Events

The biggest controlling congress in the middle Europe took place in Munich on April 22-23, 2013. The congress was opened by Siegfried Gänßlen, CEO of Hansgrohe SE, and Chairman of the ICV Board who welcomed more than 500 participants. In his opening speech he referred to developments of controlling.

On the Generally Meeting a day before Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Péter Horváth became the honorary member of the ICV and Dr. Herwig Friedag resigned from his function as a Head of the PR-Committee.

More pictures: http://www.controllerverein.com/CC_Impressionen.154181.html

It's 10 days to the 7th International Controller Congress in Poznan, Poland.

Download the program of the Congress.

Among the speakers:

• prof. Peter Horvath, Horvath & Partners, Stuttgart
• dr Walter Schmidt, ask Dr. Walter Schmidt, Berlin
• dr Herwig Friedag, Friedag Consult, Berlin
• Valentin Usenkov, Club of Controllers, Kaliningrad
• prof. Cezary Kochalski, Poznan University of Economics, Poznan
• Minister Janusz Cichoń,  Ministry of Finance, Warsaw
• Karina Kotula, ENERGA – OBRÓT S.A., Gdansk
• dr Stefan Olech, ODiTK, Gdansk
• Agnieszka Piech, ZPR S.A., Warsaw
• Aleksander Socha, Ramirent S.A., Szczecin
• Paweł Kowina, Huf Polska Sp. z o.o., Tychy
• Miłosz Piontek, Szpital Uniwersytecki nr 2 im. dr J. Biziela, Bydgoszcz
• Tomasz Zieliński, Poznan University of Economics, Poznań
• Katarzyna Plucińska, Randstad Payroll Solutions, Warsaw
• Daniel Wójcik, Controlling Magazine, Poznan
• Agata Nowak, University of Art, Poznan i prof. Dariusz Kaca, Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts, Łódź
• and the Special Gueat - Captain Krzysztof Baranowski, Founder of the Foundation Fundacji Szkoła Pod Żaglami (School Afloat)

The CIA Congress Poznań has gained the reputation of the only international congress of the ICV association organized in Europe. Top quality technical knowledge, great speakers and reliable organization make our congress a must-go for all controllers and chief financial officers who are keen on continuous improvement of their competences.

PATRONATE:                                                          Official Carrier of the Congress

Special offer of LOT

Dear Colleagues,

Members and Friends of the International Controller Association,

The increasing globalization created chances for many companies to succeed on the market, but at the same time forced them to take on new challenges. One of these challenges is the instability of the global economy - fluctuations of economic cycles and their reduction, the diversity in development of different markets, not only outside of our economic area but also within it.

Instability is the new everyday -  it is the price we pay for the opportunities that globalization offers. The volatility of the economy forces businessmen not only to search for new ways of development but also to consistently optimize of the costs, which is necessary to overcome the crisis. Increasing the efficiency of the company is therefore an extremely important task for controlling today as it can increase its chances of survival.

Short-and long-term planning, increased risk awareness among managers, flexible operations preceded by a rapid response of decision-makers, fast identification of potential threats, clear defining of objectives, open-mindness to unconventional methods - and checking the effectiveness of each of the implemented solutions - Controller's tasks are not easy!

Facing the challenges of the economics of the 21^st century is the theme of the VII International Controller Congress Controlling Intelligence Adventure. How do Polish and foreign Controllers want to build the success of their business? How do they respond to the opportunities and threats that they investigate? What do they do to be able to say proudly, "Our efficiency is growing despite the crisis"?

Together with our guests we will spend two days discussing how controlling can affect the efficiency, productivity, innovation, and longevity of the company. Those will be the days of practical guidance, knowledge sharing, discussions on the sidelines, great meetings with interesting people from various industries, companies, from different countries! It is an international event with the highest merits!

I am sure that the merits of the congress will be a unique opportunity to learn from the best! That is why I am looking forward to meeting you in Poznań!

Dr Adrianna Lewandowska

ICV Board Member

Internationaler Controller Verrein

Poznan CIA Congress gained the rank of the only one ICV international congress organized in Europe. Very high technical expertise each year, competent speakers and the quality of organization gave us permanent place in the diaries of all controllers and financial executives for whom it is very important to enhance their skills.

The Controlling Intelligence Adventure – the International Controller Congress in Poland takes place in Poznań on April 18-19, 2013. This year the topic is “Higher efficiency – a new task for a Controller” will attract Polish and international controllers, CFOs and managers who want to be successful in their work. Among the speakers experts from big international enterprises and smaller companies that one at least one thing in common – they have to deal with volatile times. The Congress starts on April 18 (Thursday, at 10.00 a.m.) and end on April 19 (Friday, at 15.00 p.m.).

