Читать книгу The Controlling Concept - Horváth & Partners Management Consultants - Страница 13

Now that we have discussed the tasks of Controlling, let us turn to the controller as a person and their position in the organisation. As already mentioned, on the one hand, controllers support management, but on the other hand, they also have decentralised (local) activities in that they spread the word about the idea of controlling among employees. Through their involvement in the planning process and the attendant need for information supply, they provide direct support for corporate management. That being said, controllers are active on all tiers of the hierarchy and in all corporate functions. Accordingly, we are starting to see a differentiated Controlling organisation among larger companies, one which is made up of both central and local controllers.

At this stage, however, we do not want to discuss organisational details – that is the subject of Chapter 8. At the moment, it is enough to say that alongside the performance management model and the claim to leadership of the management, the tasks and position of the controller depend heavily on the size of the company. Thus, for small and mid-sized enterprises it is typical for the controller to be a “Jack-of-all-trades” and not only deal with purely Controlling tasks, while large companies often employ specialists for sub-sections of Controlling in their finance and business functions.

Hence, one way of further defining the tasks of controllers and their position within the leadership structure of a company is to take a look at the respective job description.

Is there a job description for the controllers in your company?

Fig. 1.5 shows the job description of the head of controlling in a mid-sized company. The job description provides information about the rank and chain of command/line of reporting of the controller and their precise fields of activity, competences and powers. Hence, it is particularly suited to clarifying the framework of the controller’s activities and to clearly document the position of the controller.

Fig. 1.5:Job description of a controller

For the following sections it is important to bear in mind the picture of Controlling within the management system of the company. Based on these underlying tasks of controllers – coordinator of planning, control and information supply – we can derive all their fields of activity and consolidate them in a cohesive and meaningful framework.