The Inferno of the Finance Director

Sometimes, I harbor a suspicion that Dante became a Financial Director. His well-known work, “The Inferno”, accurately describes the activity that can not be in any other case. He is fervently hated for using the people. He is thoroughly despised with the aid of the alternative managers (“imply bastard” is his not unusual nickname among them, frequently for scrutinizing their cost money owed).

He dreads utilizing the proprietors of the company due to the fact the powers that he has often outweigh theirs. Shareholders hold him accountable in annual conferences. When the economic effects are excellent – they’re attributed to the talented General Manager. When they are horrific – the Financial Director receives blame for no longer implementing budgetary subjects. It is a no-win, thankless activity. Very few make it to the pinnacle, and the relaxation retires, eroded and embittered.

In Macedonia, this will be considered treason – but, inside the West, each characteristic holder within the enterprise can – and regularly is – summoned via the (active) Board. A grilling session ensues: debriefing the officer and looking to spot contradictions between his testimony and others. The structure of enterprise corporations within the USA reflects the political shape.

The Board of Directors resembles Congress; the Management is the Executive Arm (President and Administration), and the shareholders are the humans. The traditional checks and balances are carried out: the government is supposedly separated, and the Board criticizes the Management.

The same tactics are carried out: the Board can summon a worker to testify – the identical way that the Senate holds hearings and go-questions employees in the Management. Lately, the delineation has become fuzzier with managers serving on the Board or colluding with it. Ironically, where such incestuous practices were standard hitherto, Europe is reforming itself with zeal (see Britain and Germany).

Macedonia remains after the snug, vintage European version: Boards of Directors are rubber stamps without any will to exercise their powers. They are staffed with cronies and friends and a circle of relatives contributors to the senior control, and they do and determine what the General Managers tell them to do and decide. General Managers – unchecked and unbalanced – get concerned about big mistakes (not to say worse things). Company governance is alien to most Macedonian companies, and the corporations appear via most fashionable managers as milking cows – fast paths to personal enrichment.