What does a controller actually do?
Controllers are more than just experts in numbers. They are communicative interfaces, analytical thinkers and strategic trailblazers who lead companies successfully into the future.
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What are your tasks as a controller?
Controlling covers the entire process from target setting to planning and management in the area of finance and performance management.
This also includes the responsibility for defining, deciding and controlling. Controlling must therefore be assigned to a manager. They must decide on targets, target levels and detailed planning. While the manager runs the business and is responsible for the result, the controller has the economic significance and assumes responsibility for the transparency of results. This interaction between management and controller is what makes up the intersection of controlling.
Management work is not tied to a specific company size, but must also be taken on in a binding manner in small companies. Controlling does not have to be tied to a specific person. However, management must be oriented towards objectives and planning, and must also be anticipatory, adaptive and decentralized. If there is no management that meets these requirements, there is no point in installing controller services.
What requirements should you fulfill as a controller?
As a controller, you need the ability to present and explain plans and results. You need to be prepared to answer questions and engage in discussions. You are often required to deliver bad news or demand accountability. In addition to good communication, rhetorical and social skills, assertiveness and perseverance are particularly important.
Basic mathematical skills and logical, but also entrepreneurial thinking (and action) are basic requirements for successful controlling. For the latter, a commercial education is a good basis. In manufacturing companies, technical understanding is indispensable. Specific controlling knowledge on top enables you as a controller to use instruments, interpret results and derive measures from them. The data required for this is usually determined using software. In-depth knowledge of the relevant programs, current tools and techniques as well as communication media are therefore also part of the requirements portfolio of a modern controller.
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More InformationThe ICV as a career turbo
From controller to Group CEO
Great careers: Siegfried Gänßlen (former ICV Chairman of the Board, CEO Hansgrohe) and Dr. Richard Lutz, former ICV Board of Trustees and Congress Patron (former CEO DB).
Well-informed management partners
As trusted partners of management, controllers are the driving force behind sustainable success and guardians of an organization’s financial integrity.
The 10 core elements of controlling
The aim of controlling is to permanently increase the value of the company and not to maximize earnings in the short term. The aim is to find a balance between building and maintaining success potential as a source of future profits and the ongoing realization of profits. We also see value enhancement in the context of all stakeholders.
Our controlling philosophy pursues a holistic approach to the targeted increase in value. The WEG symbol (growth-development-profit) provides orientation. We not only look at costs, but above all at the market. It is important to keep an eye on the budget as well as the competition.
In the ICV’s understanding, controlling must not stop at the financial symptoms, but must also consider the causes of developments, most of which are not financial. Effective controlling therefore extends not only to targets and key figures, but also to the processes and measures that precede them.
In our understanding, controlling as a management process of target setting, planning and steering is not aimed at avoiding deviations or entrepreneurial flexibility and agility. Rather, it is about consciously dealing with the future of the company, recognizing opportunities at an early stage and building up competitive advantages. The target-oriented controlling instruments allow managers to be better and faster informed. This enables them to analyze increasingly complex conditions with greater care, make more targeted plans and take action more quickly.
Controlling instruments should be as lean, simple and comprehensible as possible. Employees and managers must understand the key figures and tools used and be able to derive measures independently. The focus of controlling must be on specific actions and not on the system itself. It is about the effective cooperation of people and not about the fashionable grouping of figures.
In our controlling approach, we see the controller or the controller function in an active, proactive role. Controllers are the positive trouble spot and tirelessly point out economic development and improvement opportunities. On the one hand, this requires an in-depth understanding of the market and business processes along the value chain from the customer to the point of sale. Controllers therefore share responsibility for the success of the company and the achievement of targets.
Controllers ensure transparency of strategy, results, finances and processes. They therefore enable managers to manage the company without any surprises. Controlling in the sense of the ICV limits you to recognizing, but also to acting in accordance with this knowledge.
It is crucial for the effectiveness of the controller’s work not to be content with producing the figures, but to focus more on their use as a partner to management.
The controller must see the people behind the figures. To be effective, he must be a communicator and networker. In addition to open access to Maserer Global, this requires intercultural understanding and a willingness to operate internationally.
The controller is committed to the good of the company and not to particular interests. They must be apolitical in their work. Only this neutrality allows him to fulfill his shared responsibility for the achievement of objectives. Credibility through an honest, open attitude on the part of the controller, which is oriented towards the values of the company, wins out over adaptation to the mainstream or significant individual interests.
We see controllers as the commercial conscience of the company. Controllers must show backbone, resist temptation and take on the role of “spoilsport” in a positive way. However, controllers must not cement themselves in this role. They must take into account what they have learned, be open to new experiences and have an appetite for new things.
