Special Issue 4/13 Management Control and Reporting of Intangibles edited by Andreas Duhr and Axel Haller Arbeitskreis Immaterielle Werte im Rechnungswesen der Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaft e.v. Working Group Accounting and Reporting of Intangibles of the Schmalenbach Association for Business Administration
Bibliografic Information published by the Deutsche Bibliothek Management Control and Reporting of Intangibles Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this Publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliografic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de. 2013 Handelsblatt Publishing Group Fachverlag der Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GmbH Grafenberger Allee 293, D-40237 Düsseldorf www.fachverlag.de info@fachverlag.de Management: Johannes Höfer, Dr. Michael Stollarz Product Manager: Stefanie Andrae Layout and Design: S3 Advertising KG, Bilker Allee 216, 40215 Düsseldorf Production: Dönges Druck + Medien GmbH, Am Güterbahnhof 19, 35683 Dillenburg Reproduction: All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Printed in Germany. ISBN: 978-3-942543-34-7
Preface Preface Intangibles have become decisive drivers and components of corporate value. Companies invest huge amounts of money to improve their reputations, brands, technical and process know-how, and human capital as well as their costumer and investor relations and other public faces. In addition, corporate stakeholders have increasingly perceived corporate governance principles and values as intangible parameters for corporate success. Furthermore the scope of intangible components of corporate value has become broader due to changes in the society s value perception, and the altered understanding of the role of companies in society. Nowadays, stakeholders as well as managers are more and more aware that intangibles do not only have an economic, but also an ecological and societal dimension. Thus, the concept of corporate performance is increasingly enlarged to include what is called triple bottom line performance, which covers all three dimensions (economic, ecological and social) of corporate activities. The management s intention as well as the ability to improve this broadly defined performance represents a major intangible enhancer of corporate value. Despite this broad understanding of intangibles and their great relevance to corporate success, there is a significant lack of consensus on how to capture intangibles in management control and reporting systems. There have been some attempts to manage and control particular intangibles in corporate practice or proposals in management literature, but comprehensive, common approaches or concepts to incorporating intangibles in such systems have not yet been developed. The reason could be the particular characteristics of intangibles, especially concerning their measurability, and the complexity and challenges to cope with them. This situation motivated the Arbeitskreis Immaterielle Werte im Rechnungswesen der Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaft e.v. (literally translated as working group Accounting and Reporting of Intangibles of the Schmalenbach Association for Business Administration, abbreviated: WGARI) to address the topic of management control and reporting of intangibles on its agenda. The WGARI comprises both accounting practitioners in leading positions at large German companies and advisory firms and accounting academics. WGARI s mission is to contribute to the understanding of the role of intangibles in corporate practice and to develop proposals on how to cope with the practical and conceptual challenges of related accounting issues. In continuing its previous work and publications that have dealt primarily with financial accounting and external reporting issues of intangibles, for this project WGARI has gathered academic concepts, practical approaches, and experiences on management control and reporting of intangibles in companies and has structured and combined all this material to make a contribution to management literature and practice. This publication is intended to help both practitioners and academics to gain a structured insight into the need to incorporate intangibles in management control and reporting systems, and the challenges involved in doing so. In this publication we provide an overview of the concepts that have been developed to deal with different types of intangibles in management control. We also propose a comprehensive concept of how to III
