Controlling

Changes in market conditions, and first and foremost changes in competition happen more quickly than ever. Companies are finding it more difficult to hold their course in increasingly stormy times.

Companies under pressure are often not able to react quickly to dangerous declines in earnings and to initiate important strategic decisions.
Managers spend a lot of time fighting fires and are too often occupied by the demands of daily business.
Employees have difficulties understanding the interdependence between operative plans and the cornerstones of their company's strategies.

These are all symptoms for a controlling system which does not live up to today’s requirements of a modern company navigation system – i.e. to be reliable, fast, flexible, lean and forward-looking.

These are exactly the things we address with our controlling measures. Together with our clients, we define a representative group of employees and managers as well as pertinent topics for conducting our initial status survey. We begin with a clear description of the controlling process (objective, strategy, planning, reporting and monitoring), then characterize this process through company specific skills, systems and structures, and end with clear actions needed to improve our client's controlling performance in a quick and sustainable manner.

Together with the leadership team, we develop a project schedule which ensures that urgent tasks are immediately pursued without losing sight of the overall objective.

In order to reduce margin strain for companies in turbulent waters, our first order of business is the intentional search for, identification of, and quick undertaking of potential profit improvement („low hanging fruits“).
Where "putting out fires" is a daily occurrence, we recommend an overhaul of the operative planning and control concepts.
When acceptance for strategy deployment is low, we begin with a communication concept which encourages participation and commitment of all employees.

To ensure controlling know-how and "do-how" are transferred quickly and are correctly aimed, and that skills, systems und structures for an efficient controlling are developed, we support our clients through training and coaching from begin of project execution to the point of successfully multiplying "expert levels" in all areas.