Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

"Creative accounting" is really bad. For me, it evokes a wonderful old New Yorker cartoon by Robert Weber , where a small, meek accountant stands before the desk of an overfed chief executive exhorting the accountant to rescue the company: "It's up to you now, Miller. Except when it's good.

Creative Accounting 15

Creative Accounting Creativity GAAP Balanced Scorecard 15

Deming Institute

APRIL 7, 2016

Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force. Distorting the numbers, a form of creative accounting aimed at looking good rather than doing well, is rampant in American business.

Deming 28

Deming System Incentives Short-term 28

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2011

What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. Those who already have power continue to glide along the familiar rut they have made for themselves." — Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table. It's not optional, he says. People will always find a way to be heard.". Why listen?

COO 12

COO Learning-by-Doing Bureaucracy Strategy 12

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 5, 2017

What if concentrated market power of a few companies in an industry has made these companies more profitable than usual? Creative accounting measures. But note that the difference between EPS growth and earnings growth is the reduction in the number of shares outstanding in the company. Are all share repurchases myopic?

EPS 8

EPS Metrics Depreciation Short-term 8