Creative accounting…

I returned to Galesburg, Illinois last month for Homecoming weekend.  My major at Knox College was Accounting and Business Administration. Perhaps that started my interactions with creativity during my sales career. 

Walmart's Sam Walton had a few creative interactions, too: 

Nowadays, you hear a lot about fancy accounting methods… but back then we were using the ESP method… It's a pretty basic method: if you can't make your books balance, you take however much they're off by and enter it under the heading ESP, which stands for, “Error Some Place."

I benefited from a creative sales entry at ADP once.  I had booked a large, National Account order right before the end of our fiscal year.  It not only qualified me for President’s Club but it qualified my VP of Sales, as well.  Then the fit hit the shan… 

The customer called me apologetically to cancel the order.  I was crushed.  I informed my VP right away because: 

Bad news does not improve with age. 

D. Michael Abrashoff 

There was no way around it – or so I thought. 

Fast forward to the beach 8 weeks later with my VP of Sales and our spouses.  I asked my boss why that “No Start” didn’t cost me (and him) President’s Club? 

Turns out he, our Controller, and General Manager decided to enter that negative accounting transaction as a “UBV”, unexplained business variance.  

Creative accounting at its best.

                                                            GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.