BizControl Solutions, a leading business consulting firm, has announced the release of its new book, The Control Catastrophe: Why your organization is wasting money and how to fix it.
The book has been written by veteran business consultants Bob Stuckey and Ken Cooper. The Control Catastrophe gives leaders proven tools for assessing the control status of their organizations and finding ways to reduce the epidemic of waste and loss from scandals and weak operational controls and governance. These problems are costing organizations millions (and even billions) of dollars in unnecessary expenses.
What do thousands of companies in the daily business press have in common?
- They suffered major losses due to scandals, fines, and lack of control.
- They had ALL the traditional business controls in place! (audits, SOX, regulations, IT systems, management oversight, etc.)
The Big AHA! The only conclusion is that traditional controls aren’t working. You can find articles about it every day in the business press. Organizations lack the skills to properly control and govern themselves.
The “Blank Look” Syndrome. You can prove it by asking any manager: “What’s the definition of business control? What are the hallmarks of a good control? How do you implement good controls?” All you get back is a blank look.
The Organizational “Black Hole.” There’s a giant gap in education and training concerning business control. It’s a missing “core skill” for leaders, managers, and key front-line personnel.
Death by a Thousand Cuts. And it’s more than just major publicized scandals. Organizations are losing significant amounts of money across the organization due to poor controls. They’re also losing money due to the poor controls of their extended enterprise—their vendors and partners.
That’s why BizControl Solution’s co-founder Bob Stuckey observes, “Improving business controls is the fastest way available today to put money back on the bottom line.”
Authors and controls experts Bob Stuckey and Ken Cooper are ready to share:
- Hundreds of examples of scandal and loss due to lack of controls, and their root causes.
- Why a focus on ethics is a misguided solution and ultimately fails.
- Why traditional controls fail.
- “Pandora’s Paradox” … Out-of-control incubators.
- A complete body of knowledge on creating and implementing effective controls.
- 25 organizational best practices for effective control.
- Combatting the organizational disease of “Controlitis.”
- 14 symptoms of a dysfunctional organization.
Who is BizControl Solutions?
It is a St. Louis-based consultant firm specializing in helping organizations to reduce both costs and risk by improving business controls. Its founders have collective experience teaching business controls in 27 countries with students from 65 countries in a variety of industries, have conducted thousands of seminars and workshops, and have provided organizational development and process improvement consulting for hundreds of clients.
What organizational needs does BizControl Solutions address?
The primary need is to continue lowering organizational costs and improving the bottom line. Shortcomings in business controls result in a failure to:
Recognize risks and protect assets.
Seize opportunities to reduce costs.
Proactively prevent avoidable human and process error.
Minimize malevolent activity.
Lower expenses and increase profits.
Avoid regulatory penalties.
Avoid loss of investor and customer confidence.
In today’s environment, improving business controls is the fastest way to lower costs and improve bottom line profit.
How do I know my organization has business control problems?
BizControl Solutions research has identified six “Out-of-Control Incubators” along with a set of common business "trigger events" that are leading indicators of control problems. These are present in nearly every organization.
What are the best practices for business controls?
BizControl Solutions research shows that a best practices business control function has the following characteristics:
The organization has established a culture of control and has institutionalized it. There is no question that the organization “really means it” and that this is not a passing management fad.
There is follow-through and support for business controls from top management through to the front-line.
“Business control” is a new core competency. It is included in competency models, performance plans, and appraisals. It is also supported through training, coaching, and formal communications.
There is a dedicated business controls function. In smaller organizations, this might consist of the top management team meeting in special sessions and the methodology incorporated with the decision-making process. In a large organization, this is a permanent position leading a cross-functional team addressing business control issues on a proactive basis throughout the entire collaborative enterprise.
There is a certification process in place to insure that all managers and supervisors have been trained in business controls, and annually confirm in writing that they follow appropriate control practices.
Control issues are formally communicated throughout the organization in a candid fashion.
Organization-wide learning takes place both from successes and from problems resolved.
Falling short of these best practices typically results in not obtaining the maximum available savings from the business controls improvement effort and in increasing risks from out-of-control processes.
Why isn't this currently being handled by lots of organizations?
There is a major disconnect between organizational business control needs and leadership competence in this area. Most managers have not had any comprehensive business controls training. It’s not listed on any organizational value statements, leadership competency models, performance plans, or appraisals. It is not a standard part of decision-making processes or investment analyses. Business controls is a new managerial and supervisory “core competency” for the entire organization.
Why isn't this done by traditional financial controls?
Financial controls are actually a subset of total controls. Business controls refer to the entire range of control processes and elements, not only within the individual organization but throughout the entire relational enterprise. This goes far beyond the traditional accounting and financial audit functions. Keep in mind, all the organizations that experienced control problems passed their internal and external audits.
Why can't this be done by finance departments or auditors?
As business operations and relationships become more complex, it's nearly impossible to assess an organization from the inside. The finance department exists in one of the organizational silos. In addition, inside auditors look at financial performance in a reactive fashion, and are encumbered by internal politics and their own interdepartmental relationships.
Obtaining these services from external auditors presents a conflict of interest situation. These auditors are influenced by the existing auditing relationship, and are being called upon to review processes that may have already passed previous audits. For this reason, recent legislation limits obtaining certain consulting services from outside auditors.
Finally, these three organizations do not focus on business controls as a research or practice specialty. If they did or could, best practices would already be in place.
Assistance with this effort should be provided by an external organization specializing in business controls. Advantages of this approach are:
It is a specialty, the focus of the advisor’s research and practice expertise.
The organization is independent—outside the organization’s politics.
There is no other consulting relationship to bias the evaluation and results.
A full range of project leadership, assessment, and training services are available.
About:
BizControl Solutions is a St. Louis-based consulting firm founded in 2002 to help organizations reduce unnecessary costs through the implementation of a new enterprise-wide controls methodology.
Information:
To learn more, please visit BizControlSolutions.com. You can purchase your copy of The Control Catastrophe from Amazon in paperback.
Media Contact
Company Name: BizControl Solutions
Contact Person: Ken Cooper Partner and Co-founder
Email: Send Email
Phone: (636) 537-1100
City: St. Louis
State: Missouri
Country: United States
Website: BizControlSolutions.com
