Trust, as I am very quickly learning, is a huge factor in business.
I suppose it comes with the territory of people dependency, but the fact remains that, wherever I’ve been exposed, the small, implike child inside of me always brings up the question: “Well, couldn’t you just not tell anyone and switch a few zeros?” Of course I beat it down with the metaphorical stick needed to stay the wholesome postiive individual I am, but the question remains: What keeps businessmen honest?
Accountants, in particular, seem to enjoy a particularly interesting area. Not only do they speak a highly specialized language filled with jargon that has to be commited to reflex to be made useful, but they are required to work with largue amonts of independent numbers, almost exclusively; ironcally, for the sake of objectivity. As a result, if an accountant is to make an estimate of a hitherto unknown cost or benefit, what is to stop him from erring on the larger side, and making it equalize on the balance sheets, with his pocket feeling the decimal points? The natural answer is of course virtue, but when one deals with the torrents of money that flow into companies like Microsoft, how could one possibly resist it every single day of their entire career?
There are counter-measures, like cross-checking, independent sourcing, and what not, but the fact remains that, in essence, they are all based on a mutual trust, or perhaps distrust, to guarantee their legality. I haven’t the slightest idea how to fix this, as this is the natural cost of human interaction, but the idea intrigues me: How many accountants feel the urge to rub the numbers, and how many of them get away with it?