Icv bulletin, march 2012

International

Controller Association

ICV Bulletin | No. 2 | March 2012

www.controllerverein.com Controlling - Shaping the Future

Publisher: International Controller Association ICV | Poznań Office

7-8. We warmly invite you to both of them as we firmly be-lieve that our experts’ presentations and our international guests will greatly contribute to your professional and per-sonal development.

In the last issue we published 10 core elements of sustain-able controlling for a reason. We have decided to assess all our member companies according to these values. We have started with Volkswagen Poznań (p. 3-4). However, examining a company as a whole is not enough so we publish in this issue an article (p. 2-3) which is aimed at assessing the value system of individual employees - the DNA of a company. We are going to conduct serveys based on that article among our company members’ employees. In that way we will have examined the ’’body” of a company with 10 core ICV elements and its DNA with serveys conducted among its employees.

For regional events let us take you on a trip to Spain (p. 5). And on pages 6-7 you will find a review of the work group “modern budgeting” by Prof. Dr. Ronald Gleich, which con-tains many practical insights into the recent methods of budg-eting.

I have recently become the feeling that we the Board need to become a bit more approachable for you. And is there a bet-ter way to approach a person than with a bit of humor? That is why we have started a series presenting all ICV Board Members with tongue in cheek. This time its Chairman Sieg-fried Gänßlen’s turn, but the rest (including me) better be wary - you never know what the next issue of the Bulletin may bring :-).

I am looking forward to seeing you in Munich or Poznań

Yours

Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska, ICV Board Member

In this issue:

Invitation to two ICV

Congresses

Higher Level - for Controllers for Controlling

Review of the Work Group „Modern Budgeting”

2 cities: Poznań, Munich

2 International Controller Congresses

POZNAÑ

Controller as a Business Partner in Volatile Times

1000 international guests

One ICV

40 speakers from all over the world

100 controlling issues

MUNICH

Nachhaltig Erfolgreich: Controller als Business

Partner

Dear Readers!

Spring is almost upon us! Inspired by the good vibes and motivated by your positive response to the last issue of the ICV Bul-letin we prepared the second one - a little thicker this time. On the spring map of the ICV there are two major events prominent: two Interna-tional Controller Congresses. The first one takes place in Poznań (p. 6) on April 26-27 (all presentations will be either held in English or simultaneously interpreted into English). And the second one, the Ger-man ICV Congress, which is due on May

Do plenty of networking with financial directors, managers and controllers from all over the world

Exchange knowledge and experiences with

the best professionals out there

Get to the cutting edge of controlling solutions

© International Controller Association ICV | Poznań Office


Higher Level – for Controllers,

for Controlling

by Jens Hofacker

Controlling has become more important in recent years. Yet some controllers still feel underestimated or undervalued. They think that they are not enough appreciated personally as well as professionally. In this case, it is useful to critically examine our personal contribution to controlling, cooperation with other controllers and cooperation with other company branches.

1. Are you a team player? Growing demands make suc-cessful controlling effective only in a team. Criticism within a team is necessary for development, criticism of individual colleagues destructs the basis of cooperation. When did you last time help – actively and unasked for - a colleague with something? 2. Do you meet the standards? Controller tasks can be de-scribed using two criteria: quality and quantity. Quality always remains subjective to a certain degree, quantity does not. That is why all arranged appointments should be kept. When did you last time fail to keep your appointment? Did you have an ex-cuse or did you make one up? 3. Do you constantly improve your skills? With the fast changing tasks it is indispensible to set a high priority on further education in order to avoid the risk of becoming ex-pendable. We are not talking here so much about funda-mental questions as about concrete command of certain tools. Also superiors need to know about the tools which are used by their staff. An important report should not be aban-doned because a colleague has gone on leave and his/her stand-in is ill. Which controlling tool not already used last year do you use today? 4. Are you constantly engaged in improving yourself? Not more, but better information is required. Special reports should not be changed quarterly, however ongoing sugges-tions can be collected for a yearly adjustment. Tasks are seldom documented and learn effects recorded. When did you last time improve standard of your information? 5. Do you complete special tasks quickly with a report? After the information has been collected and evaluated, the report recipients should receive first results after three days, at the latest. In two weeks’ time the final results should be ready and possible measures implemented. Are all special tasks accomplished with a report or is there still need for clari-fication and improvement? 6. Do you hold your convictions and values on every hierarchy level within the company? Especially by critical questions which cannot be wholly quantified the top manage-ment accepts as equal only contact persons having clear convictions. When did you last time represent the views of a minority group? 7. Who do you work for? Each staff member has superi-ors, controlling department reports usually to company man-agement. But what is the relation to the units that accom-pany controlling in everyday business? Only those who re-gard themselves as real partners and service providers will gain confidence and also find and carry through joint solutions. Where do you simplify tasks, where do you com-plicate facts?

