By a range of actions, establish routines and climate of business control, with focus both on balance sheet and profitability. Train and establish a business control culture and organization.. A good common structure was established between independent division controllers. We met for full-day workshops once a quarter. The focus was on both ad hoc issues and process improvement topics. Annual seminars were established, including all controllers/financial managers globally for around 50 local company units. We gained working more proactively and forward-looking instead of more reactively, as had been the case previously. This included setting 'balanced scorecards';and well defined KPI:s as well as principles for verifying the balance sheet and the "drivers" behind capital tie up. Key was train the complete organization including management in business control. That was achieved by a decentralized approach and constant follow-up of lessons learned.

Timeframe: It took one year to achieve stability and an additional year to achieve profitability. After that, the business area was given a mandate for growth, including acquisitions. Methods and working practices were refined over the following 3-4 years.