How do controllers increase efficiency? How do they manage costs and deal with volatile times?

Come and discuss it with our speakers!

• Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Péter Horváth (Horváth AG, IPRI gGmbH, Head of ICV Ideenwerkstatt), Budapest
• Dr. Walter Schmidt, ask-Schmidt, ICV Board Member, Berlin
• Dr. Herwig Friedag, Friedag Consult, Head of the ICV PR-Committee, Berlin
• Valentin Usenkov, Club of Controllers, Kaliningrad
• Karina Kotula, ENERGA – OBRÓT S.A., Gdańsk
• Dr. Stefan Olech, ODiTK, Gdańsk
• Agnieszka Piech, ZPR S.A., Warszawa
• Prof. Cezary Kochalski, Poznan University of Economics, Poznań
• Panel discussion – if you want to participate in it – write to us! There are still free places!

More: anna.wlodarczyk@icv.pl

Captain Krzysztof Baranowski

sailor, yacht captain, journalist, teacher
the first Pole to sail the globe twice single-handed

the founder of the School Under the Sails Foundation

he will talk about

how to succeed in life,

how to find your own way

and how to "set the course"

www.szkolapodzaglami.org.pl

www.krzysztofbaranowski.pl

The next meeting of the Work Group Bosna and Herzegovina is scheduled for April 27, 2013.

The schedule will be published in a few weeks as the participants undertook to prepare lectures on
- Controlling - Controlling the introduction of the company step by step
- Barriers to work in a company controlling (practical examples)
- Instruments of support in the operation of the controller (practical examples)

The last meeting in Banja Luka took place on October 27, 2012.

1. Benefits of membership of the ICV by Mr. Sci. Slavko Simić, Leader of ICV WG BiH, CEO, BRoSS-Trade d.o.o. Laktasi

- Presenting the benefits of membership of the ICV Germany, and as well as the benefits of membership in the Working Group Controlling in BiH.

2. Controlling in enterprises by Mr. Sci. Slavko Simić, Leader of ICV WG BiH, CEO, BRoSS-Trade d.o.o. Laktasi

- What is Controlling and its concrete application in enterprises and the problems the controller in their daily work

3. Controlling tools by Phd Zoran Babić, Center for Cooperative Governance  Banja Luka, Director, ICV WG BiH member

Mr. Babic presented "Controlling tools in practice". He presented some of the possible way of defining the financial policies of the company.

4.Controlling tools in practice by ing graduate Merana Sadiković-Mandžukić, Emering Marketing Consultants d.o.o. Sarajevo, Senior Consultant, ICV WG BiH member.

Mrs Sadiković-Mandžukić demonstrated functionality of Navision. It was interesting presentsation done by her side showing example of use it software in controlling practice (with a lot of sample reports generated in Excel).

The PR Committee is in middle of the process of developing new CMS system of the Homepage and other Internet media. On January 5, 2013 some members of the Committee (with Dr. Herwig Freidag at the forefront of the team) met in Berlin with potential providers. Both providers chosen after previous workshops presented their solutions in detail. There was also a representative of the Board – Dr. Walter Schmidt took part in the workshop.

Next day a regular meeting of the PR Committee took place – with the focus on the last year’s and new year’s activities and budget.

Since December 6, 2012 registration for the 38. Controller Congress “Increasing efficiency by controlling – new agenda for controllers” is possible. The congress takes place on April 22-23, 2013 in Munich. For the non German speaking members and ICV symphatizers – two others congresses: in Poland: 7. International Controller Congress on April 18-19, 2013. The conference language of the event in Poznan, as the last year, is English. And for the first time ICV Work Group Barcelona together with ACCID (Associació Catalana de Comptabilitat i Direcció) organizes the Congress of the ICV. Among invited speakers: Mr. Karl-Heinz Steinke, Corporate Controlling at Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Mr. Dietmar Pascher, Partner and Trainer at Controller Akademie.

More about the Controller Congress Munich [DE]: http://www.controllerverein.com/CC_Anmeldung.171644.html

More about CIA 2013 Poland: Anna Włodarczyk anna.wlodarczyk@icv.pl

More about 1st Congress of the ICV Spain: Maribel Fernandez maribel.fernandez@ahk.es

On November 24, 2012 the Delegates of the ICV regions met in Frankfurt to discuss what happened in their regions last year and what are their plans for the next one. There were ICV representatives from German regions and from non-German speaking countries. They reporting about the situation in their countries.