8. Do you cooperate with other company branches? It involves working together, not side by side. Tasks can in consequence last longer and result in higher costs, but the skills and contacts to be gained from that will in longer terms more than make up for it. When and which other staff units did you help to improve their own performances? 9. Do you place highest standards for cooperation with other parties? The reputation of the department as well as of the individual persons requires it. Not only the promises are to be kept, but also the personal friendly relations with our contact persons and the quick and clear reaction on inquires are to be defined and it has to be guaranteed that they will be kept. How long does it take you to react on a question? 10. Do you set high standards? Best individual achieve-ment pales when compared to the average results of the next task. The recognition of the individual controller is inseparably connected with the department. The impression you make is equally important as the rest of your work. Are your standards defined and does regular verification take place? 11. Do you always provide top performance? Controllers work together with manifold company hierarchy levels. A controller that provides the recipient of the information with value-adding information is not overseen long when inter-esting tasks appear in the company. After realizing that con-trolling is a good springboard, the attention of potential can-didates increases and a self-reinforcing cycle develops. When did you last time provide unexpected added value for the top management?

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these actions result in. It is not enough to deliver standard re-ports. Ongoing communication enables controllers to also adopt once in a while a different method, look for new solutions and communicate openly a possible failure. Do your service recipients really know, what you are doing? 14. Are you ready for changes? Many professionals have been working in controlling for many years, without losing the necessary enthusiasm and they still infect their informa-tion recipients and colleagues with their engagement. How-ever, it can still be the case that we lose the enthusiasm. Then you should allow your profession, colleagues, and most importantly yourself a favor and grasp for a new task. When did you last time assess your personal engage-ment? How has it developed in the last three years?


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12. Do you treat your partners in a polite and respectful manner? We are not talking about the information recipient from the top management, but about colleagues in the com-pany units. Unfortunately, bad behavior becomes more of-ten the reality of everyday work. Nothing makes long-lasting enemies as good as belittling somebody or, even worse, belittling somebody in front of other parties. Certain things can remain unnoticed in the thick of the action. That is why controllers should give also each other feedback. Is there zero tolerance for belittling? 13. Do you notify your information recipients regularly about your tasks and results? Both the superiors within the department and the company management want to know what controllers do, what the aims of their actions are and what

This time the Bulletin team have taken on its sights Volkswagen Poznań, one of our recent company members. In this issue we look at the “body” of Volks-wagen Poznań by con-fronting it with 10 core elements of sustainable controlling. And in the next issue we will examine its DNA by carrying out a survey among its employ-ees. Our insider in VW

Poznań was Małgorzata Podskarbi (photo), coordinator for investment controlling and head of the ICV work group Poznań-Brandenburg, who provided us with concrete and undeniable examples of her company implementing the ICV values. She fleshed out all ten ICV values with exam-ples leaving no doubt that for Volkswagen Poznań control-ling is a matter of high priority. Let’s look at some of them.

