Professional Training at ZEW – Using Planning and Reporting Systems to Improve Corporate Competitiveness
Public EventsA company is successful as long as it has enough liquid assets, an appropriate financial performance and potential for the future. A planning and reporting system is an important instrument allowing the entrepreneurs to verify the realisation of these goals.
An entrepreneur assesses the current success with the aid of his business evaluation. Indicators such as incoming orders, the number of offers and customer enquiries allow a glimpse into the near future. Liquidity management is usually based on the observation of bank accounts. This, however, is not sufficient. By adding extra information to the data from the list of account balances, the entrepreneur gets a clearer picture of the development in liquidity.
The potential of a company mainly stands for the chances and risks on the market or the own corporate strengths and weaknesses compared to other competitors. There is hardly any exact data available on these aspects and this is why many small and medium-sized enterprises solely rely on their entrepreneurs’ instincts. This bears many risks – risks that may be lowered by taking into account meaningful indicators regarding clients, employees and procedures.
It is essential to focus on few but important aspects, at best on a monthly basis. Reporting systems provide hints, which can only be used for a helpful analysis when compared to a plan. The next step is to classify reasons for deviations, rethink measures and act quickly. Eliminating a weakness means the company gets the chance to improve its competitiveness. Furthermore, a planning and reporting system can be used as a means of financial communication in order to inform associates or investors ("Basel II") about the current status of planned business activity, results and measures.
On February 8, 2007, ZEW will host an expert seminar on this topic. It will transmit the conditions for a planning and reporting system and it will also deal with profit, investment and financing plans, forecasting concepts as well as with key figures and elements of a strategic radar. The seminar is directed at all those responsible for small and medium-sized enterprises, thus entrepreneurs, managers, board members, controllers, authorized signatories and associates. However, corporate client advisors of credit institutes who want to propose a system to their clients, as well as controllers of towns and municipalities searching for ideas for their own systems are also welcome.
Contact