The topic of “Controlling in public organizations” is important also in Moskow. The second International scientific-practical Controlling Conference took place on November 8/9, 2012 in the Profecture of Moskow Centre.

The conference was organized by the Russian Controlling Organization in cooperation with the Baumann University Moskow, the Profecture and the International Controller Association.

Prof. Dr. Sergey Falko, The Chairman oft he Russian Controlling Organization, who organized and led the conference was able to gather together Moskow political prominets as speakers: the prefect of the Central Administrative District of Moskow  Prof. Dr. Sergey Baidakov and a Member of Russian Parliament Ivan Grachev (below).

Milena Heim, the Head of the work group United Kingdom, reports:

On 11/12 October a new work group was born – the first work group outside continental Europe, the first work group in the United Kingdom. This first meeting was a joint effort of finance and communication professionals. An expert lecture on Communication Controlling, given by Prof. Tom Watson, Professor of Public Relations at Bournemouth University and Dr Kerstin Liehr-Gobbers from Reputation Inc, attracted almost 20 people (half of them business communicators) on the first day. They presented Communication Controlling as a total approach to communication performance management that is aligned with corporate objectives. On the second day two top-class speakers explained how a controller can develop a strategy (Bernard Marr, The Advanced Performance Institute) and successfully implement it applying a balanced scorecard (Walter Schmidt, member of the ICV board and work group Berlin-Brandenburg). There was an intensive discussion on both topics after the lectures. The participants who remained 11 on the second day also lively debated on the similarities and discrepancies between “German” controlling and “English” management accounting. Some of them even agreed to prepare a statement outlining the main findings. This topic will be definitely discussed during the next meeting which will take place on 18/19 April 2013. The audience was very international – from Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, of course from the UK and even from Saudi Arabia. One colleague came from Jeddah especially to join that first meeting.

„Past – present – future of controlling in Hungary”

The MCE Hungarian Controlling Association is very pleased and proud to announce the celebration of the 20^th anniversary of the association and its 10^th annual controlling conference to be held on November 8^th, 2012 in Budapest.

We have set up a very ambitious and interactive program reviewing the history of controlling in Hungary, we will show presentations about the actual situation and the practice of controlling, as well as a perception of its future perspectives.

And indeed, all the controlling colleagues of ICV and IGC are kindly invited to join us and celebrate with us.

MCE was founded in 1992 in Budapest, supported by Prof. Dr. Horváth Péter, by graduates of the Hungarian Controller Academy and by the managers of IFUA Horváth & Partners.

Actually, there are 130 active members, individual persons, controllers, managers of finance, controlling and business, general managers and board members of large and medium sized international and Hungarian companies, professors and business teaching staff of Hungarian universities and colleges.

MCE is an incorporated association of individual persons, companies and organisations, who are interested in the development, impart and application of the methods and instruments of up-to date management and controlling know-how according to and in the spirit of ICV and IGC.

The aims of MCE are as follows:

• to establish and take care of personal, professional as well as international contacts
• to impart traditional, successful and up-to-date controlling methods and instruments to iis members
• to support know-how sharing of theoretical and practical controlling knowledge and experiences.

Every year MCE arranges the following events:

• Running workgroups in exchange for experiences also by 2 ICV workgroups
• Symposia, workshops and the annual controlling conference
• Publishing business and science papers
• Visiting companies to gain practical experience and impressions
• Supporting personal contacts and good relationship with companies, organisations and other associations
• Staying in personal contacts with the ICV, ICV-Groups in CEE and associate membership of the IGC

If you are interested in joining the conference, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be pleased to be at your disposal and inform you in detail!

Andreas Kovacs
Member of the MCE board and ICV II workgroup leader, member of ICV and responsible for international contacts – that’s all!.

akovacs@mcskft.hu

www.mce.hu

On October 11-12, 2012 the work group United Kingdom started with its first meeting. The United Kingdom is now the newest member country! The ICV Board represented Dr. Walter Schmidt. It's clear that the work group will be very active in the future - the participants already planed two new meetings.

The Head of the work group is Mrs. Milena Heim.

Last weekend, on October 7, 2012, Controller Akademie celebrated its 40th birthday. Among more than 100 guests invited to the ceremony were CA founders and controllering pioneers, also Dr. Dr. h.c. Albrecht Deyhle.

Controller Akademie has worked with the ICV for years.  

