In The Frank Zappa Book, the late Frank Zappa defined The Very Big Stupid
THE VERY BIG STUPID is a thing which breeds by eating The Future. Have you seen it? It sometimes disguises itself as a good-looking quarterly bottom line, derived by closing the R&D Department.
If Enrst & Young’s report “Partnering for Performance” is anything to go by, The Very Big Stupid is alive and well
Step 4: “Ensure business decisions are driven by a data based single version of the truth. Discourage multiple interpretations of master data by different functional areas. Position finance as the owners of the data.â€
In that single statement the destructive role accounting too often plays in the business rings loud and clear. A data-based single version of the truth, no interpretation other than that of accounting, which is the owner of the data. You don’t often see such an off-the-charts level of arrogance and ignorance combined into a single statement.
The assumption that financial people know enough about the supply chain to elevate cost cutting over quality and service and drive all of the decision making is patently absurd, but that is the assumption many folks make. It is incumbent on operations people at the sharp end of the value adding effort to learn the accounting rules and processes, as well as to learn, master and comply with corporate policies of all stripes, but the headquarters folks have no such need to master the first thing about how the company actually creates value for customers.
Never let the bean-counters make the important decisions.