External audit reveals accountant who was blamed for huge mistake was actually the one preventing it, CFO forced to apologize: 'I want to apologize'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Aug 18, 2024 6:00 PM EDT

You'll repeatedly encounter people who think they know better than you, even when it comes to the responsibilities of their own job. Most upper managers have this cynical view that their subordinates are just slack-jawed lackeys without a single decent thought. They probably think that whatever job it is their subordinates are doing, anyone could do, completely blind to the fact that this single employee is pulling more weight than anyone else in the organization—including them. Heck, there are plenty of instances where some administrator has been with the company for 20+ years, and no one understands what it is they're exactly doing or that they'd be up the brown creek without a paddle without them.

That's essentially what was happening in this story when this accountant was keeping things from bursting in the midst of a mismanaged organization. Despite their pleas for help and for some changes in the way that the organization was tracking and managing their financial data, they were ignored until they couldn't hold things together for a moment longer and the dam burst. This sent the c-suite executives asking questions and pointing the wrong fingers until an independent review of the fiasco revealed the accountant for their worth.