ЭВЗак. 189* 249All such advances from governments shall be deductible from their first contributions to the Organization. 6. The seat of the Commission shall be located in London. 7. The Commission shall cease to exist upon the election 8. The Government of the United States of America 9. This document shall be effective as from this date, In faith whereof, the undersigned representatives having been duly authorized for that purpose, sign this document in the English, French, Chinese, Russian and Spanish languages, all texts being of equal authenticity. Done at the city of San Francisco this twenty-sixth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and forty-five. 2) THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE CONTROLLER (Excerpts) Down from the Ivory Tower Further worthwhile background on the controller's responsibility can be gained by briefly reviewing its development in this century from a one-man business to the larger, more typical operations of today. The perennial sentimental favorite, the small proprietor, conducted essentially a one-man operation — any financial records were kept with an eye to their use by sales as well as by finance and purchasing, for they were all represented by the same person. The controller and the owner were one, with their problems being identical. As business grew, the growth and complexity forced the creation of a separate book-keeping or accounting function — divorced from the operation of the business. The added complexity stemmed from the fact that the book-keeping job has become increasingly involved as a result of more products, diverse territories of operation, more raw materials, more manufacturing processes, bigger investments in equipment. As a result, special cost accounting methods began to appear and multiply. Also, the growing company began to run into substantial government requirements designed to protect or assist stockholders, prospective investors, contracting officers, or tax authorities. This divorcing of the record-keeping function from the pperating functions, because of the extreme to which it went, caused serious problems. We are still trying to overcome some of them. One problem was caused by the accountants keeping the records for their own convenience rather than slanting them toward providing the best possible information for the operating departments. Complex cost accounting techniques were developed which bore little relation to operating facts, but served only to help close the books or satisfy a false sense of precision. The ivory-tower approach forced manufacturing and other operating departments to take over the powerful tools of cost accounting to put them to some good use. However, the cost work became narrowed down, thereby, and was identified as useful only in the particulars to which operating executives saw fit to apply it. Many of its best uses remained undeveloped. The combination of the accountants carrying out their work for their own amazement and the operating people picking up the unfamiliar tools of cost accounting caused an iron curtain to be dropped between the financial and operating functions. 9B· 251 Controller as a Superanalyst A new stage of controllership has been developing during the past several years. The " auditing-type of controller", if we may characterize him as such, is giving way to another type of controller. By auditing-type of controller, I mean a controller who — as a corporate officer — still operates as if he were an independent accountant expressing a nonparti-san opinion on the financial statements. In some companies, where no separate internal auditing section exists, the controller also has the function of objective evaluation and check. But to realize the full potential of his position, to make constructive contribution to controllership, he must go far beyond this. It is recognized, of course, that some measure of specialization is necessary in the area of accounting and finance. But the separation of book-keeping and store-keeping as highly technical ivory-tower functions is seen for what it is. Business has become too complicated for such a lack of communication to exist between those who do and those who measure. Management must have balanced evaluation of results; the doers need the perspective, objectivity and techniques of the measurers; measurers must understand the physical problems being met in order to design and maintain measurement assistance which will meet the needs of management and the doers. This forces a closer relationship. Further, a new management technique is coming into wider and wider use, which demands close review of the profit aspect of every transaction. It requires thorough planning of future profits and investment, and careful evaluation of performance against those plans. The administration of this process is a major responsibility. And so we have the spreading idea of the controller as a superanalyst and as a chief planning and control officer — a profit engineer for over-all company operations. In a real sense there is a return to the older idea of small business, somehow lost sight of as accounting technicalities multiplied, that the financial contribution means to create a running or fluid evaluation of all aspects of the business from a profit and investment viewpoint. (The Journal of Accountancy, I960;
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