Hack yourself: A call for an artistic metamorphosis of the controller in the digital transformation

Abstract

Digitalization has taken hold of controlling and made it more powerful than ever through BI systems and data analytics. However, controllers are in danger of becoming superfluous in this new controlling world. They have to reinvent themselves. In doing so, an excursion into artistic thinking and working can be a source of inspiration: This article offers creative development perspectives along analogies to modernist art (Impressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism and Cubism) and asks the controller questions about the courageous development of his or her own professional identity. The aim of the paper is to take controllers out of the deceptive comfort zone of an indispensable employee in order to encourage and inspire them to apply the process of creative destruction to their own professional lives.