11
[ESz]:
In such a huge corporation there have been good
prospects of promotion for you during the last years. How
many levels higher are you now?
[KS]:
The important change in my career development was
to move from Szczecin to Warsaw. After this transition over
two years I moved two levels up in our organisation structure.
I became project manager and since 2012 I am manager of
MIS and Data Power of Cost Models Department. Right now
I organise the work of two teams, one of them directly, the
second indirectly.
[ESz]:
What advice could you give to all controllers who
work for large corporations and want to develop their
career?
[KS]:
The critical value of ICV membership is continuous
professional development.
If you really want to climb the career ladder it is really im-
portant to do both conscientious performance of everyday
duties and engagement into other initiatives. Today I can
surely say that if you truly care for your controlling career,
ICV membership and engagement in ICV activities is very
important. It is not a must of course but it is very helpful.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Warsaw ICV working group had their meeting at the
beginning of May 2015. Subject of discussion was
Strategy Development and Balanced Scorecard in
Practice, prepared and conducted by Herwig Friedag.
For the first time the WG meeting was organised to follow
the work-life balance of participants with kids. Time of
controlling development for parents was also attractive for
their kids. They spent this time full of fun and joy with their
elder colleagues. While the adults had intense discussions
about the real practical usage of the BSC idea in the Afrodyta
Business & SPA hotel, the kids had a session in the salt cave
built from natural salt blocks, rich in minerals and micro-
elements, which form an excellent aid to natural healing for
many illnesses.
In the evening everybody enjoyed swimming pool with jets,
geyser and resistance swimming water current. All partici-
pants – ICV members and the young ones – agreed that it
was a great idea to mix such business practice exchange and
spend some nice moments with their families.
Poznan 2015 –
Dr. Adrianna Lewan-
dowska (in the middle)
with Polish working
group leaders and
Malgorzata Podskarbi
(right), new member of
the ICV Board.
[ESz]:
Does information about costs of activities really
support decision makers in the Polish Post? Has
ABC been changing business confidence of managers?
[KS]:
In my opinion cost confidence of our managers has
significantly changed. Before ABC our cost management
was based on traditional cost accounting but that did not
help in business management.
Today we observe that managers analyse everything every
day. Employees are confident that their activities are costs
and that the way they operate might be competitive on the
market. This makes people more interested and engaged.
Businesspeople often initiate more precise calculations.
Managers want to give us all data needed to calculate the
cost effect of their optimisations, even 1% changes they
want to measure. Sometimes we have to stop their requests
for overly detailed information.
Everybody started to take care of their own responsible field.
This assures us that operational controlling units control
everything precisely.
Activity-Based Costing of the Polish Post is not a self-exist-
ing system today. It is a part of the Management Information
System (MIS) connected with product profitability analysis.
We also calculate customers’ and postal units’ profitability.
CHANGES IN
THE ICV POLAND
After 11 years of the International Controlling Association
(ICV) in Poland, there are some huge changes in the interna-
tional and domestic structures. Dr Adrianna Lewandowska,
member of the ICV Board, resigned from the function, but
she remains in the structures of the International Control-
ling Association as Executive Board Advisor. In Poland there
are also some changes going on in the Association. Edyta
Szarska from Controlling Partner in Warsaw, who is also a
long-time member of the association and active member
of the board of the working group Warsaw, will be now in
charge of all organisational issues in Poland.
