Archive for May, 2009

Midnight.

Literally the middle of the night. The darkest hour.

Stillness hangs over the neighborhood and the farm down the road. No one is awake except cops on patrol and…..babies.

I turn on the radio to contact the outside world. The books say babies like music at any rate.

A voice accompanied with a synthesizer flows into the room. An early 1980s sound. It’s a rap song and the first few lines catch my attention:

“Bill collectors they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I’m not home

Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can’t take the train to the job, there’s a strike at the station”

I wondered, if he was talking about the current situation? When was this song written?

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We got a pretty good response to last week’s post so we continue here with the rest of our story.

Number Three – It’s the auditor’s job to make sure you understand the results of the audit

Far too many auditors get away with tossing the report at Local Management, cheerfully exclaiming “Good luck!” and running for door before anyone gets a chance to read the report or notice that they broke the lunchroom cappuccino machine.

They would never get away with this behavior when dealing with Senior Management and the Board.

Local Management should insist on gaining from the auditor a full understanding of the audit findings and their relationship with organizational benefit/risk. There are a few techniques management can employ in order to ensure this happens.

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During my 4^th excursion of the evening to the supermarket to obtain infant supplies, I stood in the checkout line staring at the various wares designed to stimulate an impulse buy on behalf of the shopper.

Most prominent were the tabloids and women’s magazines with the screeching headlines of “10 Ways to Lose Fat” and “Man Eats Bricks.”

My first thought was how quickly the intellectual gap continues to narrow between these lowbrow tabloids and “serious” journalism like major newspapers and cable TV… Of course the reason they are becoming more alike is not that the tabloids are improving.

So in the spirit of the times, we offer the “5 Things Auditors Don’t Want You to Know” in this week’s Recon.

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