Well, it's definitely feels like I am. Throughout my entire career, every time I start a new job or a long-term consulting project, no matter how exciting and successful the business seems, it takes me under 4 weeks (sometimes less than 2) to uncover hidden losses, cash flow deficiencies, operational problems, strategic mistakes, distortion of accounting principles and policy violations. There has not been a single exception to this rule.
Of course, I devoted my career to dealing with privately-held small and mid-size companies. Frequently their CEOs are entrepreneurs with limited understanding of corporate governance, let alone the makeups of quality accounting and finance functions. These companies develop in a haphazard manner and the staff is usually composed of people who are eager and hardworking, but not necessarily highly qualified. The conceptual thinking, I am always so keen on finding, is rarely present.
I've been studying my current client for exactly three weeks now. Oh boy! The company is a wholesaler, but the operating software they bought for a lot of money was created for manufacturers, and it's so rigid, it will require major re-programming to adapt it to their needs. The principle feature of this type of businesses - the lot-driven operations that require lot-specific data tracking and analysis, cannot be accommodated by the software and, therefore, needs to be performed at a great time-cost in Excel. The chart of accounts is completely screwed up and there is no hope to adjust it properly since they already started making entries. There is an endless duplication (and triplication, and quadruplication) of data in different files kept on their local drives by individual employees... And so on and so forth. They don't even have a backup system in place, let alone business intelligence.
But most remarkably, NOBODY (not the co-owners who buy and sell the product internationally for years now, not the logistics managers, not the internal accountants, nor independent auditors) understands the principles of Incoterms. As the result, the revenue, costs, and inventory recognition is royally fucked up. I restated their 9-months 2011 results to proper values and found... you got it - losses!
Sometimes, it makes me wonder, what would happen if I got a chance to dissect a huge belly of some public mammoth. Would the same rotten bullshit pour out of them? The fact that big-time public companies constantly underperform and require bailouts makes me kind of suspicious.
The truth is I don't believe that I am cursed. I think that the majority of companies manage for some time to ride on the wave of a particular product/service demand, or some market twist, or accidental economic development, or novel idea. Yet, they are drowning in small and large errors affecting every facet of their existence. And when the shit hits the fan in the form of financial or operational problems, their chances for survival are minimal because there is no quality back-office structure to sustain them. Moreover, frequently they don't even see it coming, because they operate blindly in the absence of informational support.
The problems may come to light before the downfall if a perfectionist like me appears on the horizon. Such a person may be either hired as a permanent employee, or come along as a part of a consulting team (an option frequently unaffordable for small and midsize companies). So, this client of mine got lucky - one way or another I will correct all their problems. Others out there... it's scary to think about them. Is it surprising that with this poor quality of back office, lack of informational reporting, and all the errors they commit along the way, the companies are going out of business left and right, and the economy has gone to shitters?
I do have a solution that can help many of the companies precariously hanging on the verge of extinction due to the deficiencies in their policies, procedures, controls, and reporting functions - an affordable and easily accessible electronic consulting solution that covers all these areas of expertise and puts a multitude of tools at the fingertips of executives and financial professionals. Let's hope that I will be able to attract investors to back my ideas and bring this revolutionary development to the millions of small and mid-size companies.