Sustainable value creation The word “volatile” seems to have dominated all media in recent years. The Oxford English Dictionary describes the adjective, for example, as: ’’showing sharp changes in price or value; unstable.’’ Volatility has in fact become a new nor-mality. Be it politics, economics or even climate - we have to deal with volatility. However, this by no means positive word has got competition now. One of the its definitions in the OED is as follows: ”Able to be maintained at a certain rate or level.”. Yes, you’ve got it - we are talking about the adjective: sustainable. These two words are jockeying for the first place in the media, often running head-to-head like in the sen-tence: sustainable growth in the volatile times. And the team at Volkswagen Poznań is rooting for ‘’sustainable’’ wholeheartedly.

Volkswagen Poznań is set on keeping its quality standards at the highest level, honing its processes to perfection. By do-ing so, they have managed to sustain their position as a leader in the car industry. This is what they do every day in

Volkswagen Poznań – a Paragon of ICV Values

by Małgorzata Podskarbi and Piotr Buza 10 core elements of sustainable controlling by ICV Board member Prof. Dr. Losbichler published in the last issue of the Bulletin can be treated as a benchmark for all companies dealing with controlling issues. It would be perfect, if these 10 elements were indeed at the “core” of all companies, especially at the core of ICV member companies. The 10 elements look at a company as a whole - at a company’s, so to say, “body”. Whereas the 14 questions stated in the above article by Jens Hofacker are aimed at assessing individual employees, “the DNA of a company”.


ICV Bulletin | No. 1 | December 2011

the matter of sustainability. However, if you want to guar-antee a sustainable growth in your company, you need to have a wider perspective - to forecast the future and ana-lyze the past. That’s why they have implemented into their financial structure the ROI ratio (return on investment) and the EVA (economic value added) ratio – both telltale indica-tors. Sustainable value creation can be weakened by all kinds of risks and there is no way to wish them away. The only possibility is to manage these risks effectively. Thus VW Poznań implemented strategic management in 2010 and since then the VW team has taken a professional ap-proach to it. These and other measures guarantee in VW Poznań sustainable value creation, even in such highly

volatile times as we are living in now.

Taking actions above all In his perennial bestseller „The Seven Habits of Highly Ef-fective People” (Time listed it as one of "The 25 Most Influ-ential Business Management Books") Steven R. Covey ana-lyzes habits which help people reach personal and social success. The first habit he gives is surprisingly similar to one of the ICV core elements. It reads: “Be proactive”, whereas the ICV fifth core elements is: “Taking actions above all”. Małgosia Podskarbi left us with the impression that VW Poznań has got much to say in the matter of being proac-tive. Being proactive means not only taking initiative, but equally important is learning from one’s own experiences and, above all, being responsible for your actions. In order

to be response-able, to be able to respond appropriately VW Poznań has introduced a transparent reporting system for its internal partners such as KPIs (key performance indica-tors). Volkswagen Poznań makes also use of measurement tools and ratios which are relevant to its strategy and mis-sion statement. Last but not least, if we want to be success-fully proactive, we need to act with common sense. And Volkswagen Poznań makes an impression of a company with common sense.

Representing the company's values

Małgosia Podskarbi, our insider at VW Poznań, has actually herself greatly contributed to spreading the values of her company across all organizational levels. She has created a project that aims at raising awareness of the VW Poznań values among all its employees. The idea behind her pro-ject, which will be implemented at Volkswagen Nutzfahr-zeuge in Hannover, is to get more “entrepreneurs in the VW enterprise”. She believes, and so does the team of the ICV bulletin, that educating internal business partners is a good method of ratcheting up the company’s profitability. For ex-ample, providing employees with basic knowledge of con-trolling boosts economical attitudes which has an impact on the financial situation and liquidity of the company. We are proud to announce that Małgosia Podskarbi is go-ing to be one of the speakers at the International Controller Congress in Poznań on 26-27 April (look page 6), where she will present her innovative project in more detail.

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Arguments in favor of a company membership:

The company belongs to a widely recognized and the biggest (more than 6,000 members) Controller Association in the German

speaking region

The company promotes the International Controller Association through its membership fee: the Association has gained a reputa-

tion as a non-profit organization

Exchange of experience with other controllers from different business sectors and companies

Free of charge participation in meetings organized by a chosen regional work group (the work groups meet, as a rule, two times a

year for one day. Profits: two free of charge seminars annually!)