On September 20-21, 2012 the ICV Board and the ICV Board of Trust debated in Frankfurt am Main. They discussed the strategy matters of the Association for the next years (also a policy paper written together with International Group of Controlling IGC, strategy of internationalization, gaining new company members and development of the publication series "ICV Statements").

The 6^th WHU Campus for Controlling took place in Vallendar on September 14^th under the motto “Die Zukunft des Controllings” (The Future of Controlling). The Institute’s directors, Prof. Utz Schäffer and Prof. Jürgen Weber, welcomed more than 100 Controlling experts to the event at WHU which has the aim to promote dialogue between representatives from research and practice in the Controlling community.

What are the main trends in the area of IT systems and what are the challenges facing Controllers who need to maintain a dialogue with management in future? Jürgen Weber addressed these questions in his opening presentation. According to Weber, Controllers can expect their work profile to be heavily influenced and changed for the better by self-service evaluation, mobility and real-time data processing. Furthermore, Jürgen Weber reported on the results of this year’s summer study carried out by the WHU controller panel, which deals with the involvement of Controlling in strategy. The study shows a relationship between involvement of Controlling in strategy and company success, which should motivate the efforts of Controllers. Jürgen Weber also presented newly released documentation entitled “Controlling in Zahlen” (Controlling in Figures) which summarizes the extensive empirical findings of the WHU Controller Panel over the last five years. The announcement of the WHU Controlling “app” received an enthusiastic reception from the audience. With the app, the Controlling community can access - free of charge, anytime and anywhere - highlights from the Controller Panel’s research over these last five years for self-service evaluation.

Martin Gröthe, Managing Director of complexium GmbH, reported on the potential of social media. In his presentation, he started by outlining the period of change in which company communications, in particular, currently finds itself. His statements regarding the opportunities and above all the structuring options available to Controllers were met with great interest by participants at the conference.

Stefan Freigang, Vice President Carbon Accounting & Controlling at Deutsche Post DHL, spoke first of all about his company’s aim to decisively improve CO₂ efficiency by 2020. In his presentation, he showed how the group’s “Carbon Accounting & Controlling” program - which comes under the area of finance - supports management to achieve this goal. He also explained how they have managed to successfully establish world-wide carbon accounting and comprehensive carbon controlling by reporting, analyzing and planning CO₂ efficiency. He concluded his presentation with a discussion on the economic and ecological advantages to be gained and how this has changed the role of Controlling.

Is there a relationship between bonus payments and unethical behavior? Junior Prof. Matthias Mahlendorf pursued this line of questioning and presented the findings of a study carried out by the WHU Controller Panel. The study shows a statistically significant link between bonus amount (relative to fixed salary) and the behavior “to bend the truth a little”. Interestingly, this applies only to bonuses linked to financial targets. Mahlendorf then delivered a fascinating account on the current debate about the failing effects of financial incentives.

The presentation given by Mark Frese provided an in-depth look at the changing role of the Controller. The CFO of METRO AG talked about the HORIZON 2020 project, which has clear priorities: like-for-like sales growth, increased profitability and safeguarding free cash flow. However, value-added for the customer remains the focus of all actions throughout.  This demands that Controlling has a thorough understanding of the operative business and an active role in the implementation. Career planning in and outside of METRO Group’s Controlling takes these increased demands on Controllers into consideration and offers attractive opportunities for advancement and taking on responsibilities.

 “The new business partner role promises a win-win situation for both manager and Controller – both partners should benefit from the partnership.” Prof. Utz Schäffer chaired the podium discussion that concluded the conference by focusing on these words and the concept of the Controller as business partner. The podium discussion participants, Dr. Rolf Hellermann (Bertelsmann AG), Udo Kraus (Hansgrohe AG) und Björn Radtke (CTcon GmbH) held a  controversial discussion on the competence profile of a Controller. Ultimately, however, all agreed that there is no way that Controllers can avoid the business partner role, although for many this may still be a long way off.

In his closing words, Utz Schäffer assured participants that the WHU Controller Panel will continue to observe the changing role of the Controller. Make sure to save the date for next year’s WHU Campus for Controlling which will take place on September 13^th, 2013!

EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR MEMBERS – FREE PARTICIPATION

The CFO Summit Emerging Europe & CIS is designed to provide a platform for executive financial decision makers of large and medium-sized corporations in emerging Europe. The Summit is the leading European gathering for chief financial officers from central, eastern and south-eastern Europe, Russia, the CIS and Turkey.

