Читать книгу The Financial Controller and CFO's Toolkit - Parmenter David - Страница 12

Far too often, we have accepted antiquated and anti-lean practices within the corporate accounting repertoire as the status quo. If the medical profession used our approach, it would probably still be using leeches. (Well, actually, I understand that leeches are still used in special cases.) The medical profession has breakthrough conferences on a regular basis, and all the practicing surgeons in that field attend and adopt the new procedure. This should be the corporate finance model. The problem with corporate finance is that the “surgeon,” the CFO, is often too busy to attend, caught in the aforementioned Catch-22.

In an interview, called “The Lost Interview,” Steve Jobs was asked, “As a 22-year-old worth $10 million, and a 25-year-old worth $100 million, how did you get your business acumen?” He said that over time, he realized that most business was pretty straightforward. He talked about when Apple had its first computerized manufacturing plant for the Apple II and the accountant sent Steve Jobs his first standard costing report. Jobs asked, “Why do we have a standard cost and not an actual cost?” The response was, “That is the way it's done.” He soon realized that the reason was the accounting system could not record an actual cost quick enough. When that was fixed, standard costing reports vanished.

In business, Jobs believed that few in management thought deeply about why things were done. He came up with this quote I want to share with you. I believe this quote should be on every wall and in front of every work station in the finance team work area.

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped into living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown your own inner voice.”

– Steve Jobs