International controlling - Poland

"In times when black clouds gather above many companies, there is a growing awareness of how important it is to create a sustainable business value", Edyta Szarska found out. For the ICV Delegate Poland and Controlling Partner, Warsaw, the consequences are obvious: "These difficult times will certainly become a turning point for the development of the financial sphere and in particular for the Polish controlling". Why she thinks so, read more about here:

The Polish ICV regional leaders met on March 6^th and 7^th 2009 in order to discuss the rules of the workgroups in Poland.

The main objective was that of finding methods for reinforcing the prestige of the ICV. All members agreed to the fact that the most important advantage of the ICV is the possibility of exchanging international controlling know-how with other ICV members. A high demand of best controlling practices can be noticed in the CEE countries. The ICV in Poland intends to turn the controllers' meetings into the exceptional way of solving every day business problems of financial controllers with the help of international experts' knowledge and experience.

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II. Controlling Conference in Poznan / Posen - the market leader in Poland

The 2^nd CIA Controlling Intelligence Adventure in Poznan / Posen managed to gather 30% more participants than last year and this in spite of the rather unfavourable meeting date in October. Thus the ICA*-conference has already turned into the market leader for controlling meetings in Poland.

It was the first time that the conference spread over two days. The meeting was organised by Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska, member of the ICA-board. Controllers from all the parts of the country reported on their controlling experience. Among this year's speakers counted also  Dr. Jablonski, the head of the ICA-work group Kattowitz, and Tomasz M. Zielinski who is going to found an international oriented ICA-experience work group on the topic "Activity based costing" (ABC) in May 2009.

The 3rd edition of CIA in Poznan / Posen will take place already in June 2009, in order to give much more controllers the opportunity to inform themselves about the latest controlling trends.

* ICA = International Controller Association

Controlling in Poland has grown up - it was born in the 90s when a great deal of political and economical transformation in this country had taken place. Until then controlling had not been required and only control had existed, without being submitted to any economic reason. Simply the opening of the markets has created demand for this kind of knowledge as potential support for corporate management.

(Participants of the 3^rd work group session in Poznan (from left to right):  Ewa Kedzia, Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska, Dr. Pawel Kuzdowicz and Juliusz Kolasinski)

Who are exactly the "founding fathers" of controlling in Poland? There exist many people having forwarded and accompanied this development. One of them is special: Dr. Stefan Olech. 18 years ago he had felt the need for knowledge of controlling and had contacted the German controlling godfather Dr. Albrecht Deyhle and the Controller Akademie Gauting/Munich, Germany. As a consequence, a complex educational controlling program in Poland has been established offering seminars, controlling academies awarding diplomas and controlling translators, as well as genuine technical literature.

The importance of the fast development of controlling derived from markets prospering with high speed. Not only many Poles have taken great advantage of the new market chances but also foreign companies. By the end of 2006, for example, 5,718 German companies have invested more than 13 billion dollars in Poland. Nowadays Germany is the most important investor in Poland related to number and amount of investments, including many small and medium-sized companies placing investments in Poland. These investments and the dynamic growth of domestic companies have also induced the training and practice of new management methods. As a consequence many highly qualified employees in Poland have discovered new and very target-oriented tasks: how to think strategically, how to act respectively and also how to report on the proceedings.

This way the controlling philosophy spread. Today an increasing number of controllers exist, strengthening corporate management. The "controlling child" has grown up. Moreover, many changes have taken place: in the course of time controllers have asked more and more concrete and practical questions, as for example "How can the management process be accompanied in practice?" How are we able to prepare and interpret respective information better and faster? How can we organize our work more efficiently and effectively? For answering these questions appropriately only few "support centers" exist. Read more or download this article.

Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska,
Member of the ICA-executive board
adrianna.lewandowska@icv.pl