Free subscription to the Controller Magazine (6 issues per year), subscription included in membership fee

Free special subscription to controlling statements

Preferential price for visits at the Controller Congress, regional conferences as well as branch conferences

The possibility to use the ICV Office as a competent support

FILL THIS SPACE UP BY BECOMING THE 50th MEMBER OF THIS COMPANY



An Interview with a Man with three Mother Tongues

What do you get by joining German character with Spanish mentality? The question sounds like the begin-ning of a good joke, but not this time. With this unusual mixture we get a

perspectives, leaving no stone unturned. The event ended with a breakfast, it was after all a Breakfast Meeting, spon-sored by Ernst & Young. The breakfast proceeded in a pleasant atmosphere best suited to do a bit of networking. The next Breakfast Meeting is due on May this year.

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person with international edge, having three mother tongues - German, Spanish, Catalan - feeling at home in at least two cultures. Ulrich Müller Bosom (photo) is his name and he is the head of the ICV work group Spain. The Bulletin team had the pleasure to talk to him

P.B.: How did you manage to establish in Spain an as-sociation with German roots? What proved to be the biggest challenge in the process?

U.M.B.: The association was established in 2003 under the name of Circulo Controller between the German Chamber of Commerce in Spain and a group of people, mainly of Ger-man origin. The idea was to bring people together to ex-change experiences and to network. It was an informal meeting once a month called "Stammtisch" in a Hotel in Barcelona. Later in September 2010 we had our Kick-Off-Event in Barcelona where we established the ICV work group Spain. We wanted to be a part of an international community of controllers and we wanted to provide our members with the association’s knowledge.

Creative Tension in Barcelona The last Breakfast Meeting took place on February 9 at 8:30 o’clock, sharp. As the venues for the meeting served, as usually, the top hall of the office of Ernst & Young Barce-lona. The hall enjoys a commanding view of Barcelona with its incredible cityscape - so the good vibes of the place im-mediately put the participants into a good mood with crea-tive tension hovering over their heads. There were 47 participants and Mr. Cyril Helbert, Vice Presi-dent Finance & Controlling from Schneider Electric Spain,

the global specialist in energy management, took the

floor. He took the plunge and talked about the topic that is being struggled with by all kinds of specialists worldwide: he talked about controlling in volatile times and managed to “tame this pretty large beast of a topic”. After his full of fasci-nating insights presentation the Breakfast Meeting partici-pants had a round of discussions. They looked at the issue of controlling in volatile times from all possible angles and

ICV WORK GROUP SPAIN

by Ulrich Müller Bosom and Piotr Buza The Spanish ICV work group gathers monthly on its meetings called “Stammtisch” in the hotel Regina in Barcelona. By organizing these meetings Ulrich Müller Bosom (interview below), the leader of the work group Spain, wants to give people the opportunity to improve their controlling knowledge. Getting people together and making them do something is all but easy, but the Spanish work group is determined to promote the controlling philosophy and values represented by the ICV. Apart from “Stammtisch” they have twice a year a funny dinner in a nice restaurant near the beach and other events such as Breakfast Meetings at Ernst&Young.

Members of the ICV work group at their summer meeting

U.M.B.: What about the language barrier, I know you speak German, but it is probably quite an issue for the Spanish ICV members that all materials are in German U.M.B.: The language is obviously a big barrier for our members in Spain and this is mainly the reason why we don't have so many ICV members here. I hope this will change in the future with more content and articles in Eng-lish.

