New Performance Horizon

About New Performance Horizon

With this site I want to help others in looking beyond the current and to start thinking about what really needs to be done in order to perform in the future as well. Hence, I have decided to call this site "New Performance Horizon".

My name is Koen Eijkemans and I have been working as a finance professional for over 16 years now. Next to having received a master degree in economics from Tilburg University (NL) I also received a master degree in controlling from the University of Amsterdam (NL) and a master degree in Information management from TIAS business school (NL).

My career so far has been based on a strong and solid finance background. Over the last ten years this has helped me in developing towards a professional in the area of business control ranging all the way from strategic control, management control to your basic financial/internal control.

My interests and passion lay within the area of performance management and especially in the complexity of clearly defining strategy and the alignment of the organization in order to achieve performance objectives. Especially getting the right the mix of hard (structure, systems) and soft elements (skills, culture, management style) is what fascinates me.

I am an almost obsessive reader of business literature on (competitive) strategy, structure, culture, business modelling, and of course performance management; not just reading the latest fads, but getting inspired and looking for commonalities and new insights combining it all to a new holistic view on managing for performance.

Welcome

This website is my personal, non-commercial, website aimed at actively sharing knowledge and experience in the area of enterprise performance management.

Next to my own thoughts and experiences I am also very interested in those of others. If you want to share your views and experiences, please drop me a note; see the contact tab. Please also share with me inspiring books and articles that you have read, since I am very interested in continuously learning more on performance management and management in general.

Learning the basics of auditing, accounting and financial reporting As an auditor I performed interim and year-end financial audits at large national and multinational companies. Learning about external reporting requirements, accounting rules and internal control.
Performance consulting for large multinational companies As a consultant I have assisted many companies, especially senior financial managers, in utilizing the then upcoming new performance management methodologies such as Value Based Management, Activity Based Costing and Balance Scorecards.
Gaining experience as a controller In a changing environment (post-merger) I have learned to act as a controller (sales controller). Becoming more and more aware of company politics and how this influences rational decision making.
Maturing in Financial Shared Services and CPM During my time at DC my biggest project was acting as an interim manager Accounts payable within a shared service center, where I was able to improve performance, resulting in the reduction of invoice processing backlog. As part of a team I was involved in tayloring the SAP CPM tooling (SAP-SEM) for a major client.
Learning that being right doesn't mean it will be done As an advisor to the Board I critically reviewed business processes as well as the governance surrounding a new Business Information service center. This experience has taught me that it is always the customer that decides what to do with your advice.
Improving the finance function in a small trading company As the one accountable for Finance, IT and HR I was able to clean up the accounting, further improve the use of a new ERP system, to further develop and empower the finance staff and taking on business responsibility as a member of the management team.
Restructuring to improve performance As an acting department manager (staff of 11) I received the asignment to radically transform and professionalize a project management department. Part of the job was letting go of staff, recruiting new and highly capable technical project managers, professionalize project and programm management and coach te remaining staff through the transition.
Developing a compelling vision on the finance function During my time at AC I spent a lot of my time on developing a new vision on how to set up a finance function. Together with colleagues we even wrote a book on the subject and published in CFO magazine. The insights were put to use within various client asignments. As a personal interest I developed, together with a colleague, a finance capability framework for finance professionals.
Controlling IT programs As part of the Project support organisation I coached a team of 15 project controllers as part of a major IT programm in ING BANK. Major objectives were to standardize and professionalize project control and to taylor the project and programm support application "Clarity" from CA.
Improving internal and business control Within CRH (Irish based multinational in building materials) I have worked on improving the basic financial control. Next steps will include improvement of strategic and management control with an emphasis on risk management as an integrated part of business management.