Letters

MBWA Is Alive and Well

I was stunned to read the following assertion in “Why the Boss Should Take a Walk” (JofA Mar.01, page 112): “Some years ago a long-forgotten management guru even formulated a management style called Management by Walking Around. The technique never caught on, partly because the words were too prosaic and lacked real pizazz.”

Wrong. Management by Wandering Around (MBWA) has been part of the gospel at Hewlett-Packard since the early 1940s. Bill Hewlett was famous for restlessly prowling shop floors—asking, watching and, especially, listening. MBWA was prominently mentioned by Peters and Waterman in their book In Search of Excellence.

It goes on at many other well-managed companies, too. Any general will tell you that you don’t win wars by avoiding the troops. Any CEO worth her or his salt will tell you the same thing.

It surprises me that you apparently didn’t even run these terms through a cursory Internet check. I ran both MBWAs through Google and got over 200 hits.

If Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard qualify as “long-forgotten management gurus,” then I guess you’re right. Though both are now deceased, neither is forgotten—except in the JofA.

Warren D. Miller, CPA
Lexington, Virginia

Not for Novices

The author of “Do It on the Web” (JofA, Mar.01, page 43) is absolutely correct. Building your own Web site with off-the-shelf software is so simple that people with little or no system development experience can do it—and that can lead to disastrous results.

As a CPA and certified information systems auditor, I am convinced that Web development efforts are best left to experienced information technology professionals. These people are trained in structured system development methodologies and understand the importance of documenting their work to facilitate future maintenance.

These professionals also recognize myriad threats to the integrity, confidentiality and availability of your data once they are accessible from the Internet. To the extent they cannot address these threats, they most likely will be savvy enough to seek guidance from an experienced security professional.

I am not saying that novices have no role in Web development. I firmly believe they can build Intranets to share information within organizational boundaries. Straying outside those boundaries, though, can be lethal to those people who are not properly trained.

Christopher P. Buse, CPA
Stillwater, Minnesota

Editors’ note: We wholeheartedly agree. In fact, the article says: …It’s important to get involved in such a process—not that we’re suggesting you should be a Web site builder—because it will give you insights into the technology. After all, it’s a technology that is sweeping the world of business.

One Is, One Would and One Would Not

“Why Employees Commit Fraud,” (JofA, Feb.01, page 89) leads me to ask a closely related question: Who is most likely to be an embezzler?

According to the “rule of thirds,” a third of your employees are stealing from you right now, a third are kept in check only because of effective controls in their area (they would steal if they thought they could get away with it) and the last third are people who are honest and would never steal from you.

Invariably, after a fraud has been discovered, the victims all say the same thing: The embezzler was in a position of trust, and I never would have suspected him or her.

These are some of the characteristics or habits that embezzlers seem to have in common:

They are control freaks—they don’t want anyone scrutinizing their work. They work long hours and are unwilling, or may refuse, to take vacations because they need to spend a lot of time covering up their thefts.

Many embezzlers display signs of depression and experience mood swings because of the inherent stresses of this type of crime.

Frequently, an embezzler will be living beyond his or her means, claiming to be a lottery winner, a recipient of an inheritance or settlement or a proprietor of a lucrative side business. If a clerk who is earning $25,000 per year drives a Porsche and wears Armani, that should be a tip-off.

Embezzlers are not usually motivated by simple greed. Usually, there is some underlying vice such as gambling or drugs or the involvement of a girlfriend or boyfriend. The embezzler, who may have reached the end of his or her rope, is ready to try something desperate.

Mark S. Glochowsky
Senior Accountant
Gerber Plumbing Fixtures Corp.
Lincolnwood, Illinois

Accountants Should Not Discriminate

The author of “A Nice Niche—If You Minimize Liability Risk” (JofA, Feb.01, page 49) warns practitioners to accept only the most ethical and upright potential clients. Similar advice is commonly given to auditors. The result is that the most experienced, resourceful accountants service the most solid, trusted clients. In contrast, less established or inexperienced practitioners provide services to unproven and unstable concerns.

From an experienced accountant’s point of view, making distinctions between clients may be considered wise, but I believe it could be detrimental to society as a whole. Almost any accountant can audit or provide other accounting services to the archdiocese. The public benefits when the most experienced accountants serve the questionable operators as well.

Neil D. Friedman, CPA
Boulder, Colorado

A Different Viewpoint

I read the letter “On the Uniform CPA Exam” (JofA, Feb.01, page 14) and would like to address the statement that “the Big Five and large regional accounting firms rarely, if ever, recruit on non-Ivy-League campuses.”

I graduated from Troy State University in 1989, and my graduating class alone had three or four recruits that went to work for a Big Five firm. Although not an Ivy-League campus, the school has an incredible accounting program that places much emphasis on passing the CPA exam, and it generally produces several Big Five candidates a year.

I disagree with the letter writer’s comments. Big Five firms have benefited by recruiting from college campuses that have strong accounting programs regardless of Ivy League status. I believe the large firms have been recruiting from such schools for years and will continue to do so as long as they feel they are getting top students.

Johnny Johnson, CPA
Seal Beach, California