Preface install a control and reporting system that incorporates intangibles. Because some of the members of WGARI are accountants in corporate practice, in Chapter 6, we provide practical show cases from different companies that are focusing on specific treatments of particular intangibles. The members of the WGARI are (see http://www.schmalenbach.org/index.php/arbeitskreise/finanz-und-rechnungswesen-steuern/immaterielle-werte-im-rechnungswesen): Dr. Marc Castedello, KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Andreas Diesch, Rölfs WP Partner AG Dr. Andreas Duhr, Deutsche Post DHL Prof. Dr. Mark-Ken Erdmann, Rickmers Holding GmbH & Cie. KG Prof. Dr. Jürgen Ernstberger, Ruhr-Universität Bochum Prof. Dr. Thomas M. Fischer, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg Prof. Dr. Rolf Uwe Fülbier, University of Bayreuth Prof. Dr. Thomas Günther, TU Dresden Prof. Dr. Axel Haller, University of Regensburg Prof. Dr. Isabel von Keitz, University of Applied Sciences Münster Klaus Knoche, METRO AG Dr. Harald Köster, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA Prof. Dr. Klaus Möller, University of St. Gallen Christian Paa, Deutsche Telekom AG Frank Petzold, ThyssenKrupp AG Dr. Michael Reuter, Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH Frank Reuther, Freudenberg Haushaltsprodukte SE & Co. KG Dr. Martin Schloemer, Bayer AG Dr. Rüdiger Schmidt, Accounting Standards Committee of Germany Astrid Uhlig, SAP AG Lena Vynogradova, Bertelsmann AG Dr. Florian Wiedemann, Duff & Phelps Corp. Prof. Dr. Henning Zülch, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management The two chairmen of the WGARI are: Dr. Andreas Duhr (Deutsche Post DHL) Prof. Dr. Axel Haller (University of Regensburg) IV
Preface Although this publication has been enriched by the contribution of all members of the WGARI, there were several members apart from the authors of the case studies in chapter 6, who are mentioned individually with each case study who have given considerable input by writing the different chapters and combining the different parts to one integrated publication. These are, per chapter: Chapters 1 and 2: Axel Haller Chapter 3: Andreas Duhr and Thomas Fischer Chapter 4: Thomas Günther Chapter 5: Klaus Möller The text editing was done by Axel Haller, Christoph Durchschein, Tobias Groß, and Martin Wehrfritz. The language and copy editing was done by Sandra Sizer (Boston, Massachusetts). The working group is thankful to the former and the acting editor-in-chief of the sbr, Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Wolfgang Ballwieser, and Prof. Dr. h. c. Alfred Wagenhofer, and the Schmalenbach Gesellschaft for publishing our work as a special issue of the sbr. Bonn/Regensburg, February 2013 Andreas Duhr Axel Haller V
TAble of Contents Preface... III Table of Contents... VI Abbreviations... X List of figures... XIV List of tables... XVI 1 Introduction... 1 2 Intangibles, relevance and categorization... 3 2.1 Relevance of intangibles for the value of a company... 3 2.2 Definition and categorization of intangibles... 10 3 Intangibles in the context of management control systems... 13 3.1 General management control systems... 13 3.1.1 Traditional view of management control systems... 13 3.1.2 Functions and processes of management control systems... 14 3.1.3 Major attributes of operational and strategic management control systems... 16 3.1.4 The elements of a management control system... 17 3.2 Intangibles in the management control system... 20 3.2.1 Different layers of management control systems of intangibles... 20 3.2.2 Key tasks of management control of intangibles... 21 3.2.3 Necessity of considering intangibles in management control... 22 3.3 Organizational aspects of implementing management control systems of intangibles... 28 3.3.1 Functional allocation to accounting and/or controlling functions 28 3.3.2 Basis of management control systems: data-providing systems for financial accounting and management reporting... 29 3.3.3 Management control systems in a company s organization and hierarchy... 31 4 Measurement and valuation of intangibles... 36 4.1 Challenges for measurement and valuation... 37 4.2 Generic alternatives for the measurement of intangibles... 40 4.3 Overview on measurement methods... 43 4.3.1 Mono-indicator approaches... 44 4.3.1.1 Market, income, and cost method... 44 4.3.1.2 Multiple methods... 48 VI
