What It Takes To Be A Successful Corporate Controller

Anon,

I've seen two very disparate paths.
The current popular profile is a person with a strong accounting background. Definitely Big 4 experience, perhaps some divisional P&L experience, but could instead come from audit, treasury, etc. This person tends to have an emphasis on horizontal tasks (accounting, business process, SOX, audit, etc).
The other profile that I've seen in the past, and likely still exists, is a more managerial role. Probably an MBA or similar, more divisional P&L experience, a heavier project-focus (M&A analysis, etc), and more hiring / firing experience. This person tends to have more vertical authority, for example divisional P&L or the roll-up, and likely more FP&A and strategic roles.
It really depends on what the company needs; both bolstering the VP Fin/ CFO and filling their gaps, and structural orientation of the company.

If you're looking at career planning, I think there are two general options:
1) Find a company and find out the preferred path for them. At many there is a clear distinction as to which team feeds the controller slots.
2) Get your CPA, some big 4 exp, and then slot into the role. For a generic approach, that seems the popular default (I've seen non-CPAs insist on it, even though they had held the role themselves).

Oddly, I've known finance people to discover they love accounting, so decide to leave finance to become a controller (that operation had controllers under the accounting aegis). Similarly, I've seen people move towards controllership as it had more finance and less accounting involved.

Cheers,

KP

Thanks for the great insight KP!

I think a successful Controller is one who gets engaged with the business and is seen as a contributor to the overall success of the enterprise. He/she is invited to participate in discussions outside of the pure accounting realm. Of course, this comes with the necessary balancing of sufficient internal controls and the resources needed to have them in place. The successful Controller also knows how to develop metrics that tie to the financials and can produce them accurately and in a timely manner. He/she is building a solid team with career growth for the "keepers." Finally, the individual should be outward looking as well. They should know what is going on in the industry and with their customers.

Interesting insight and the two profiles are quite contrasting style. Successful companies tend to focus on later type. Most CFO overlook business focused controllers when making hiring decisions.

Experience and practice shows that a successful controller must be able to quickly understand the real issues his or her organization has to deal with. They must be able to apply a practical and sensible approach to ensuring that accounting transactions are recorded per US GAAP rules (in the US), or simply put, in the correct accounts, in the right amounts and in the right account periods. In reality, this simplification is the end result of many processes and procedures; however, if the correct approach is employed, the vast majority of pieces will fall into place.

One good way to accomplish this is for the controller to focus on achieving maximal internal control via automated processes with the balance of the controls performed manually with proper review and approval, including evidence of such activities. This will translate into higher efficiencies in accounting and less exceptions and restatements.

My experience also shows that external audit fees are decreased as the controller functions tighten. It is interesting to note that in most cases all this can be achieved with lower accounting department expenses, due to increased efficiencies and much less work on exceptions.

Working with finance to implement a practical budgeting, forecasting and business intelligence solution should also be a top priority for a successful controller. Relying on IT and system automation, the controller can ensure that actual accounting data is immediately available to finance for performance analysis against budgets and goals.

Overall, I see the successful controller as someone who spends the majority of their time on implementing processes, procedures and tools and very little time on putting out fires.

I'll tell you what doesn't.... someone who is over-controlling. I was consulting to a government agency and suggested a modification that would have saved them thousands of dollars, lots of time, and would have increased customer satisfaction and accountability. Because it didn't fit into her schema she nixed it. I next brought the idea to the CFO who appreciated it and we put it into practice when the controller was on vacation.

Let me ask you one question before answering:

Is being a controller your final career goal or are you aiming for that coveted CFO spot?

Dear Mr Liu-Lindberg,
To answer your question, yes I am aiming for the CFO spot.

This is an interesting topic - partially because my book "Guide to CFO Success" has been recently published.

I had an opportunity in March to lead a panel discussion in Toronto to a "Controllers Congress" on the topic of "Controller to CFO". There were over 300 Controllers in attendance. When I asked the audience how many of them wanted to become CFO, I was mildly surprised to see that there were less than 10 hands raised. In response to Anders, I find it interesting that there are many Controllers that are not interested in becoming CFO.

Back on topic:

I always define success for a professional in two parts: Success in your career and success at your employer.

To be successful at your employer, no matter the role, an individual needs to know what is expected of them by all stakeholders and ensure delivery. It is the responsibility of the CFO (or whoever the Controller reports to) to make sure their Controller knows what is expected, just as much as it is the responsibility of the Controller themselves. Once these expectations are clarified, the Controller needs to have a plan on how they will meet those expectations.

Winging it, or doing it like last year, is not a winning option.

Career success requires thought, planning, development, and networking. Again, wishing it to be so doesn't make it so.

Hope this helps,
Samuel