One of the things that has always astounded me about Tesla is how quickly they’ve lost senior accounting personnel. But losing senior officers alone isn’t the interesting part. It’s the fact that this is happening in Accounting. But don’t take my word for it, go do your own research. You’ll see that they can’t keep CFO’s, Vice Presidents of Accounting/Auditing or Corporate Controllers.
In my nearly 30 years of experience at Fortune 500 level companies I’ve never seen anything like this. Accounting tends to draw “Steady Eddies”. People don’t go into accounting because they want to change the world or garner the spotlight. People who go into accounting tend to be…risk averse.
Many Tesla defenders like to rebut the accounting turnover by parroting the talking point that executive turnover isn’t unusual. However, they’re wrong. But this doesn’t even apply to the accounting department. There isn’t typically a lot of pressure on the accounting department like there would be for the sales group to increase sales or the manufacturing group to cut costs. Accounting is, just there. They have one job, ensure that the financial statements accurately represent the results.
So why has Tesla lost so many senior level accountants over the past 3 years? In my experience, there is only one thing outside of career advancement elsewhere that causes senior accountants to leave. It is meddling from senior executives who are trying to manipulate the financial statements.
Don’t forget, I worked at Gateway Computers where the CEO, CFO, and Corporate Controller were indicted for fraud. I’ve seen the impact this has on the accounting department. If an accountant loses their reputation for honesty, they’ve lost everything. It’s not worth risking the rest of your career so that some executive can hit their quarterly targets. It’s highly unusual to see Tesla-scale accounting turnover. And when you do, there is probably some accounting chicanery going on that scared them.
And look at the timing for some of these departures. More than one accounting leader has departed within 48 hours of a quarterly earnings release. Is that crazy or what? You can just imagine the shouting matches that were happening over what story Musk was going to deliver to the shareholders. Which ultimately led to resignations.
Tesla has lost virtually their entire accounting leadership team and promoted the last guy standing to the CFO spot. Is it a coincidence that after the departure of all their senior accounting officers that Tesla suddenly started their 3 quarter run of profitability? As the great Lee Corso likes to say about College Football “It’s all connected”.
Many Tesla defenders like to rebut the accounting turnover by parroting the talking point that executive turnover isn’t unusual. However, they’re wrong. But this doesn’t even apply to the accounting department. There isn’t typically a lot of pressure on the accounting department like there would be for the sales group to increase sales or the manufacturing group to cut costs. Accounting is, just there. They have one job, ensure that the financial statements accurately represent the results.
So why has Tesla lost so many senior level accountants over the past 3 years? In my experience, there is only one thing outside of career advancement elsewhere that causes senior accountants to leave. It is meddling from senior executives who are trying to manipulate the financial statements.
Don’t forget, I worked at Gateway Computers where the CEO, CFO, and Corporate Controller were indicted for fraud. I’ve seen the impact this has on the accounting department. If an accountant loses their reputation for honesty, they’ve lost everything. It’s not worth risking the rest of your career so that some executive can hit their quarterly targets. It’s highly unusual to see Tesla-scale accounting turnover. And when you do, there is probably some accounting chicanery going on that scared them.
And look at the timing for some of these departures. More than one accounting leader has departed within 48 hours of a quarterly earnings release. Is that crazy or what? You can just imagine the shouting matches that were happening over what story Musk was going to deliver to the shareholders. Which ultimately led to resignations.
Tesla has lost virtually their entire accounting leadership team and promoted the last guy standing to the CFO spot. Is it a coincidence that after the departure of all their senior accounting officers that Tesla suddenly started their 3 quarter run of profitability? As the great Lee Corso likes to say about College Football “It’s all connected”.
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