IAFEI Quarterly - Special Issue

35 Materials contained in this publication may be freely quoted or reprinted, provided credit is given to the source : International Observatory of Management Control - DFCG – Decision Performance Conseil www.conseil-dpc.com The evolution of the competences: going beyond the production of data In the list of competences proposed in the 2017 survey, "being on the core of the business" is perceived as the most important competence for the Controller, with more than 40% of the respondents attributing it the two highest scores on the proposed scale. This is in line with the idea of the Controller as a business partner. But from "business partner", the Controller has to become an actor of the transformation of her company: the ability to manage change and the behavioral skills required for this come in second position. In a context where data production is getting more and more automated, one can assume that innovativeness, leadership, creativity and the ability to convince are qualities that Controllers will need to master to go beyond mere variance analysis and the production of reportings. Given the increasing demand for predictive analyses (see below), it can be surprising that com- petences in data science are not deemed more important. This could be explained by a too large gap between the traditional competences of the Controller and those of the data scientist (sta- tistics, programming). Maybe the Controller does not see herself in the future as a producer of algorithms and programs but more as an expert in the selection and deployment of these solu- tions. That being said, it would not be surprising to see this competence becoming more im- portant in future surveys. "More than a business partner, the Management Controller has to become not only a business player but also a game changer"