P.B.: Are there any cultural differences in managing people in Spain and Germany? U.M.B.: In Spain people aren’t used to planning in advance their activities as, for example, the Germans do. The Span-iards are more flexible if necessary. The Germans tend to hone things to perfection, and the Spaniards do not care about it so much. But if something goes wrong, no problem, they look for a solution and solve the problem. In Spain peo-ple are used to working later than in Germany and the lunch time is longer than in Germany, for this reason in Spain the working day tends to be much longer than it is in Germany. But in the end it’s difficult to make this kind of comparisons because as you know, Spain is a very big country with dif-ferent cultures and also four different languages. P.B. - Piotr Buza, translator/editor, ICV U.M.B - Ulrich Müller Bosom, head of the ICV work group Spain

Happiness is somebody to love, something to do and something to I was destined to experience and take active part in the funda-mental transformation of the country I hail from. It was an up-heaval on a political, industrial and social scale. The world I knew was gone. A whole new world opened up before me, I found myself doing things I had not imagined in my boldest dreams and having adventures I had not even dared to plan. More often than not I had the feeling that it is an incredible gift to live in the right place at the right time and to have an idea for how to realize your plans and deepest dreams. Now I have decided to share with others my experiences and knowledge that I earned on my full of ups and downs road. I firmly believe that it is worth doing, even if I should help others just a little.

The Congress is sponsored by:

© International Controller Association ICV


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The Road is More Important than the Goal We are proud to announce that the special guest of the International Controller Congress in Poznań will be Sławomir La-chowski: manager, visionary of Polish banking, member of the Balcerowicz group for Polish transformation, the man behind the success of mBank and Multibank, member of various supervisory boards, named Top Manager of the year 2007 by the Manager Magazine, traveler, mountain conqueror, author of the bestseller : “The Road is More Important than the Goal.”

CONTROLLING INTELLIGENCE ADVENTURE IN POZNAŃ, May 26-27, 2012

Sławomir Lachowski on his PanAmericana trip

Dragica Erčulj

CRMT Institute,

Slovenia

Lothar Kuhls

WEGe Managementberatung

GmbH, Germany

Ulrich Müller Bosom Frape Behr S.A.,

Spain

Dr. Tomasz Cicirko

Poczta Polska S.A.,

Poland

Andrzej Derkowski

Neuca S.A.,

Poland

Jakub Tatak

Lux Med Sp. z o.o.,

Poland

Prof. Toomas Haldma

University of Tartu,

Estonia

Małgorzata Podskarbi

Volkswagen Poznań Sp. z o.o.,

Poland

Dr. Stefan Olech

ODiTK

Poland

Dr. Walter Schmidt Ask,

Germany

Michał Plit

Lux Med Sp. z o.o.,

Poland

Karol Sikora

Poczta Polska S.A.,

Poland

MEET THE SPECIALISTS OF THE CIA CONGRESS IN POZNAŃ

This year’s CIA (Controlling Intelligence Adventure) attracted many speakers, both form Poland and abroad. They are the best specialists in their fields. The motto of the Congress is: “Controller as a Business Partner in Volatile Times” and our speakers will talk about such topics as: making your company fit for change; how do modern analysis tools and methods contribute to smarter controlling?; control-ling risk management in volatile times; Controller’s Academy as way of raising cost and profit awareness among production employees; ABC costing in service com-panies. We will also discuss controlling trends, challenges and our tasks as controllers and CFOs. We will present the future shaping themes that our ICV specialist work groups deal with, e.g.: sustainable/green controlling; quality standards in control-ling; IFRS in controlling; modern budgeting (our answer to the debate Beyond Budgeting); communication controlling and behavior-based controlling. We invite you to engage in all these topics. We kick off on 26.04 at 10:00 a.m. and finish on 27.04 at 14:00 p.m. You will find all information about the venues of the CIA Congress at: www.icv.pl

As an Official Airline of the Congress, LOT, a Star Alliance Member, prepared for the first time a special offer for the participants of the Congress. We are happy to inform you that all our guests who would like to take up the offer of LOT Polish Airlines on their way to the Congress or back, will receive a special discount dedicated only to its participants.



Academics, consultants and managers have been working together for four years analyzing, assessing and publishing work in the field of Modern Budgeting. As befits engaged controllers, the most important results were compiled in a successive key performance report (cf. table 1) - a short summary on each of them will be given in this paper. Overall, the ICV experts met six times. In each meeting, usually lasting one day, they discussed the development of one approach to modern budgeting and its practical applica-tion. Three meetings took place at universities, one at the invitation of a company and two were organized by consult-ing companies.

