Just spoke at the Austrian Financial Controller conference, organised by Contrast, the largest training and consulting firm in the market. “Controlling” in the German-speaking world is already a more strategic role than management accounting offers in the UK or US. Strategy seems to feature little in either the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) or the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) – neither body’s professional qualifications appear to offer any content on strategic management. The Austrian controllers certainly get the need for strategy to guide business performance, and share a frustration that they get little input from strategy professionals in fulfilling their role.
Contrast’s founder, Professor Werner Hoffman is working on building strategy dynamics into the company’s training programs, as well as Vienna University’s Masters courses in strategy to help build this important link from strategy to financial performance.