Business to the Buddha

Tag: accounting fraud

  • Cheating, with whom?







    The air I breath you too breath the same so does the ex-CEO of VW Martin Winterkorn.

    Recently, there was a huge issue of VW vehicles cheating emission testing, it resulted in heads being rolled and stock price plummeting. VWWhat Volkswagen did was – it programmed its models starting 2009 till 2015 such that during US standards testing (NOx) were met only during laboratory testing. According to Wikipedia the NOx emissions during normal driving was ~35X higher.

    Similarly Toshiba had been involved with accounting fraud. Toshiba continued doing this under three different CEOs. Had it been under only one we would have thought that it was more on personal level and not on organizational level. There are many more such cheating by the way. ToshibaThese things affect not just one person, it affects everyone – irrespective of whether you drive VW car or you are a Deer (may be a lion) for that matter. I wonder if those sitting on the top wants to go where from there! These cheating made me think – who are these people cheating? It was a question during rainy seasons in Mumbai. Roads of Mumbai get terrible during rainy seasons. You can barely avoid seeing a pothole on road. This is a normal scene – generally – across India. I asked this once on Twitter –

    The point I am trying to make is – the constructors of Mumbai roads are driving their vehicle on the same road, the employees of VW are also breathing the same air which is polluted by their vehicle. Similarly, Toshiba employees must be holding shares of Toshiba! Who are they trying to cheat? And why?

    Wish these people who are involved in such activities realize that they are effectively cheating themselves too. If they do world would become little better.

    I am sure some or the other interest groups, political circles must be pickin’ and grinnin’ and enjoying those events – VW and Toshiba. Wonder if those pickin’ and grinnin’ now would help improve the overall system instead of being selective.

    The topic of LBC was pickin’ and grinnin’ (Generally, I change topic of LBC) suggested by Lin for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently eight of us are supposed to write on the same topic every Friday. The seven other bloggers who are expected to write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Rummuser and Shackman. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

    Related blogs – Games Indians play.

  • We are no different – Up or Down







    I am watching the highway from my hotel room at 6th floor, a bird flies just at the same level as I am currently. What an interesting sight that is – cars (and humans within) are down on road however fast they can drive and here up about 60 feet from the ground a bird is flying effortlessly. More interestingly I am able to witness all this in an AC room without any qualm of weather and being at a foreign country. The birds are not worried about the height they achieve while flying, unlike humans who care too much for the high’s their company share, fast pace of growth of their wealth et al. At times we humans do not even bother to play with numbers to show these growth figures which are fudged.Toshiba

    This weekend I read in the Economist that Japanese company Toshiba was involved with accounting fraud for last 7 years. In this duration there were 3 different CEOs, all let that happen. Where has it not happened – USA (Enron), India (Satyam) and Japan (Toshiba) sure there must be big/small cases everywhere in the world. I always had high regards for Japanese system and people – but Toshiba has let me down. The inference is same – many people are shortsighted. Here Keynes should not be blamed for making a comment – “in the long run we all are dead”, his context was different.

    The problem with corporate world is (specially with listed companies) the CXO and board is more interested in showing quarterly results over the long term. In fact, the plague of living quarter by quarter comes down to the sales associate level too. If they want their bonus or incentives they too hPoor on footpathave to jack up their sales numbers. How they do it, can be a different topic of debate.

    Such incidents let me ask the same question again and again – What more you need? When will we stop? Are the markets – that govern these listed companies – moral? And why do I think about these things?

    The last question to myself lets me relate us – Humans – to the character of Ice age – Scrat. Scrat is running behind its one corn seed and it is unending running for the same for last 4 series. We are the same – whether we become a CXO of Toshiba or just a daily wages worker on the streets of Mumbai – who has to think of this ability to feed his/her family tomorrow.

    My take is only one fold – Until we merge whole of human life (include business, economics, science, politics etc) to spirituality we would see the kind of frauds happening.

    This blog relates to LBC (Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog topic but not exactly the same – Up and Down. Though I was supposed to write on that topic last Friday but could do it today. Other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok,  gaelikaa,  Lin,  Maxi, Padmum,  Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

    Image source – Toshiba executive – AFP Link, Rediff Indian Poverty figures