Robots Coming to Take Your Job Away!

 

So shrieks a chartered accountant...

I have an extremely low opinion of chartered accountants, primarily based on two pieces of history, after which I've tried very hard to have nothing to do with them':

I started out in recruiting in partnership with a firm of chartered accountants - Bowden, Impey & Sage, now known as Hayes Knight. One of their partners used to import used cars from Japan and he assured us that his Nissan Bluebird was a beauty. It lasted about two months before the turbo blew and the shocks fell to bits. It was the worst piece of crap ever brought in to NZ.

Another of their partners was the accountant for the once-famed Budapest Pickles. This was a company built up over 40 years by a bloke who really came from Budapest, and it had reached a maturity that meant it was a very tidy little company.

The son of the founder wondered if he could make it grow more, so he got his accountant involved, as you're supposed to. The accountant - a full partner in the firm, please note - decided that enormous expansion of the production by purchasing a new factory at the exact opposite side of Auckland was the go.

This is the worst piece of business advice in history.

Pickles are a limited market - mainly because they're revolting - and the market was already saturated. The accountant made no effort to find if the market would sell more, and as it turned out, even if the company captured the entire pickle market in NZ, they would still be lowing money. The fact that cartage costs had been more tripled was merely a bagatelle at this point.

Chartered Accountants are as big a leech as lawyers.

Today, as you read above, we have one talking about robots taking over half of all jobs in the next 20 years.

Utter bollocks!

40 years ago, I was assured vehemently by computer gurus that we'd all be working 10 hours a week by the 21st century because robots and computers would be doing all the work.

How's that going?

Considering New Zealand's workers work more hours now than they do now, I'd say it was crap.

The accountant is merely displaying his total ignorance of both human nature and business, which is hardly surprising, because accountants generally know fuck all and the guy quoted is clearly an expert.

Don't panic - your jobs are safe!

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