A Women’s Day Special – Play with Colors of Life

“How wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?”   ― Anaïs Nin

Women are smart. They demand equality and have a special day for women. Men claim superiority and have no men’s day. One can say the rest of the days are of them, but are they? The male gender suffers; poor chaps can’t even protest as it isn’t a masculine trait to show weakness. Women can complain, shed tears, howl their heart out and it reflects feminine traits. Mothers teach sons – boys don’t cry. Wives complain – Husbands are unemotional. Haven’t women successfully shackled men in a stereotypical image from birth?

Shouldn’t women be fighting for the male cause to bring in some emotional gender equality? Shall we start by being a bit more honest ? Lets discuss some of the things that women should do for themselves and the male gender on this women’s day.

1. Miss Goody Two Shoes

Men are convinced women are more principled, honest and virtuous than them. Women have done a wonderful job of personal brand building. Most haven’t got their hands dirty publicly. However, surveys say women participate equally in sexual harassment in offices and are showing increasing propensity to commit white collar crime as their ratios improve in the workforce. Moreover, they backbite, rumor monger, tattletale and indirectly bully more than men in offices. Women are more likely to use sex to get a promotion. Yes, some strategically decide to sleep with the boss to boost their careers.

Women play an equal role in making destructive management practices flourish in an organization and do not hesitate to use them for personal gain. Let us stop playing the blame game and take ownership to improve the work climate within our organizations.

2. Women’s Worst Enemies

Women undercut women. They make loud claims that male gender does not support them. However, women make bad bosses to junior women. Women ruin careers of aspiring young women to remove competition. They feel insecure if men give attention to a younger woman, hence damage the youngsters chances of succeeding. If a senior male wishes to harass a young female, he uses her female colleagues to do so to avoid sexual harassment charges.

While women target the men’s club for all the negative events happening to them, they fail to collaborate to form a women’s club. With 20-50% female workforce in offices, female leaders need to push for reforms in their offices that benefit the gender. Laying the blame on male CXOs door doesn’t absolve women leaders of their responsibilities.

3. The Sacrificing Souls

Women undersell themselves by portraying the picture of sacrificing souls. At every opportunity they lament about the difficulties of being a mother and a career women. Yes, they have to make sacrifices but so do men, specially single dads. It is difficult but stop crying about it all the time. As Gloria Steimen said- “I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.” 

Being successful is about managing different priorities effectively. Have you seen successful men or women incessantly talking about the same universal issue? Husband, kids and career are a woman’s personal choice, hence its an individual decision. No man or woman is going to get all three handed on a silver platter for all times. There is no point in attempting to win the corporate battle using these tactics.

Closing Thoughts

Fight the battle of equality on ethical and principled grounds, without playing the victim. Successful women don’t enact the damsel in distress routines while pointing fingers at others. Quit complaining and enjoy the colors of life. Be fair, be just and give both genders an equal chance of succeeding on merit and talent.

I know, women will be mad at me for writing this post.  But what to do, 90% of my readers are men .

Wishing all my readers a special women’s day and a happy Holi.

1 Jan 2012 – A New Begining

I am feeling on top of the world. This blog in its first full year got 51,556 page views. More than doubled from last year (11,299 page views in six months). I have nearly twisted my arm from patting myself on the back for being such an incredibly brilliant writer. With great difficulty I have managed to reign in my egoistic enthusiasm and have decided to be a humble Level 5 leader.

Sincerely, my heartfelt gratitude to all my readers, who came again and again, to read, comment and share my blog posts. For keeping silent when I floundered, and giving me constructive feedback and encouragement to continue learning and growing. I owe it to you all  to share the lessons I learnt in blogging this year. Before I declare the top 10 posts of the year, there are two stories I wanted to share with you.

1. The Audience

Writers give one solid piece of advise – “write for your audience”. For new bloggers, this amounts to asking them to be James Bond when they haven’t read a spy novel.  Nevertheless, since I decided in blogging world the faint hearted can’t succeed, I devised a strategy. My blogging aim was to share my knowledge and experience with the younger risk managers to make a positive difference in their work. So I wrote on topics that I felt passionate about and felt risk managers approach should change.

Six months down the line in June 2011 I got a shock on reviewing audience statistics. To my utter amazement most of my subscribers are in the age group of 44-64 years.

I had missed my target group entirely. I realized most of my readers are more experienced than me. Phew, that discovery was very nerve wrecking. Gen Y seems to be reading entirely different topics. Since I already have over 300 Gen X and Boomers subscribers, I have changed my strategy and will continue to write topics for them. Lesson learnt was do better market research to match products with your own skill set. By the way, are any of my subscribers single men over 44 years of age?

Resolution for the year: Understand audience tastes better. Reading Only.

2. The Blogging Etiquette

Another advise given is be careful what you write on the blog, in the internet world all is visible. Ha, have you every heard of a risk management blog going viral. With my first few subscribers, I was hardly worried.

