The role of the controller: dynamics of evolution

Abstract

The evolution of information and communication technologies and changes in competitive contexts have forced enterprises to rethink managing and organisation modalities. New information infrastructures, changing the modalities through which knowledge is generated, exchanged and utilised, along with the inevitable impact on the production and consuming processes, represent an opportunity of “competitive advantage”. The informative integration stemming from new information and digital technologies becomes strategic and value-creating only when the set of information obtained - more consistent as to quality and quantity – is duly mediated by the intervention of those who are in charge of the project and utilise the information models for decision making. Accordingly, the analysis means to highlight the renewed role of professional accountants and controllers in information acquisition and information management in the light of the above mentioned innovations: in the evolutionary perspective adopted, technologic “discontinuities” and changes in the competitive scenarios lay bare the mechanisms responsible for the changes in control models and in the profession of the Controller. Though aware of the specific changing processes within each specific business unit, it is possible to single out some common traits which allow the tracing of a unique evolutionary track, even though affected by “discontinuity” implicit in its intrinsic variety: the original role of the Controller, mainly based on measurement and inspection, is being substituted by the more incisive role of an “architect” and manager of the entire control system, thus reaching the present critical status of an “interpreter”, an “economic-financial conscience” for the management as well as in support of strategy formulation.