This document discusses how controlling can help Romanian companies overcome the economic crisis. It notes that Romanian companies have been heavily impacted by the crisis through falling demand, financial constraints, and difficulty paying debts. Controlling can help by providing transparency into costs, risks, and opportunities that can help management make better decisions. Companies that have implemented controlling are in a stronger position than those that have not. The role of controllers is increasingly important for cost control during the crisis. Controlling offers solutions like improving processes, identifying weaknesses, supporting decision making, and increasing performance that can help companies navigate the difficult economic conditions.

1. Romania
Controlling – the solution to overcoming
the economic crisis in Romania
The worldwide economic crisis is nowhere near the end – it is getting worse
and Romanian companies are suffering from it.
Most of them are confronted with a dramatic fall in will be those who know how to make use of these
demand and sales, a situation which leads to finan- chances. The advantage will be on the side of the
cial and economic constraints. The enterprises companies which have implemented a controlling
which have been granted loans for development or system, because this can present the management
other purposes are now unable to pay them back, not only with risks, but also opportunities.
not to mention the difficulty of paying their debts to
the distributors. Unfortunately, Romanian companies have not im-
plemented a controlling system so far and conse-
The Romanian companies are presently lacking the quently they are now being confronted with pro-
necessary resources for paying off their debts; fa- blems which the Romanian subsidiaries of internati-
cing the pressure of the creditors, they increase the onal corporations do not have. The Romanian
pressure on their own debtors so that they can cash enterprises lack internal transparency and a clear
their receivables – and thus we are experiencing a image of their costs. The situation in the Romanian
chain reaction which mostly affects the banks and subsidiaries with a controller or an entire controlling
the car, telecommunication and industrial-goods in- department is very different.
dustries. A lot of companies are close to bankrupt-
cy, so that a great number of Romanians will lose So we are dealing with two situations. On the one
their jobs. Against this background the question side there are the Romanian businesses which have
arises: What is the solution to overcoming the crisis? not noticed the necessity of controlling yet, which
Associate Professor
Valentina OARG PhD
are not so eager to implement a cost discipline and
whose staff are not yet ready for such a rigorous
Controlling & Human Resour-
ces Management, West Uni-
The importance of controlling system as controlling. On the other side there are
versity of Timișoara, Faculty in times of crisis the corporation subsidiaries familiar with control-
of Economics and Business ling. So we can only talk about controlling in Roma-
Administration, Department Is controlling really the solution to overcoming the nia in the context of subsidiaries, most of which are
of Management
crisis? We think it is, because in times of crisis the in Bucharest and in the west of the country. We
companies are more open to new solutions than consider that it is precisely in these times of crisis
ever and thus more open to controlling. The crisis that it is imperative for the Romanian enterprises to
also offers opportunities; the winners of the crisis turn to controlling.
8 CONTROLLER Spezial | Controlling International

2. Both the operative and the strategic
controlling need to be implemented
in order to prove that they repre-
sent the tool oriented towards
solving situations of crisis, ensur-
ing the sustainability of a compa-
ny and looking towards the future.
The role of the controller has
gained in importance against the
background of the economic crisis,
as everybody is paying great atten-
tion to cost reduction. If in times of
economic growth the permanent increase in reve-
nues, which has been especially high in Romania,
led to a general euphoria resulting from a growth in
profits and nobody thought about optimizing costs,
now the cost control has become a matter of survival.
It is precisely now, in the present context of decreas-
ing revenues, high financing costs, the need to re-
duce costs, an unpredictable business environment
calling for more forecasts, scenarios and budgets,
that the great role of the controller can be easily
understood.
The number of reports and their frequency is grow-
ing. The managers are much more interested in
analyzing them than they were before. It is now
more than ever that the focus is lying on keeping a
tight hand over costs and on cutting costs where
possible. But in order to take the decision of cutting
costs, first of all one needs strict evidence of them.
So in short: The future of the company will be decid-
ed on the basis of the reports generated by control-
lers.
By means of its instruments and methods, control-
ling is a system able to offer solutions to prevent or
combat the effects of the crisis. The following
aspects give evidence in this respect:
• Controlling offers ideas for improving the activi-
ties of the company, which can be implemented
immediately, as well as organizational solutions
for the medium and the long run in order to ena-
ble the company overcome times of crisis
• Controllers are aware of the weak points which
need special attention
• Controlling offers better documentation and
substantiation of decisions and a correct
estimation of risks
• Controlling supports the elimination of losses
and the increase in performance.