About BUSINESSCONTROLLER.nu

Over a hundred CFO assessments a year, thousands done on controllers, accountants, administrators, BI Data professionals and more. Wonderful clients, that we serve from the background, supporting them.

We measure the actual subject-matter strength and potential of your colleague, your team, your candidate or even your own. We detect whether a candidate leans more heavily towards financial control or would be better suited in a role as business partner. We also reveal where that person stands benchmarked against thousands of professionals in Finance worldwide. Also in Africa, Belarus, or Myanmar. 

We have used an online scan to assess the strength of thousands of financial professionals within Financial Control and Business Control. We combined this, for many hundreds of them, with a face-to-face development assessment to identify their potential (or lack of) and establish ways forward. Most candidates were enthusiastic about the conclusions and felt that they had truly been ‘seen’ as human beings and as professionals in Finance. The most frequently heard reaction after the development assessment is: “Finally I get some insight, thanks for this gift! “ 

The founders of www.businesscontroller.nu have built a wonderful array of tools which can determine the actual strength and potential (or lack thereof) of financials, and whether this tends, for example, more towards compliance or towards the business side. These tools (an online scan on the one hand and a full face-to-face development assessment on the other) are the core of our market-changing insights and services. Employees / candidates feel truly seen in their field; employers gain a clear insight into the actual potential of their employees or candidates. Our tools provide concrete recommendations regarding processes surrounding selection, team optimization, empowering individual colleagues, or the targeted use of training that you would have previously not imagined possible. 

The experts from businesscontroller.nu have developed a surprising array of tools which enable us to determine, with surprising accuracy, potential brainpower in the respective subject matters. In our opinion, these tools are more effective in the financial world than generic knowledge tests, IQ tests and other personality and behavioural tests (and in some cases are complimentary to). We are talking here about substantive brainpower within your discipline. There are already thousands of people worldwide who are looking through the mirror these tools provide, and many clients have experienced the power of their application.

The tools can be applied to various degrees of broadness and depth depending on the client’s needs. The most intensive is the full day face-to-face Development Assessment. Actual potential, (or lack thereof) within the spectrum of financial functions will be revealed in a clear and transparent way, as will what is needed to reach it and the potential obstacles along the way. We have wonderful examples of assisting in difficult recruitment processes all over the world. In these cases, we of course add a complimentary personality and behavioural test. In the Netherlands, the Development Assessment is mostly used for development processes and team optimisation, but also as final step in the recruitment process..

Based on the worldwide findings (and most significant components) of the subject matter component of the Development Assessments, businesscontroller.nu created an Online Scan in which the subject-area brainpower is measured to astounding results. It is a real no-brainer to have candidates undergo this scan (R&S), and an eye-opener for team optimisation. It becomes clear in no time which people would be better off at another function and where untapped potential lies. It is almost too good to be true – we gladly invite you to take a look yourself through the mirror of our online scan.

Businesscontroller.nu works with a number of business partners. These are accredited users of the online scan and provide, when necessary, specific experts for the face-to-face development assessments conducted under the supervision of, or through, BusinessController.nu.

Within the realms of higher education, businesscontroller.nu is frequently asked to examine graduates and give advice, as well as feedback to the program. Every starter that is hired can be evaluated in 45 minutes and compared against our anonymous Database of > 1000 graduates. In the meantime, businesscontroller.nu also provides feedback to higher education instances themselves, and guides organizations in talent management.

Our key added value includes being able to very effectively indicate whether someone fits a position (R&S, interim, promotion, team optimization), as well as whether someone is happier (and stronger) operating on the compliance side or on the business side. And sometimes we reveal talent (or lack of) that nobody else had seen, often to the bewilderment of candidate and employer alike. We have been involved in wonderful career moves, but also in the unmasking of a finance director who had bluffed his way in with fake papers, and had been stopped by no one as no one had ever asked him a substantive question.

We also give lectures and are invited as guest lecturers and carry out impact training for financials (under names like Impact from Finance, Streetwise Finance and Finance Essentials). At the individual level, we can get the maximum possible out of people in Finance to boost the connection with the rest of the board – and be accepted.

We are not handling our human capital well, and the CFO often ignores the strength and potential of his teams. 

The picture that we and our business partners see in the market is often the same. Upscaling, SSCs, automation and the continuous flow of integration processes, have meant that many (too many) financials have ended up in a position where they are not in their power zone. From hospitals and school communities to listed multinationals and Private Equity funds that connect companies together. There is often little regard for the true potential of employees in Finance. Outside resources (often expensive ones) are brought in on the double and people fail to see the potential they already have in-house. People are hired (interim or permanent) too quickly or moved internally without any real understanding of underlying qualities.
It goes without saying that training budgets are also far too often used in a general way to keep people happy and that not enough consideration is given to what form of education or training is appropriate or really makes sense.
It is also harder to establish the quality of diplomas as there are so very many of them and they mostly lack a connection to the changing labour market. Fewer and fewer starters begin at one of the big 4 or in a great company with a mentor but opt instead for a job as project consultant with a secondment provider. This makes estimating where someone really stands after 4 to 6 years of work experience or what their development potential or need for development is even more complex without testing.
Our tools bring that potential clearly into focus in a straightforward and transparent way. This can be for an individual or for a team. As a snapshot (the online scan) or with in-depth analysis and tools for development (day assessment). In all cases we look at practical subject-matter content and are able to filter. We filter out people who learned things by heart but just don’t get it, compared to those who may have a weaker CV but do have substantive strength in the field. It was as if a whole world opened to the creators of these tools and to the hundreds of people who have used them too. We guarantee safety and security to the candidates, and most people experience our tools and the individual attention as a gift.
BusinessController.nu has been involved in wonderful team analyses and amazing entirely unforeseen career moves of professionals who, via initially the online scan, demonstrated strengths beyond the position in which they had been operating so far.

We are not handling our human capital well, and the CFO often ignores the strength and potential of his teams. 

We combine for many of our clients, the content aspect of the scan or assessment to a personal characteristic test (undertow, drivers, colours, behaviour, etc.). Our experience so far of combining these personal characteristic tests to our content tools has been very positive indeed. We ourselves often work with TMA, DISC, Profile Dynamics and the Organic Score Card. The latter goes the deepest and looks not at behaviour and form but at causes and blockages in behaviour. This is where we unveil the passion and the longing.