This year’s programme lineup will include outstanding speakers such as Slawomir Jedrzejczyk, CFO of PKN Orlen in Poland, Gürhan Kartal, CFO of Hattat Group in Turkey and Alexey Kornya, CFO of Mobile TeleSystems in Russia. Panel discussions and in-depth workshops will cover topics from the future of corporate finance in the region to the role of CFOs in driving corporate change, and from access to equity capital markets to efficient global transaction banking. On the fist conference day there will be also an exclusive Gala Dinner with the award ceremony for the “CFO of the Year 2012” for emerging Europe.

There is an exclusive offer for ICV-members to take part for free in the conference: ICV-members use for their registration the code: VIENNA5_ICV.

For further information and registration, please visit www.cfo-insight.com/events

12th Adriatic Controlling Conference takes place in Portorož, Slovenia on the 25./26. October 2012.

This year’s motto is »Experiences from the past in the methodologies of the future«, since the turbulent times we are seeing, increasingly rely on already established and proven methods that are used in a modern way and with modern technologies. In conditions of rapid economic changes we need to find the methods and processes that enable companies to make better use of existing resources and increase the efficiency of processes and identify the risks at the same time. Communication, collaboration and education could help companies to avoid traps and take advantage of opportunities in business processes improvement.

This year’s conference highlights:

•    The impact of Controlling on Performance Management
•    Financial Process Management
•    Marketing and Communication
•    Target Costing, Target Pricing
•    Working Capital
•    How controllers support their leaders in making important business decisions?

As every year many controllers, managers, CFOs, CIOs and others will appear in Portorož to discuss the influence of controlling in daily business. Praxis for praxis is the main point of the yearly conference;  2 days of quality lectures and relaxed discussions, transfer of best European practices, exchange of experiences with lecturers and participants from Slovenia and Europe and networking are just a couple of reasons why you cannot miss 12th Controlling conference.

Number of Slovenian and foreign speakers are welcome you on 12. Adriatic Controlling Conference. We are honored to announce Mr. Heimo Losbichler, Vice-Chairman of the International Controller Association (ICV) and elected Chairman of the International Group of Controlling (IGC) as a keynote speaker.

ICV invites you for many interesting events in autumn. In addition to workgroup-meetings we offer many regional and international conferences: 1. September 11, 2012, Dättwil, Switzerland 23. Controller Tagung Schweiz; September 27t 2012, Vienna, Austria 13. Internationale Gesundheitstagung; October 25-26, 2012, Slovenia 12. ACC Adriatic Controlling Conference; October 27, 012, Berlin, Germany 12. CIB Controlling Innovation Berlin; November 15, 2012, Bonn, Germany 8. CAB Controlling Advantage Bonn; November 23, 2012, Steyr, Austria 11. CIS Controlling Insights Steyr; November 29, 2012, Ehningen, Germany 10. CCS Controlling Competence Stuttgart.

On July 14-15, 2012 PR Committee met in Neuenhagen by Berlin. One of the most important point on the agenda was ICV presence on all Internet platforms - ICV Homepage, ICV Blog, Facebook, Xing and others. In autumn some of the PR Committee members will disuss the topic even deeper and find a new way to administer all platforms.

On June 30, 2012 a first ICV WG in Bosna and Hercegovina started. An initiator and organizer of the Kick-Off meeting in Banja Luka  was Slavko Simić in collaboration with the "Center for the improvement of corporate governance" -  an association of economists and managers in Bosna and Hercegovina with more than 100 members.

Slavko Simić is already an ICV member and now he became a Head of the ICV Work Group.

A great support for establishing the Work Group was Dragica Erčulj - ICV Regional delegate for South Eastern Europe and Head of the ICV Work Group Slovenia.  Together Slavko Simić and Dragica Erčulj organize a short workshop about Tools of controling and after that they told participants about some of the benefits of being a member of the ICV family.

There were about 40 participants, mostly managers, auditors, CFO's, IT people and others. People in Bosnia and Hercegovina are interested in controlling and they see  ICV WG as an opportunity to learn.

Next meeting of the new ICV Work Group is planed for October 20, 2012.

University of Applied Sciences, Bielefeld, Germany, organized the first Controlling Summit. It focused on the controlling approach and taxes in unstable times.

The International Controller Association supported the event and organized a meeting of one of the work groups at the university.

Managers and finance directors from big international concerns and with many years of experience talked about their work and how they use modern controlling instruments. The speeches were completed by showing the results of studies on risk management in medium - sized companies.

