Dr. Herwig Friedag has prepared the topic in close coordination with the Board. We would like to thank Dr. Friedag and all team members for that effort!

The year 2012 was overall a very successful year. In the con-trolling community and beyond we are perceived as the ones you address if you want to know something about controlling

and as those who also have something to say about control-ling. And we can be proud of that. We look forward to many interesting meetings with you in the coming year, you are

very welcomed to join us at the General Assembly on 21 April 2013 in Munich and the subsequent 38th Controller

Congress.

We would like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year with a lot of health, prosperity and success! Sincerely, your ICV Board

Siegfried Gänßlen

Conrad Günther Marcus Haegi Adrianna Lewandowska Heimo Losbichler Walter Schmidt

Karl-Heinz Steinke Reduced Version. Read the whole Letter at http:// www.controllerverein.com/For-members-only.167676.html

Gauting, December 2012

ICV Bulletin | December 2012

Bosna and Hercegovina Slavko Simić bono@blic.net Bulgaria Denko Yamboliev denko@excite.com

Croatia Jasmina Očko jasmina.ocko@kognosko.hr Great Britain Milena Heim milena.heim@gmx.net

Estonia

Toomas Haldma

toomas.haldma@ut.ee

Lithuania Edita Gimžauskienė edita.gimzauskiene@ktu.lt

Hungary Budapest 1 Ervin Nemesdy nemesdy@mce.hu

Budapest 2 Andreas Kovacs kovács@mcskft.hu Italy Claudio Zoldan claudio.zoldan@bofrost.it

Poland Gdańsk Robert Panufnik r.panufnik@vector.com.pl

Katowice Anna Jarkulisz anna.jarkulisz@arcelormittal.com Kraków Dorota Gołąb-Bełtowicz dbeltowicz@bonifratrzy.krakow.pl

Lublin Paweł Rafalski pawel.rafalski@solet..pl

Łódź Karolina Zielińska karolina.zielinska@icv.pl

Poznań Dariusz Gulczyński dariusz.gulczynski@icv.pl

Szczecin Aleksander Socha aleksander.socha@ramirent.pl

Toruń Andrzej Derkowski andrzej.derkowski@neuca.pl

Warszawa Karol Sikora karol.sikora@icv.pl

Wrocław Honorata Ulatowska honorata.ulatowska@icv.pl

Zielona Góra Małgorzata Lepak malgorzata.lepak@icv.pl

Romania Cristina Hodea cristina.hodea@gmail.com

Russia Valentin Usenkov zoom@mail.ru

Serbia Bojan Šćepanović mcb@eunet.rs Slovenia Dragica Erčulj dragica.erculj@crmt.com

Spain Ulrich Müller Bosom ulrich.mueller.bosom@gmail.com

Imprint

Publisher and Copyrights:

International Controller Association

Public Relations Committee

Editing

Brigitte Dienstl-Arnegger

Dr. Herwig Friedag

Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska

Hans-Peter Sander

Anna Włodarczyk

International Controller Association ICV Office Poland Ul.Fredry 7/1 61-809 Poznań PL Phone/Fax +48 61 853 20 10 Mail: anna.wlodarczyk@icv.pl

The ControllerPreis 2013 to be taken—last month for admis-sion! International Controller Association is starting advertising for Controller-Preis 2013. Everybody can com-pete by submitting your controlling solutions.

Challenge your colleagues in the competition and face the decision of our competent judges!

More about the ICV awards: http://w w w . c o n t r o l l e r v e r e i n . c o m /Awards.158549.html

Controlling Newcomer Award 2012 Controlling Newcomer Award 2012 goes to Sabine Rossegger, FH Joanneum Kapfenberg with the thesis "Modern budgeting, – Ade-quate IT support for practical imple-

mentation". Controlling Newcomer

Award of International Controller Association (ICV) was held on 27 October during the conference "Innovation Controlling Berlin - CIB 2012" it was awarded for the eighth

time. The key criteria were: acade-mic foundation, practical relevance of the problem, direct applicability of developed recommendations in action and innovation degree of the work. More about the ICV awards: http://w w w . c o n t r o l l e r v e r e i n . c o m /Awards.158549.html

All Work Groups in non-German speaking countries

ICV Mission Statement

The ICV being a non-commercially

oriented association is the biggest

controller organization in Europe.

ICV Key Objectives

The ICV as an active

international network

enhances the function

of practically applied

controlling and the role

of the controller

in the responsibility

for successful