Okay, yes... I am on a rant about the cream of the superfluos crop in top heavy organizations. What struck me after a meeting with one of my client CFOs was-- what does this guy do all day?!? Sure, in the beginning of the company you need a money guy but really-- once your bank accounts and GL are all set up and you've decided between the Marvel Comics and the CareBears check stock what is there left for this guy (or gal) to do? All the accounting rules are published, executed by software and if there is any question the auditors generally tell you what you have to do. I mean, in any other department, be it IT, Engineering, Sales, etc you can envision a problem needing to escalate to the senior expert in charge. Then, like a zen master they make the tough call based on years of experience what architecture, material, or distributor to use. But what kind of crisis happens in the accounting department? "Stan- what the hell are we going to do with the cost of importing the widget packaging?!?!". "I don't know Susan! We could put it in this GL account or maybe that one". "I know... it's like, it could go in this bucket OR that bucket, Stan but how do we tell? There is nothing on GAAP to guide us!" "Do you think we should take this to the big guy?!?" "Yeah, we had better... just think of the consequences if we put it in the WRONG bucket... I mean, we'd be there in the audit and some 24 year old auditor would say THIS COST SHOULDN'T BE HERE!!! and we'd be like "Oh no... what should we do?!?" and he would be like, "Put it over there!" and so then we would have to move all those amounts from the wrong bucket to the right bucket". "Oh my God Stan, has that ever happened?!?" "Yes, I've seen it-- it's called a Journal Entry...scary". "Yeah, scary... better go ask the big guy".
The bottom line here (like the way I toss about accounting phrases like a pro) is that Finance folks come in AFTER the stuff has happened. Even if there are money problems they aren't the ones that make or lose the money (Enron excepted). I'm not saying there aren't smart and dumb things to do with your money but with the software doing all the tracking, reporting, check printing and signing I suggest you dump your senior bean counter in favor of quarterly visits to your auditing firm. The exception to this is if you truly need someone to blame for your company's poor performance, lies to investors, etc then you should keep your CFO around as cannon fodder for the criminal phase of the trial. C'mon-- they're a tough bunch. Prison won't change them...even if Bubba has a completly different concept of what it's like to make a 'journal entry'. Just my 2 cents ;->
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While we're at it let's just get rid of all the C level folk. How useful are they really? In the beginning, like with the CFO, you need them. Over time they start getting more and more money and becoming more or less (no, not less) useful. In the beginning they think strategically but over time they get buried in the day to day and their value diminishes as fast as their paycheck increases.
I guess it's true that you need them to come up with the proper merger strategy with the 'other' behemoth money losing operation that is their primary competition -- that will gain them huge reward personally but kill any chance of a decent company. Again, strategic? No. Quick ROI for the C$$, YES!
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