Till it suddenly dawned on me, my ex colleagues, bosses and clients were following my blog. None of them informed me, as they quietly used Risky Secretive Subscribers (RSS) feed. Have you ever imagined what you will feel when all your bosses, boy-friends and the not so friendly guys all are in one room. Here, they are not only in one room, they are invisible to each other and me.

Sob, sob, sob. I identified a couple of my posts where I had nicely put my foot in my delicate mouth. Wondered seriously, should I continue to chew the nails of my toes, or take my foot out and put my fingers inside my mouth.  Political correctness was never my strong point, but this. Me, the poor little baby.

Resolution for the year : Be politically correct. Seriously.

3. The Good Posts

As is the blogging tradition, I shall list down the top posts for the past year. Surprisingly, some of my 2010 are still going great guns. So, here are the top five from each year. Hope you enjoyed them.

2011

1. Key Performance Indicators for GRC Departments

2. Rs 300 crore CitiBank Fraud

3. Fraud Symptom 5 – Insufficient focus on Organization Culture and Processes

4. Enterprise Risk Management V/s Strategic Risk Management

5. Reflections on Definition of Corporate Governance in India

2010

1.  Impact of Organization Culture on Internal Controls

2.  Deviant Organization Culture

3.  Pre-employment Background Screening Verification Program

4.  Risk Management Strategy of Virgin Group

5.  Mother Teresa – An Inspiration for Social Responsibility

Resolution for the year: Write only good quality posts.

Wishing You A Very Happy New Year

Finally, once again a big thank you to all my readers. This song is my tribute to all of you. May our relationship grow and prosper in this year. And you enjoy the journey as much as I do.

Hope you are successful in achieving all your ethical dreams in 2012.

Best wishes,

Sonia

Risks of Living

When I started specializing in fraud investigations, my fellow chartered accountants gave me sane and sensible advice – You are a chartered accountant, why not follow the regular path of aiming to become a Chief Financial Officer? There are so few women in financial crime, it is dangerous field, why get into it?

Aha, toe the line, join the rat race. Do what everyone else does. In an Indian woman’s case it is – marry early, obey your husband, have kids, raise kids, maybe have a job if husband permits, earn less than your husband, look after in-laws and relatives, gossip about neighbors, run a good house, buy expensive gadgets and household items to show off to neighbors and spend your spare time shopping. Break this norm and the society gathers quickly to pass judgments

Problem was I couldn’t ever see myself doing most of it. Tried some of it, was good at some, failed miserably at others. I decided I have one life; I want to do what I am passionate about. Bill McKenna’s philosophy of life appealed to me completely:

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting GERONIMO!” – Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer (as quoted in Cycle magazine, Feb. 1982)

 God bless Steve Jobs, he showed us that one could live with McKenna’s ideas in the corporate world. Steve inspired me, as a person, a creative thinker and a CEO who came back to win. He was fighter at heart, whether life threw him professional or personal challenges. My mom died of cancer when I was seventeen, so I understood the losing battle he fought valiantly with cancer. He inspired many; earned respect of millions and even his competitors said hats off to him. What an incredible legacy to leave behind in such a short life. Maybe, because he understood it early on. He had said -

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed saying we’ve done something wonderful … that matters to me”

In the decades to come, no one will remember his bank balance and assets. World will remember him for changing the technological landscape, for his innovations, for his products and for his ideas.

How many of us really get that? We carry on doing everything for money. My father had given just one advice when I started my career. He had said –

“Never work for money. If you are passionate about your area of expertise, you will excel in it. Money and position will follow. If you do a job for the money, your heart won’t be in it, and it will lead you nowhere. Whenever a decision is made solely for money, it is generally wrong.”

Thankfully, I understood what he meant very early in my career. I focused on learning new skills, trying out different approaches and sticking my head out without doing the corporate CYA. Got burnt, beaten and trashed, but it was all worth it.

My curiosity remains, why are so scared to be a bull in the China shop? Why is it considered breaking social norms and corporate behavior when someone rocks the boat big time? Maybe we need to keep Steve’s message in our hearts that he gave in the advertising campaign in 1997.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers…because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do”

Shouldn’t we stop being petrified of living our lives, sharing our thoughts and being ourselves? Why do we give up a battle we care about without even trying? Even in boxing, the boxer who topples the world champion isn’t the one who is the strongest, fastest or most technically competent. The boxer is the one who took the biggest beating of his life and remained standing.

Maybe all we need is the capacity to take that beating life gives us. I have sometimes fallen from cloud nine and licked dust. Started with complaining to God for being so unfair and then spent time moaning and groaning. Then stood up on my feet, dusted my knees and giggled. Promised myself it would be the last time, but then something irresistible came along, and ended up doing the same thing again. All my risk management fails when I want to live life.

So, my weekend musings is – why are we so focused on mitigating the risks of life that we stop living? Come to think of it, what are the risks of living?

