Oscar Wilde once wrote:
“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”.
Musing on this, I had a slightly mischievous thought: Oscar Wilde might have been speaking as an accountant.
The current economic crisis has demanded that the public sector cut millions from various service delivery budgets up and down the country. The private sector has also been challenged with examining budgets to keep businesses afloat, maintaining profit margins where possible or indeed take advantage of the climate to expand. Inevitably, this unenviable challenge falls at the door of accountants.
Some accountants have adopted an across-the-board percentage cut to budgets to achieve targets and expect Operational Managers to get on with the imposed constraints. While there is some merit in this approach in very specific circumstances, most know it isn’t that simple.
The more visionary and imaginative accountants set out, with their General Managers and Managing Directors, to evolve business models to provide the same or improved services and products for less cost. They will look to where real value lies in the business or service to preserve or enhance it. They will examine very closely the interrelationships between value of service/product, cost savings and desired outcomes before acting and reducing budgets. There is a major difference between direct cost cut and carefully and thoughtfully reduced budgets in order to maintain overall value.
Oscar Wilde, by a twist of fate, might have made a very good accountant. Then again, he might also have been one of accountancy’s severest critics. Just paraphrase:
“What is an accountant? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”.
On an optimistic note, for those brave enough to grasp it, there is a real opportunity to rise to the occasion and to show that you are of value and not a cost to your organisation.
Chris Cutting, of Chris Cutting Recruitment (CCR), has several years experience in accountancy recruitment at all levels. His career spans working for both national and regional recruitment consultancies in the Midlands and establishing two regional consultancies servicing the M5 and M4 corridors. The one constant throughout his career has been to provide a tailored and personalised service to clients and candidates.
Comments