Believe it or not, but we've already passed the mid-point of 2012. While the foretold Armageddon is not upon us just yet (most likely due to the inaccuracy of our calendar), the immediate future of many CFOs can be predicted with a confident certainty: the second quarter financial results will be due in a couple of weeks.
Let's face it, this was not an easy fiscal period. Whether large or small, businesses were affected by the volatility of the international markets, the slowdown of commercial demand, plunges in both commodities' prices and consumer confidence. Even the bigwigs at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, the conjurors of "facts" that prevent trading markets from falling apart, had to admit today that "the recovery slowed in the second quarter" and downgrade their projections.
What recovery, you clowns? Anyway, those of us running actual businesses know: the quarter was mostly downsloping, choppy, and unhealthy. This will translate into smaller revenues, narrower profit margins, and, for many, losses.
The Frustrated CFO always feels doubly agitated about subpar performance results (obviously, antsy enough to talk about herself in the third person). On a big-scale, as a small-business crusader, I am worried that with every difficult fiscal quarter the possibility of our economy getting back on the right track, with entrepreneurship reclaiming its rightful status as a backbone of capitalism, becomes less and less real.
And then there is an apprehension of inevitable consequences for all financial chiefs of privately-held companies (myself including), who cannot avoid playing the part of the bad-news heralds.
Regardless of the nature and the size of a company, the main recipients of its performance results are owners/investors. For public companies these are millions of faceless institutional and individual stock-market gamblers. The publication of financial information by these companies is mandated by law and governed by SEC.
When the picture is bleak, the Boards of Directors, terrified by the possibility of a sell-off and devalue of the stock (first and foremost, their own holdings), frequently spring into action to show the world that they are "doing something about it." This usually amounts to moving the pawns on the corporate chessboard: we regularly hear about dismissals of CEOs and COOs perceived to be responsible for the failures. At the same time, unless they are caught together with their auditors cooking the books, the big-time CFOs are rarely publicly flogged.
Private businesses operate in an entirely different universe. Here, people responsible for financial reporting, CFOs and Controllers, daily face their owners/investors. The entire chain of delivering the message is reduced to a single step. Here you are with your perfectly accurate, yet unpleasant, reports and there, on the other side of the table, or on the other end of an email link, are the owners/executives.
And, even though everyone in the room understands that you cannot possibly be singly responsible for the business's poor performance; that it is a result of many contributing factors; that the CEO herself disregarded your loud warnings and fucked up several crucial deals - the bosses invariably follow their first impulse to lash out against somebody. At that initial moment of disappointment, there is no better a scapegoat than you, the news-bearer. As if on cue, the bosses turn into cranky babies and throw pointless tantrums. The funniest thing that ever happened to me was when the President wanted to see the general ledger details and "check the numbers."
Eventually, of course, they come down, and become reasonable. If you've earned their respect and got their ear, they would listen to your analysis and accept your improvements proposals. The thing is, though, we are human too and no matter how well we hold it together, the hurt of that initial heraldic punishments stays with us.
