Data Analytics To Be More Competitive

What are the challenges facing the Management Control Function during this year and in the coming years? Undoubtedly there is a common denominator: instability and the need to anticipate the future and anticipate what may happen in the coming months.

At the same time, it is necessary to highlight the need for the Management Control Function to be increasingly closer to the business priorities and manage to develop a multidisciplinary role in which it is capable of: becoming the internal advisor in key aspects such as setting objectives, preparing financial and operational forecasts and participating in any transformation project undertaken by the company.

If we analyze the current opinion of CEOs, different studies that analyze their priorities for the future coincide in highlighting, among other pillars, the application of big data and data analytics to identify opportunities that support and facilitate the profitable growth of the business or the need to take advantage of technological change as an opportunity to be more competitive.

These and other levers are undoubtedly fertile ground for controllers to play a new role, closer to the business, taking a step forward in organizations, but clearly not without difficulties and representing a great challenge.

The 2nd Radiography of the Controller in Spain revealed a series of behaviors that give us a picture of the starting point in our country in aspects related to managerial skills and the style of leadership and negotiation of the professionals who are dedicated to the functions of Controlling. It is still surprising that currently, only 41% of Spanish companies have a Department exclusively for Management Control, although over time, it gains weight.

The Finance and Management Control Functions manage a highly complex environment where it is necessary to operate on a global scale, strengthen financial analyzes to question and facilitate business strategies and take advantage of an environment of regulatory changes such as the current one.

In this new context, the figure of the Controller is acquiring growing strategic importance since control systems and strategic planning become essential resources for decision-making and value generation.

As a consequence of the above, one of the most developed technical skills, according to the 2nd Radiography of the Controller, is reporting and planning, with a focus on business management control, rather than financial control itself.

An area for improvement identified in this study is the existing imbalance between the high knowledge of reporting tools and the low existing expertise in Business Intelligence and ERP tools. It was also revealed that the Controller must improve their negotiation and innovation skills since the vast majority do not consider these to be their strongest points when, however, they are the ones that bring together the most knowledge about the business, in addition to having a strategic vision developed.

In other aspects, such as team management, the Controllers are good communicators and have a clear orientation toward the internal customer, although 47% of those surveyed consider that they should improve their leadership skills to have more influence in the organization and become agents of the change.