Siegfried Gänßlen imagined the work groups as diverse teams. This suggestion could be provided thanks to the ICV members' readiness to join in and participate in the project. Almost 50 academics, consultants and managers took and are still taking part in the final works. These three groups of experts are represented in the work group's management. Prof. Dr. Ronald Gleich from EBS University headed the team, his representatives are managers (Udo Kraus, Hans-grohe AG) and consultants (Dr. Uwe Michel, Horváth&Partners).

The members of the five established work groups met very often, sometimes even monthly through all phases of the work group, (cf. image 1 with the presentation of various work groups and their leaders). One work group deeply ana-lyzed the current state of scientific research on the issue "budgeting". Its aim was to collect data which could be help-ful while preparing a concept of modern budgeting. Another group critically dealt with the issue "beyond budgeting", and the third work group with the requirements and solutions from the company practice. Six comprehensive case studies were prepared and more than 30 complementary interviews were conducted with company controllers.

These three work groups built the bases for the preparation of six principles of modern budgeting. The principles are divided into two categories, as shown in table 2 (cf. "One-Pager" MB 2010). First the principles were developed, ex-plained and discussed. In April 2009 at Joanneum in Graz the specialist work group was ready to write its first White Paper. The White Paper was published a few weeks later.

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key performance indicators ratios

number of work group's meetings 6

number of work group's members: practice consulting science

48 32 10 6

number of work groups 5

number of white papers 3

number of publications: books book articles magazine articles web entries

31 1 16 10 4

Review of the ICV Work Group "Modern Budgeting"

by Prof. Dr. Ronald Gleich

On December 2, 2011 the ICV work group "Modern Budgeting" completed its work. More than 15 members met at EBS Uni-versity in Oestrich-Winkel to discuss solutions which they have worked out together, to tick off some remaining points or to talk over the Statement - the paper closing the specialist work group's activities.

recommendations for shaping

simple: lean procedures, limiting to management-relevant contents, using only suitable tools and methods, only a few input values, finding optimal level of detail, "top-down" approach may also come in handy

flexible: readiness for changes, sensitivities and scenarios, also relative aims in accordance with benchmarks, (rolling) forecasts, flexible and controlled regrouping of resources.

integrated: strategy, planning, reporting and forecasting must be combined. Concrete, but just a few guidelines that can be derived from one another. Budget and incentive systems linked loosely. Aims should not be lim-ited to short-term ones.

fundamentals:

mapping the organization: concrete, explicit aims, orientation on the main objective, the organization must find short and quick ways of making decisions.

mapping added value: understanding your own value added chain. Aims, bottlenecks and restrictions determine planning

clearly making and communicating our aims:

making aims and intentions clear, communicating the core of the plan and transforming it according to the level of performance, conveying the responsibility for implementation, forestalling planning loops through standards and top-down instructions.

Table 2: Principles of "Modern Budgeting"

Image 1: WG-members in the work group's final meeting on 02-12-2011 in Oestrich-Winkel.

Table 1: Performance Report by the Work Group "Modern Budgeting"



It should again be emphasized that modern budgeting re-turns to the core of planning. The budget implementation concept should be incorporated into the strategy, aims and managerial system. The implementation should be conse-quent, simple, and above all flexibly adaptable to the chang-ing environment and at the same time remain consistent with the strategy. Modern budgeting does not entail invent-ing new tools and concepts. It must be strongly emphasized that there is no one modern budgeting which would be suit-able for all companies. Principles and resulting from them budgeting tools formulated by the specialist group have to be tailored for the company to suit its culture and strategy. Another White Paper was required to develop this idea. It was published under the title “Best Practices” in the spring 2011. The article discussed and outlined 12 examples of modern budgeting. The examples may be used as a refer-ence paper for controllers and help them to better under-stand "how to work with modern budgeting". They can use it to implement modern budgeting in their own companies. The third White Paper by the specialist group “IT” is cur-rently being finalized. The core objective is thereby to de-scribe an optimal IT support for modern budgeting. It should assess available tools in order to help the user select the best one. The output of a work group is not only judged by its White Papers but also by its further publications. As table 1 shows the WG members could be called all but idle. Especially worth noticing is the joint book project "Modern Budgeting", which was published in volume 3 of Controlling-Guides by the Haufe publishing house. It contained twelve articles writ-