Read more in German: http://www.fhdw.de/default.aspx

or contact the Head of the ICV Work Group West I Dieter Wäscher

Just a week after the Congress in Poland, the annual Controller Congress in Munich took place. The 37. Controller Congress concentrated also on the topic of Controller as a Business Partner. Between the speakers were controllers and the CFOs from big international companies like Bayer, Deutsche Post DHL, Henkel, Nestlé and many others. The Congress was opened by Siegfried Gänßlen- Chairman of the ICV Board. His speech was followed by the presentation of Dr. Maria Fekter – Austrian Finance Minister. During the Congress there were also many possibilities to exchange experiences not only in the conference room, but also over lunches and dinners.

More in German on the ICV-Blog

Download all the Congress Materials

Download the ICV Congress Report here!

Read what the participants said about the Congress!

See what was the speakers' opinion on controlling matters!

Just feel the atmosphere!

The Controlling Intelligence Adventure "IN VOLATILE TIMES - Controller as a Business Partner" - the International Controller Congress in Poland (April 26/27, 2012) - gathered more than 150 participants - and among them about 20 guests from abroad - from Slovenia, Estonia, Spain, Serbia and Germany. All speeches were translated from Polish into English for the foreign guests and from English into Polish for the Polish participants.

The participants could hear the speeches of controllers and finance directors from leading Polish and foreign companies, integrate with the controllers' environment during coffee breaks and lunches and of course during the evening integration party on Thursday. For the time the panel discussion was in the program - and the participants valued it very high. It was a possibility to get to know different solutions and controlling approaches and just to discuss the problems appearing in the enterprise.

View the photo gallery:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104697734802497964727

DOWNLOAD THE AGENDA OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONTROLLER CONGRESS IN POLAND

                                                                                                           Official Airline of the CIA

6th International Controller Congress

Poznań, Poland

April 26 at 10.00 - April 27 at 14.00

Download the application form

Almost all speakers of the 6th International Controller Congress are known! Among them experts from Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Germany and Estonia! Who will share their knowledge?

• Dragica Erčulj (CRMT Institute, Slovenia)
• Ulrich Mueller Bosom (Frape Behr S.A., Spain)
• Andrzej Derkowski (Neuca S.A., Poland)
• Lothar Kuhls (WEGe Managementberatung GmbH, Germany)
• Karol Sikora & dr Tomasz Cicirko (Poczta Polska S.A., Poland)
• Prof. Toomas Haldma (University of Tartu, Estonia)
• Jakub Tatak & Michał Plit (Lux Med Sp. z o.o., Poland)
• Małgorzata Podskarbi (Volkswagen Poznań Sp. z o.o. - a company member of the ICV, Poland)
• Dr Stefan Olech (ODiTK, Poland)
• Dr Walter Schmidt (ICV Board Member, Germany) and
• Sławomir Lachowski (mBank, Poland) - SPECIAL GUEST

The Congress will be moderated by Dr Adrianna Lewandowska (ICV Board Member) and Dr Herwig Friedag (PR-Committee Leader)

Between the speeches of the invited lecturers there will be presentation of the Partners of the Congress. Leading controlling and IT companies will present theit methods and controlling sollutions.

Partners of the Congress:

Media patrons:

More: anna.wlodarczyk@icv.pl

LOT Polish Airlines

is

Official Airline

of the

6th International Controller Congress!

The 6th International Controller Congress in Poland is extremely important platform for exchanging experiences between representatives of European and Polish controlling and finance community.

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 to the offer of LOT Polish Airlines on the way to the Congress or back, will receive a special discount dedicated only to its participants.

LOT Polish Airlines takes over patronage only for the biggest and unique events. Thanks to the patronage, LOT Polish Airlines will help the ICV members and the guests of the Congress feel the spirit of one of the most interesting events on the financial market in Europe.

More information:

The 6th International Controlling Congress: Controlling Intelligence Adventure, takes place in Poznan, Poland on April 26/27, 2012. As every year many controllers, financial directors and CFOs will appear in Poznan to discuss the influence of controling and controllers as business partners on the company's success.

This year the congress is meant to be an equivalent to the 37th Controlling Congress in Munich, with similar topics and themes. The congress langueage will be English. Our speakers are experienced controllers and CFOs not only from Poland, but also from many other ICV member countries and we invite all ICV members to participate.

The program of the event and any details will be published soon.

Mid-January had in stock a hardworking weekend for the members of the ICV Board: Siegfried Gänßlen, Conrad Günther, Marcus H. Haegi-Largo, Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska, Prof. Dr. Heimo Losbichler, Dr. Walter Schmidt, Dr. Bernd Schwarze. The Board meeting on January 20/21 was followed by a joint discussion with the ICV Board of Trustees on Saturday morning.

