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> This is what happens when we let accountants run companies rather than engineers While I agree with you in the essence of what you’re saying, you should repl
by scrollaway 3y ago
> This is what happens when we let accountants run companies rather than engineers
While I agree with you in the essence of what you’re saying, you should replace “accountants” with “MBAs” or “CFOs”. Most accountants don’t care about how the final balance sheet looks, they care about the flow of money itself. I have gained a lot of respect for that, as I’ve understood it more over the years.
Accountancy is nothing but “financial engineering”, really. They don’t decide on the budgets, they just code it in.
- etempleton 3y agoIf a finance person is put in charge of a company it is time to leave that company. Finance people inevitably optimize for short-term gains and tend to lack any instinct for the long term. It is not their fault. It is all they know. They are hammers in search of a nail.
- scrollaway 3y agoYou completely missed my point. An accountant may be dealing with finances but they are a very different role from that of a CFO. In general you also don’t put an accountant “in charge”, period, just as you don’t put a sysadmin “in charge”. It doesn’t make sense. It’s also untrue that financial people “inevitably” optimise for short term gains. Of all people they’re often the ones best placed to optimise for long term. But they don’t necessarily understand the heart of the business, so they shouldn’t be in charge either if it’s the case.
- hilbert42 3y agoAgreed, correction accepted. (Using 'acountants' in a loose pejorative sense is a 'disease' many of us have caught, it's good to be corrected.)