ten by the specialist work groups' experts. Four WG articles contributed to publishing two other books. Worth mentioning are ten further magazine articles in spe-cialist magazines and four longer publications in Haufe Con-troller-Office. In the Controller Magazine alone six articles were published, and other e.g. in the magazine Controlling or in CFOworld. A wide range of topics was covered in these publications. Along with the basic ideas of modern budgeting also special topics were dealt with and published. There appeared such titles as: "Budgeting in the Tense Re-lation between Motivation and Coordination" or "Systematic Selection of IT-Solutions for Planning", to give 2 examples. Apart from distributing the output of the WG in a written form, the WG management and plenty of WG members engage themselves as lecturers at various ICV controlling conferences (e.g. two times at the Controller Congress and each time on the regional conferences in Bonn and Stutt-gart) or at other controlling events (e.g. more lectures in planning specialist conferences organized by Horváth&Partners or in special seminars on modern budget-ing organized by ZfU in Switzerland). The common conceptual work was indeed a source of much pleasure and the cooperation is slowly bearing fruit, but the members of the work group agreed some time ago that: after working diligently for four years and producing much output on "modern budgeting" the work group should "put up the shutters" in its best moment. A final highlight for the par-ticipants shall be the statement "Modern Budgeting". It is headed by Prof. Dr. Martin Tschandl and should be avail-able by the next ICV Member Meeting, at the latest.

Image 2: Work groups of the specialist group "Modern Budgeting"

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A record worth of €1.6 million in bonuses The bathroom and sanitation manufacturer Hansgrohe AG had recorded in 2010 a turnover of €693 million and awarded its employees in the last year with a record worth of €1.6 million in bonuses. Hansgrohe CEO Siegfried Gänßlen praised on that occasion his colleagues in a way typical for him - without stint: "Without the commitment and willingness of our employees, it would not have been possi-ble. So it is only natural for us that our employees should have a fair share in the success of their company and we want you to treat these bonuses as a sign of our gratitude for your work."

"Always handle all tasks with due care"

Siegfried Gänßlen was born in 1946 in Stuttgart. "Always handle all tasks with due care" is what his mother used to say to her little plucky lad and Siegfried has been living ac-cording to this motto since then. Add to that his high punctu-ality standards and you will get Siegfried's blueprint for suc-cess.

The company legend has it that his school peers used to say about him that "this bloke wants to breach a brick wall with his head"; Siegfried Gänßlen as a CEO has lost not an ounce of his determination and consequence. Gänßlen him-self once said that he had been ambitious at school, but what drove his ambition even higher was soccer. Soccer was and still remains his great passion. He managed it once to the 3. German league and afterwards was active as a referee - many experiences gained in that period came in handy later in his working life: "Quickly and precisely recog-nizing and assessing a situation is what has helped me in my later work", he once said in an interview for the business newspaper "Handelsblatt".

“A good ref doesn't need to make use of his penalty cards all too often”

Soccer jargon offers accurate expressions for describing Gänßlen's ways of doing things. So as he was asked in a magazine interview about his growth strategy for Germany and Europe he used the following metaphor: "You must win all matches on your home turf if you want to get to the top of the table." A journalist fellow wrote recently in a newspaper

portrait that ICV Chairman’s "rule of the game" is to manage a company basing on ratios: "And everybody accepts it. In any case, he can always blow his whistle, and indeed loudly. And a good ref doesn't need to make use of his pen-alty cards all too often."