The Board specified first of all the ICV strategy according to the decisions made during the ICV management conference on November 26, 2011. Then they set trends for the current year. These include the following objectives for the year 2012: further increasing the number of participants in the ICV events; obtaining more than 50 company members; increasing the number of ICV members by 3%; establishing additional work groups; enhancing the quality of services offered to ICV members by their work groups; enhancing the qualification of ICV publications basing on the publication plan for statements, discussion papers, white papers and specialist books (in the series "Controlling Guide"); making the presence of the ICV in business press stronger.

Much attention in the Board meeting was given to the budget for 2012. The Board is going to reach a surplus of € 50,000 with the approved budget; they are going to create reserves for investments for the ICV future.

In addition, the Board intensively dealt with public relations matters. These were discussed together with Dr. Herwig R. Friedag, Head of the Public Relations Committee as well as Hans-Peter Sander, ICV press officer. The Board has chosen the following focal points for the plan of the year 2012: coping with the growing volatility/"Modern Budgeting"; Behavioral Controlling (e.g. "Decisions under Pressure - Hunch or Head"); sustainability/green controlling. The main target groups of the ICV public relations are controllers, CFOs as well as people at whose discretion are company memberships. The communication work should be effective, above all, in the central ICV task areas, such as professional networks, internationalization as well as setting controlling trends. The strategic ICV initiatives should be clearly communicated and the association's activities supported as part of the "strategic house". Structural results of work groups as well as regional conferences should be made public in a still more effective way. The work is to be further strengthened with the help of ControllingWiki, which has experienced an enormous growth of accesses in 2011. It should be achieved especially in cooperation with the ICV work groups.

On January 20 the guests of the Board meeting were Julia Tanzbett and Andreas Dutz from prevero AG in Munich. They discussed the continuation of partner cooperation between the ICV and prevero. This cooperation started in 2009 Winterheller Software Gmbh in Graz (A), which was overtaken by prevero in 2011.

Last weekend, on January 21-22, 2012 the meeting of the Public Relations Committee took place in Munich. We talked about how the PR work in the ICV can be improved and what new possibilities are available to take better care of the members, but also to gain new ones.

Our aim for the year 2012 is to work harder on promoting the Association, to be more and more innovative and up-to-date in the field of controlling to always match the expectations of the members for this year so that controllers in our member countries could really benefit.

The ICV Board met on January 21-22, 2012 in Munich to summarize the year 2011 and discuss plans, the strategy and priorities for the year 2012.

Here you can read the rest of the presentations from the ICV management conference 2011. You will learn about the PR work in the Association, the plans for the future and you will see how to establish ICV in new countries and regions.

Last Saturday, on November 26, 2011 the ICV management conference took place in Frankfurt/Main. 63 participants from 14 countries, representatives of the Board, leaders of the work groups, Regional Delegates and the employees of the Office met to discuss the development of the ICV strategy and the future focuses. The important questions were how to make the International Controller Association more “international”, how to use PR-instruments to found more work groups all over the world,  how to make the work of the Office even more efficient. Internationalization was also one of the most important subjects.

Siegfried Gänβlen, ICV Chairman of the Board of Directors, presented achievements of the Association from the 2011 and plan for the 2012.  

Heimo Losbichler presented the ICV strategy for the next few years, showing the development of the Association in the last 10 years. He also pointed out the areas of responsibility for the members of the Board and other persons from the management.

On Tuesday, November 15, 2011 in Berlin met Mr A.N. Raman, President of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) and his wife as well as Mr M. Gopalakrishnan, President of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) and Mr A.S. Durga Prasad, Central Council Member of the ICWAI with Dr Walter Schmidt, Member of the ICV Board and Dr Herwig R. Friedag, ICV PR Committee. The aim of the meeting was to discuss cooperation opportunities between the ICV and the respective Indian organizations, the SAFA and the ICWAI.

The SAFA represents almost 20,000 auditors and accountants on the Indian subcontinent and in South Asia as a part of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) as well as the group of the Professional Accountant in Business (PAIB). Interesting is also the fact that there are more than 400,000 students registered at the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India who achieve there the highest levels of accounting and management accounting. Due to the high demand for accountants in India there were almost 200,000 new registered students this year - impressing numbers showing the scope of industrial development taking place in this vast land. Many European, especially German companies invest in India in new markets and in manufacturing equipment.

