DHL 2013 Annual Report Download - page 94

Group’s Board of Management on signicant opportunities and risks as well as
on the potential overall impact each division might experience. For this purpose,
opportunities and risks are aggregated for key organisational levels. We use two
methods for this. In the rst method, we calculate a possible spectrum of results for
the divisions and add the respective scenarios together. e totals for “worst case”
and “best case” indicate the total spectrum of results for the respective division.
Within these extremes, the total “expected cases” shows current expectations. e
second method makes use of a Monte Carlo simulation, the divisional results of
which are regularly included in the opportunity and risk reports to the Board of
Management.
3
Overall strategy: e Group Board of Management decides on the methodology that
will be used to analyse and report on opportunities and risks. e reports created
by Corporate Controlling provide an additional regular source of information to
the Board of Management for the overall steering of the Group.
4
Operating measures: e measures to be used to take advantage of opportunities and
manage risks are determined within the individual organisational units. ey use
cost-benet analyses to assess whether risks can be avoided, mitigated or transferred
to third parties.
5
Control: For key opportunities and risks, early warning indicators have been dened
that are monitored constantly by those responsible. Corporate Internal Audit has
the task of ensuring that the Board of Management’s specications are adhered to.
It also reviews the quality of the entire opportunity and risk management operation.
e control units regularly analyse all parts of the process as well as the reports from
Internal Audit and the independent auditors with the goal of identifying potential
for improvement and making adjustments where necessary.
Internal accounting control and risk management system
(Disclosures required under section  , number  of the Handelsgesetzbuch
( – German Commercial Code) and explanatory report)
Deutsche Post DHL uses an internal accounting control system to ensure that Group
accounting adheres to generally accepted accounting principles. is system is intended
to make sure that statutory provisions are complied with and that both internal and
external accounting provide a valid depiction of business processes in gures. All gures
are to be entered and processed accurately and completely. Accounting mistakes are to
be avoided in principle and signicant assessment errors uncovered promptly.
e control system design comprises organisational and technical measures that
extend to all companies in the Group. Centrally standardised accounting guidelines
govern the reconciliation of the single-entity nancial statements and ensure that inter-
national nancial reporting standards    are applied in a uniform manner
throughout the Group. All Group companies are required to use a standard chart of
accounts. We immediately assess new developments in international accounting for
relevance and announce their implementation in a timely manner, for example, in
monthly newsletters. Oen, accounting processes are pooled in a shared services centre
in order to centralise and standardise them. e  nancial statements of the separate
Group companies are recorded in a standard, -based system and then processed at
a central location where one-step consolidation is performed. Other components of
our control system include automatic plausibility reviews and system validations of the
accounting data. In addition, manual checks are carried out regularly at a decentralised
90 Deutsche Post DHL 2013 Annual Report
Opportunities and Risks
Opportunity and risk management processes
Group Management Report