Executive MBA - January 2011

Management Control Seminar

Paris Executive Campus

I- Overview

This course is intended for professionals in general management interested in acquiring a better
understanding of management control, its key concepts and instruments. The purpose of this seminar is
to go beyond the technical approach of management control and to embrace the manager’s view,
emphasising related behavioural issues. The overall goal of this seminar is not to train technical
specialists but to help people faced with a management situation to understand how to use management
control concepts and instruments to bring their organisation under control.

II- Course Objectives

• Discover the typical relevant instruments of management control;

• Understand what the appropriate management control philosophy is and debunk prejudices related to
control, its instruments, management control and management accounting;
• Describe the relationship between the decision-making process, the management control process and
organisational members’ behaviour so as to put management control systems in their real life
organisational context.
• Be able to design and implement a simple but effective control system, knowing its advantages and its
shortcomings. Be able to think of the unintended effects of management control systems.

III- Teaching methods

This seminar will take place in a 3 days period. The lecture will be a blending of the instructor
presenting relevant material and a learning by doing of the participants (case studies) in order to
stimulate their critical thinking.
We also expect personal readings and group discussion in order to enrich the learning process,
especially sharing professional experiences of real situations.

IV- Learning goals

Upon successful completion of this seminar, participants will be able to:

• Carry out a real investigation of a management control system in order to evaluate its provisional good
and bad features so that one can suggest improvements.
• Encompass and tell the difference between general aspects of management control, including close
concepts like management accounting, internal control, strategic control…
• Design and implement basic management control tools
• Be literate and critical towards management control practices and suggest improvements of the
management control system so that it would be better suited to particular contexts.
• Work as a team member and getting accustomed to sharing ideas in a group to foster collective results.
V- Grading Procedure

Group Case study Assignments (group work) and seminar active participation (40%)
By group of 3 to 4 people, you will have to work on several case studies (one per session). At the end of
your preparation, each group must be able to present his work to the class using a few powerpoint slides
and/or any relevant spreadsheet. Top grades will be given to groups displaying effective interaction and
cooperation during the case study, visible through their reasoning and questioning. Any relevant
participation will obviously be taken into account.

Individual Case (60%)

Students will be required to write individually a 3-4 pages analysis on a short topic that will require a
real understanding of the whole content of the seminar. This topic will be given during the last session.

VI- Course contents

Sessions Theme Content

Part 1: Cost Calculations for Decision Making
From costing to performance Managerial Accounting and the Business Organization
management
Cost behaviour / Cost Allocation: Absorption Costing
Cost-volume relationship: Marginal Costing
Overhead application: variable and absorption costing
Cost allocation and Activity Based Costing
Case Study
Part 2: Planing and Control
Decentralized organisations Planning and Control
and their control
The Master budget
Cash Management
Variance Analysis
Case Study
Part 3: The performance Measurement and Management
The planning process Case Study The French Tableau de Bord
The American Balanced Scorecard
Case Study

VII- Reading Material

• Managerial Accounting, Garrison, Noreen, Brewer, 12th ed., McGraw Hill, 2008
• Management and Cost Accounting, Bhimani, Horngren, Datar, Foster, 4th ed. Prentice Hall, 2008