The guests form India who visited us on the occasion of a conference in Berlin talked about the high reputation Germany enjoys in India. They were very impressed by the philosophy and practice-oriented work of the ICV in Europe and were especially interested in the following areas of subjects: green controlling, cost management, innovations management and strategic controlling. The participants in the discussion have agreed to cooperate by making return visits in order to learn from each other.

15 Controllers, mainly members of the work groups Poznan and Berlin-Brandenburg met on November 05, 2011 (Saturday) and Novemeber 06, 2011 (Sunday) in a beautiful hotel Luisenhof by the lake Gabelsee in Falkenhagen, Brandenburg. The topic of the conference, held in English and German, was “The model of the controlling process of the IGC”. 2 Teams from Poznan and Berlin, led by Malgorzata Podskarbi and Silke Lehmann, prepared the content of the meeting.

The topic was introduced by short presentations of each member. Everybody had 5 minutes to present his current projects, ideas and his personal situation – it was also an opportunity for further discussions, suggestions and tips. Afterwards, the organizing team presented the  introducing thoughts of the process of controlling, based on the practically oriented model of the controlling process of the International Group of Controlling (IGC).  You can find the presentation (in German) on the German ICV Site.

The group work regarded 3 subjects:

a) Controlling-Service as Shared Service (2 groups)

b) The process of controlling for innovations and

c) Demography Controlling.

 All the participants were really enthusiastic about their practically oriented work and they are going to participate in the meeting next year. The next Polish-German WG, this time held in English and German,  takes place on November 09, 2012 (Friday) and November 10, 2012 (Saturday) in the area of Poznan. The topic is “Controlling-Service as Shared Service Center”. All interested, also  in the work of the organizing team, are asked to contact Malgorzata Podskarbi (mail: Malgorzata.Podskarbi@vw-poznan.pl) and Silke Lehmann (mail: Lehmann.ICV-DPL@gmx.de). Guests and all the interested in strenghtening this international work group  are warmly welcomed.

The 11th Controlling Conference in Slovenia takes places on 27.-28. October 2011. This year motto is Controlling – the tool of Business Excellence, with intention to connect controlling to business excellence.  It is planned as a regional conference and will be translated (English-Slovene) if there will be enough foreign participants.

On this year’s conference we will talk about:

• Changing role of controllers in “business excellent” company
• Key competences of employees for effective implementation of business renovation
• Innovations in business
• Communication and team work as prerequisites for business excellence
• Role of IT in providing successful information system and environment for business excellence
• Ways to remain on the way of business excellence

11th Controlling conference is:

• 2 days of quality lectures and relaxed discussions,
• transfer of best European practices,
• exchange of experiences with lecturers and participants from Slovenia and Europe,
• networking,
• autumn colors of town Portoroz on the coast :-)

The 4th Controlling Congress of the Baltic States took place on Friday, 21th of October, 2011 in Kaunas, Lithuania. The program included speeches and discussions on the main subject of the confernce: "Process Controlling: Flexibility and Effectiveness - a contradiction". There were about 40 controllers from Litauen, Pland and Germany. At the beginning Prof. Edita Gimzauskiene form the Kaunas University introduced the topic and after that the presentations began.

Prof. Mantas Vilkas from Kaunas University of Technology talked about balancing flexibility and effectivenss. On the example of oil industry he showed how to be really effective, but also stay flexible - to cope with the changes on the market.

The speech of Stephan Jockel from Buxtehude, Germany was about process indicators in a global organization. He claims that for a successfull company the most important indicators are time, costs and quality. Using the early indicators is the most relevant, but only makes sense when the company defines its objectives and responsibilities. The profit oriented indicators are necessary, but not so practical.

Britta Metzen from TNT Innight talked about business process management and process excellence. She thinks that:

• process should be analysed and simulated
• process should be documented
• process should match the customers' needs
• also in process management you should find a way to communicate with all stakeholders

Dr. Darius Silingas from „no Magfic Europe“ talked about a better understanding of processess by process management with clear and uniform notation.

Frank Ahlrichs, the owner of „Konsequent Management Services“ from Remscheid had a speech on the topic "Sustainable success through consequent customer orientation". He also pointed out that the highest effectiveness is not most important in the management - the company can lose flexibility and can no longer fullfill the customers' wishes.  

Thomas Zielinski from Poznan, Poland, CEO at „ABC Akademia“ asked: "process or costs"? He pleads for costs management on the basis of pocess costs.

Dr. Herwig Friedag (Germany) showed that a company always needs management of innovations, also when it means changing the corporate culture. And controlling has also a relevant role by this management.

The conference was ended by Aiste Lörgen, who organized the meeting, together with Rita Morkune and Diana from Vilnius.