“He has got enough stamina to set high growth targets for the ICV”

It's a real pleasure to be able to accompany Siegfried Gänßlen at his work as the Chairman of the ICV Board. Af-ter a few moments in his presence you can see that he lives and breaths the ICV. He has been privately investing great amounts of his energy into his non-commercial, and indeed successful activities at the ICV - more often than not devot-ing his already limited free time. Since May 2007 Siegfried Gänßlen has been the Chairman of the ICV Board of Direc-tors. He has been engaging himself voluntarily in the asso-ciation for over 30 years. He was leading the regional ICV work group "Südwest" for the area of Stuttgart/Blackwood, until he became in the year 2000 a member of the ICV Board and then in 2004 its deputy Chairman. Both in his company and in the ICV Board Gänßlen comes across as a down-to-earth and consequent person. He places also here much trust in his board colleagues and active members. At the same time he has got enough stamina to set high growth targets for the ICV. It does not come as a surprise that one of his main focal points is the professional interna-tionalization of the ICV, especially when you consider the fact that he is all the time on the move around the globe fulfilling his duties as the Chairman of Hansgrohe AG. Trav-eling is, by the way, his best pastime activity: to experience different cultures in far-away regions. A down-to-earth man of the world.

A Down-to-Earth Man of the World by Hans-Peter Sander A.D. 2012; South-West Germany; The Black Forest; The City of Schiltach; Location: Headquarters of Hansgrohe AG Main Character: Chairman of the ICV Board Siegfried is a down-to-earth man at the helm of a globally active company, enjoying full respect of his people. Siegfried is loath to wear ties and loves Baden-Swabian cuisine. You can bump into him on the whole surface of the globe.

9

This is the first in the series of profiles presenting the Members of the ICV Board with tongue in cheek. Of course, we start with Chairman Siegfried Gänßlen and the turn of the rest will come in the following issues of the Bulletin. Yours Bulletin Team - in the hope that the Board has got sense of hu-mor … We hereby announce that all original pictures will be sold by auction and the bidding for Mr Gänßlen’s picture starts NOW! (to place your bids please contact ICV Office Poland: [email protected])



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Imprint

Publisher and Copyrights:

International Controller Association

Public Relations Committee


Bulgaria Denko Yamboliev [email protected]

Croatia Jasmina Očko [email protected]

Estonia

Lithuania Edita Gimžauskienė [email protected]

Hungary Budapest 1 Ervin Nemesdy [email protected]

Budapest 2 Andreas Kovacs [email protected]

Poland Gdańsk Robert Panufnik [email protected]

Katowice Anna Jarkulisz [email protected]

Kraków Dorota Gołąb-Bełtowicz [email protected]

Lublin Pawel Rafalski [email protected]

Łódź Karolina Zielińska [email protected]

Poznań Dariusz Gulczyński [email protected]

Szczecin Aleksander Socha [email protected]

Toruń Andrzej Derkowski [email protected]

Warszawa Karol Sikora [email protected]

Wrocław Honorata Ulatowska [email protected]

Zielona Góra Małgorzata Lepak [email protected]

Romania Bukarest Cristina Hodea [email protected]

Sibiu Nicoleta Thomka [email protected]

Russia Valentin Usenkov [email protected]

Serbia Bojan Šćepanović [email protected] Slovenia Dragica Erčulj [email protected]

Spain Ulrich Müller Bosom [email protected]

Editing Piotr Buza Brigitte Dienstl-Arnegger Dr. Herwig Friedag Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska Hans-Peter Sander Anna Włodarczyk

All work groups in non-German speaking countries:

11

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 sharing the responsibility

for successful

company management.

Our values

we develop and represent the social image of a controller as:

a future-oriented intermediary between different interest groups within

enterprises and organisations as well as between them;

an “interpreter” between the different “languages” attributable to the different

perception of various tasks, responsibilities and cultural experiences as well as discrepancies concerning the sector-specific and technical knowledge base;

a person responsible for transparency and a partner of the management in the

decision-making process on all management levels;

a competent expert who owing to the solid

basis of generally accepted education remaining in line with practical requirements (e.g. IGC Certificate) embodies an independent professional image;

a person co-responsible for “Business

Economics“.

International Controller Association ICV Office Poland ul A.Fredry 7/1 61-809 Poznań PL Phone/Fax + 48 61 853 20 10 Mail: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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Icv bulletin, march 2012

Technology