TAble of Contents 4.3.1.3 Real options method... 50 4.3.1.4 Knowledge capital scoreboard... 55 4.3.1.5 Other mono-indicator approaches... 57 4.3.2 Multi-indicator approaches... 60 4.3.3 Comparison of measurement and valuation approaches... 68 5 Incorporating intangibles in management control systems... 70 5.1 Source and exploitation of intangibles in management control... 70 5.2 State of the art of instruments for the management and control of intangibles... 73 5.2.1 Intellectual capital audit... 73 5.2.2 Balanced scorecard/strategy map... 76 5.2.3 Skandia navigator... 80 5.2.4 Intangibles balance sheet ( Wissensbilanz )... 81 5.2.5 Intangibles as a value enhancer... 83 5.2.6 Stakeholder dependence of intangibles... 88 5.3 Performance management systems for intangibles... 90 5.3.1 State of the art of performance management systems... 90 5.3.2 Performance management framework for intangibles... 92 5.3.3 Context of intangibles... 94 5.3.4 Capturing intangibles... 95 5.3.5 Coupling of intangibles... 97 5.3.6 Control and communication of intangibles... 98 5.3.7 Compensation linked to intangibles... 99 5.4 Transfer into business... 102 6 Management control of intangibles in business cases... 103 6.1 Management control of brands at Henkel... 105 6.1.1 Brands as an integral part of strategic priorities at Henkel... 105 6.1.2 Framework and constraints of brand management... 106 6.1.2.1 Business responsibilities... 106 6.1.2.2 Cross-business initiatives... 106 6.1.2.3 Mismatch of accounting rules and the demand of fullscope brand management... 107 6.1.3 Strategic brand management brand equity leadership... 108 6.1.3.1 Complexity reduction... 108 6.1.3.2 Elements of brand management: brand clustering and alignment, innovation leverage, and harmonized communication... 110 6.1.3.3 Marketing metrics... 112 VII
TAble of Contents 6.1.4 Operational brand management... 114 6.1.4.1 Launch Monitoring... 114 6.1.4.2 Valuation of brand assets... 115 6.1.4.3 Monitoring of capitalized brand values... 116 6.1.5 Summary and conclusion... 117 6.2 The Metro-HCROI an approach to evaluate the Metro Group s human capital management... 118 6.2.1 The concept of human capital return on investment (HCROI) and its application at the Metro Group... 118 6.2.2 Applying the HCROI approach an example... 123 6.2.3 Practical significance for the Metro Group and integration... in a performance management system... 128 6.2.3.1 Capture... 128 6.2.3.2 Communicate... 130 6.2.3.3 Couple... 130 6.2.3.4 Control... 133 6.2.4 Summary... 135 6.3 Measurement and control of corporate culture at Bertelsmann... 137 6.3.1 Introduction... 137 6.3.2 Corporate culture at Bertelsmann... 137 6.3.3 Framing the case a brief history of approaches to measuring and reporting on corporate culture at Bertelsmann... 139 6.3.3.1 Learning and Reporting System on Corporate Culture... 140 6.3.3.2 Corporate Culture Analysis Project... 143 6.3.3.3 Corporate Culture Balance Sheet... 147 6.3.3.4 Corporate Culture Value Chain... 149 6.3.4 Discussion and conclusion... 151 6.4 Monitoring sustainability at SAP... 153 6.4.1 Sustainability at SAP... 153 6.4.2 Sustainability performance management framework... 156 6.4.3 Monitoring results of sustainability-related activities at SAP... 158 6.4.4 Sustainability-related incentives at SAP... 158 6.4.5 Reporting of sustainability issues at SAP... 160 6.4.5.1 Internal communication: SAP dashboards... 160 6.4.5.2 External communication: SAP sustainability report... 163 6.4.6 Outlook and improvements... 167 VIII
TAble of Contents 6.5 Carbon management control at Deutsche Post DHL... 168 6.5.1 Carbon efficiency management embedded in corporate strategy... 168 6.5.1.1 Corporate strategy: Deutsche Post DHL concentrating on intangibles... 168 6.5.1.2 Carbon efficiency management as part of Living Responsibility 169 6.5.1.2.1 The need for carbon efficiency management... 169 6.5.1.2.2 Seven levers for green management and green customer solutions... 169 6.5.1.3 Carbon management control in DPDHL Group organization.. 170 6.5.1.3.1 Introducing the Carbon Accounting and Controlling program... 170 6.5.1.3.2 Organizational set-up of the CAC program... 171 6.5.2 The DPDHL carbon management control solution... 173 6.5.2.1 The DPDHL blueprint... 173 6.5.2.2 Carbon accounting and reporting... 175 6.5.2.2.1 A framework for carbon accounting... 175 6.5.2.2.2 Capturing own emissions (Scope 1 and 2)... 176 6.5.2.2.3 The special challenge: the emissions of subcontractors (Scope 3)... 178 6.5.2.2.4 Reporting... 179 6.5.2.3 Analysis: defining meaningful top-level KPIs... 179 6.5.2.4 Planning and forecasting... 180 6.5.2.5 Consulting and support... 181 6.5.3 Summary and outlook... 181 7 Summary... 183 References... 190 Index... 202 IX