[INTERVIEW] Dr. Jürgen Faisst, Author, speaker and trainer, IBCS Institute | Reporting is an essential part of a company’s communication

The interview was held with Dr. Jürgen Faisst, Author, speaker and trainer, IBCS Institute. You can learn more about his helpful and up-to-date insights into the use of IBCS Standards for management reporting at the 2nd Management Conference, which will be held online on Thursday, May 17, 2021.

1. How do you see the importance of reports in successful management of the company?

Reporting is an essential part of a company’s communication. Whether you look at the things that have happened and try to explain them or whether you look ahead with predictive methods – you need to communicate it if you want to manage it. Unless you are all alone in the company.

2. What components do you think should be included in professional management reports?

A professional management report tries to convey a message. It’s not just a statement on a specific constellation of numbers (e.g. “15% above budget”) but it explains the reason for it, warns about the consequences or even recommends corresponding activities.

3. From your own experience, with what kind of challenges / imperfections are managers the most often faced in relation to management reports?

The general problem is, that the people creating reports are so busy collecting all the data and presenting them in charts and tables. They just don’t find the time for the investigations necessary to find causes and develop proposals. So managers get data collections instead of reports with messages.

4. What would be your main recommendations for creating and using management reports?

We need to save time when collecting the data and creating charts and tables in order to spend it for investigations and message creation. Automation and standardization are the right means to achieve this.

5. What do managers, and the entire organization, gain by professionalizing management reports?

The more people think about the business, commercially and strategically, the better for the business. Not to mention, you get better employees when you let them think about the business instead of just crunching numbers. The latter will be done by computers in the future anyway.

You can find more about 2nd Management Conference: Practical management approaches: https://www.poslovnaucinkovitost.hr/aktualne-edukacije/cijena/2.-menadzerska-konferencija-prakticni-pristupi-upravljanju