When Accountants Rule, Innovation Ceases.
Having spent most of my working life in the rough and tumble world of advertising, nobody fears accountants more than I when things get tough.
At the mere hint of a downturn, those who keep an eagle eye on the bottom line begin to plot and scheme to assassinate the visionary figure (read free-spending) CEO or creative director who run the company. Usually, death is quick but hardly painless...Julius Cesar would bear testament to that.
When the cold winds of recession whistle through a company's corridors, the accountants begin to circle like hyenas ready to devour the wounded and the weak. Not far behind them will be the vultures (read HR managers), armed to the teeth with red pens and pink slips. Employees will be let go armed with brochures on how to avoid depression and advice on obtaining unemployment benefits.
I have sat in meetings and watched in amazement as bespectacled men in ill-fitting suits, diligently poring over the firm's P& L slashing and burning with reckless abandon like Attila the Hun, operating on top quality speed.
Marketing costs?
Rubbish, get rid of them.
Training? Waste of resources.
Are you hiring smart juniors?
Not on my watch!
And so it goes in the 'war room,' until staff numbers have been cut to ribbons and those poor souls who remain wander past empty desks where their talented colleagues once sat and wonder when they will receive that 'dreaded call.'
Recessions come recessions go, and yes, of course, one must cut one's cloth to suit the prevailing conditions, slash and burn tactics are for invading armies. We have all born witness to exuberant cost-cutting results and the appalling damage that can be done.
Without the creative and talented troops, a company's brand begins to fracture and with it comes a loss of credibility. However, the bean counters are ecstatic at the level of cost savings achieved, "The bottom line is holding," they cry out in triumph and have an apple juice to celebrate.
All it takes is to look over the history of the last 100 years to see how many great brands have vanished or withered on the vine brought about by the pessimism and exuberant cost-driven accountants whereas a visionary financial director might have steered the organization through treacherous waters.
This piece was never intended to attack accountants per se (although having re-read it, it indeed reads like a full-blown assault!) In my time, I have worked with wonderful and insightful accountants who had vision and foresight to "trim the sails' and seek a safe harbour during an economic storm. In many cases, they gently guided us through savage downturns, and we emerged sharper, meaner and leaner once the storm had passed.
Recessions come, and recessions go, and when they do go, they end quickly.
In an upturn suddenly there is a frantic scrabble to hire, ramp up the advertising and marketing programs and reappoint someone with vision to get the ship back on course. At that time, the plotters will retreat to windowless offices and pat each other on the back for what they perceive to be a job well done.
Often when restarting the engine, it is far too late as in most cases those overzealous types whose only focus was on producing a 'beautiful set of numbers' have brought companies that had a remarkable history of innovation and creativity crashing to its knees.
That great hum of activity on the factory floor coupled with the excited chatter of enthusiastic and innovative employees has stopped leaving behind only a shell that rattles hollowly.
That rattle is all too often a death rattle.
Creative accountants and CFO's are a rare breed, but we know who they are.
They ride at the helm of companies who survive good times and bad growing stronger and surviving every downturn. They spend time patching and repairing the ship in times of strife working hand in glove with the company’s founders rather than sitting in an ivory tower with a red pen planning on how to scuttle it.
First published, Business Monthly Magazine 2018
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