1. Exchange views and
Poland
make interesting contacts
The omnipresent changes more and more clearly create a new vision of a
financial controller who is close to business, problems and hard decisions.
He is reliable and objective, notices risks and points out opportunities.
He is a partner with whom it is easier to go through turbulences and storms,
gaining new customers and new markets.
Such optimistic results come from the discussions mutual understanding helpful in gaining competitive
and lectures presented during the 4th International advantage in the future.
Controllers Congress “Controlling Intelligence Ad-
venture (CIA)”, which took place on 27th/28th The education branch was represented at the con-
May 2010 in Poznań, Poland. gress by Paweł Zygarłowski, Board President of
Centrum Rozwoju Szkół Wyższych TEB Akademia
Ltd. A competition struggle that touches universities
“A controller faces a really “Endless work on relations between is based on highly developed controlling, which is a
hard task: on the one hand
he must present information
finances and business is still needed” great challenge for financiers. They meet obstacles
while setting the relations with business, with scien-
to the board rationally and
on the other hand, as every Building good controlling in practice is extremely tific workers the main representatives. They have
human being, he has intui- difficult. We could listen to Igor Kostyszyn, Finan- their own opinions and elaborate outlines of thinking
tion, is prone to some ways cial Director, Polfa Warszawa PLC, who shared about economy. Adjusting strategic tools such as
of thinking and perceives
with us his experiences. He managed, during a BSC can give fantastic effects on the market.
different phenomena in his
own way.” year and a half, to change a stereotypical image of
an unapproachable financier in the eyes of many The effect of synergy resulting from joining the
managers and trade unions. However, he states powers of finances and business is often consid-
that endless work on relations between finances ered as an absolute and unique advantage of an
and business is still needed in order to enterprise managed in a modern way. Controlling
m a ke t h e is helpful not only for production, marketing and
sales functions, but also for delivery
chains, as was
stated by Ma-
ciej Bieńkowski,
Operations & Logis-
tics Controller at Coca-
Cola HBC Poland, Ltd.
“Enormous amount of to-
tally useless information”
Thinking about future financial
effects of contracts for deliveries
is still often belittled, similarly to
the research on financial risk scope
10 CONTROLLER Spezial | Controlling International

2. connected with quality management. Business role and responsibility of a controller in an enter-
coach Rainer Vieregge, RVA Consulting (Aachen), prise.
was an expert in the field of controlling and quality
management during the Congress. He is a repre- Objective presentation of information
sentative of the German-speaking group ICV. His
observations about the methods of planning the Dr. Konrad Marchlewski, Vice-President of the
value of mistakes, complaints and other risks will Board ATLAS Ltd., presented a highly interesting
be more and more important in controlling, be- and slightly controversial lecture on the difficulties
cause of customers’ high expectations. His thought with objective presentation of information. A con-
that “recently people are flooded with enormous troller faces a really hard task: on the one hand he
amounts of totally useless information and make must present information to the board rationally Edyta Szarska,
decisions they are not responsible for” is worth and on the other hand, as every human being, he Controlling Partner, Warsaw
considering. has intuition, is prone to some ways of thinking and National Delegate ICV
perceives different phenomena in his own way. in Poland
Enterprises that develop very dynamically and are This means that it is extremely important to build
not prepared for new conditions are often touched board trust to a controller. Meanwhile, Matylda
by the estimation of risk value. Many family com- Crossman, Managing Director CEE, The ExP
panies in Poland expanded greatly after entering Group, believes that we face a crisis of trust. This
the Stock Exchange. The example can be confec- problem often blocks us against risk or creativity. In
tioner company ZCP Mieszko PLC. Its controlling her opinion, it is one of three basic problems in
manager is Iwona Niewrzoł, a leader of the Con- building competition of enterprises. Two others are
trolling Practitioners Club in Katowice. She is a the necessity of current updating of critical success
model of a controller who links her passion with factors and the continuous shaping of people’s
professional work and clearly understands how characters.
important it is to create a relation between control- The change in perceiving controllers as modern
ling and business. financiers, career paths and opportunities to
change the role of finances in contemporary enter- Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska,
During the Congress many talks and discussions prises were the topics of a lecture by Grzegorz Member of the ICV Board
arose because of the presentation of an idea Dądela, Financial Director Subaru Import Poland
Beyond Budgeting, which according to Astryd Ltd. We appreciated the practical advice on imple-
Zakrzewska, Director of PwC Academy, is a source menting Du Pont’s formula, for rating effectiveness
of competitive advantage. Her lecture surely proves and decision-making, which was made by Mariusz “Controlling is helpful not
the old wisdom that it is extremely difficult to find a Andrysiak, Director of Managing Information De- only for production, market-
ing and sales functions, but
golden mean in every aspect of our functioning, as partment, Bankowy Fundusz Leasingowy (Bank
also for delivery chains.”
well as in the field of planning, leaving place for Leasing Fund) PLC. At the end of the Congress there
creativity and flexibility, much needed in the chang- was Arkadiusz Kasprzak’s dynamic presentation,
ing environment. Vice-President KKS Lech Poznań. He talked about
using controlling terms and analyses in managing
Flexible adjusting of the controlling tools of business a sport club with great achievements. He proved
created the term business controlling. The example that it is worth building success with great relations
is Philips Lighting Poland PLC. Tomasz Dębski, a with finances and the management of enterprises
Plant Controller at this company, presented prob- in every branch.
lems connected with the development of the idea of
outsourcing analytical terms of controlling, which As every year, the Congress was run by Dr. Adri-
follow the forming of accounting records centers, anna Lewandowska, a member of the ICV Board,
can get more and more popular. and Edyta Szarska, a National Delegate ICV in
Poland. Backstage conversations and evening inte-
Controlling team is becoming a link of business gration meetings proved again that apart from
processes. Bartosz Gayer, Operational Controller substantial development, taking part in the CIA
of Żywiec Zdrój PLC stated that “a decision can Congress is a great chance to exchange views and
only be as good as the information which was the make new, interesting contacts. – Next chance,
basis”. All the same we still raise the level for the next year in Poznań: 26th/27th May, 2011.
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