Auditors and Accountants – Humor

The weekend is starting and here are some jokes that I found on auditors and accountants. Hope you enjoy them.

1.  What did the auditor say at the vampire stock take?  Count Dracula

2.   Did you hear about the cannibal Audit practice? They charge an arm and a leg.

3.  What do cannibal auditors do after their Office Christmas Dinner ? Toast their clients

4.   If an accountant’s wife cannot sleep, what does she say? “Darling, could you tell me about your work”

5.  A guy in a bar leans over to the guy next to him and says, “Want to hear an accountant joke?” The guy next to him replies, “Well, before you tell that joke, you should know that I m 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, and I m an accountant. And the guy sitting next to me is 6 2″ tall, 225 pounds, and he’s an accountant. Now, do you still want to tell that joke?” The first guy says, “No, I don’t want to have to explain it two times.

6.  A patient was at her doctor’s office after undergoing a complete physical exam. The doctor said, “I have some very grave news for you. You only have six months to live.” The patient asked, “Oh doctor, what should I do?” The doctor replied, “Marry an accountant.” “Will that make me live longer?” asked the patient. “No,” said the doctor, “but it will SEEM longer.”

7.    A young accountant spends a week at his new office with the retiring accountant he is replacing. Each and every morning as the more experienced accountant begins the day, he opens his desk drawer, takes out a worn envelope, removes a yellowing sheet of paper, reads it, nods his head, looks around the room with renewed vigor, returns the envelope to the drawer, and then begins his day’s work. After he retires, the new accountant can hardly wait to read for himself the message contained in the envelope in the drawer, particularly since he feels so inadequate in replacing the far wiser and more highly esteemed accountant. Surely, he thinks to himself, it must contain the great secret to his success, a wondrous treasure of inspiration and motivation. His fingers tremble anxiously as he removes the mysterious envelope from the drawer and reads the following message: “Debits in the column towards the file cabinet. Credits in the column toward the window.”

Have a great weekend and hope it refreshes you for Monday’s work and meetings.

References:

1. The Alternative Accountant.

2.  Funny Jokes

CEO’s Day Out With Risk Managers

CEO’s responsibility for risk management has increased after the financial crises. Risk managers wish that they could read a CEO’s thoughts when they have meetings to do a better job. The big question is – What is really going on in a CEO’s mind?

Here is some telepathy from a CEO on his day scheduled to meet his risk management teams.

9 a.m.: Head of Internal Audit

This is going to be a long day. Let me understand what internal audit team has done the past month. After having three meetings with them I still don’t have the hang of things.

They carry on talking of ERM, ISO 31000, COSO, GRC and a number of other jargons. I don’t have the slightest idea how these will help meet the strategic objectives of the company.

Last time I asked a simple question – “is the organization SOX compliant?” I received a long explanation of the “C” of GRC standing for compliance or internal audit. How do I give a damn? Why can’t they respond with a simple yes or no?

Let it be, the regulators are not knocking at the door, so the team must have taken care of it. The CFO can deal with them.

11 a.m.: Head of Fraud

Oh no, whenever I see this man’s face I break into a cold sweat. He is always delivering one bad news one after another. I can’t take this anymore.

Maybe, I will put his beautiful deputy as the head of the department; at least my heart will race for the right reasons. Stop! That deputy is head of recently formed sexual harassment committee. My fate will be worse than Mark’s. Poor chap. One small indiscretion and the whole roof crashes. CEO’s are not God, why don’t they get it.

I hope this man has everything in control. I hate that competitor’s CEO, but didn’t wish that massive fraud on him. The market price of his company went down by 10% in 5 days and he is not going to meet his targets this year. If something like this occurs here, what will happen to my bonus and stock options?

1 p.m.: Lunch with Physical Security team

It is nice to have lunch with an energetic team. With terrorism and crime, increasing each organization needs these men.

Hey, wait a minute, why are they describing the gruesome details of the recent terrorist attack at lunch. How can they talk about bombs, blood and food in the same breath? When that man was eating the strawberry, I for a minute thought he was swallowing raw liver. Something is wrong with their psyche. Can’t say that to them. I am in my 50’s.

Never mind, they keep the offices and premises secure. Better, pat them on the back for doing a good job.

2.30 p.m.: Head of Business Ethics

Hold on, I got distracted there. What is he saying? He has turned vegan and now he wants me to issue some orders about the non-vegetarian food served in the canteen.  Aha, something about animal fat oil used to cook vegetarian food.  I don’t even know the name of the oil used at my home and he expects me to worry about office canteen food!

What is wrong with this man? Next, he will be talking about having morning prayers in office.

3.30 p.m.: Head of Information Security  

I wonder if his team is reading my mails. Last week when I passed his two confidantes, they were sniggering. That fiasco occurred the same day. Maybe I should get some external consultants to check it. What is the use? The systems are in these guys’ hands, they will again revert to reading my mails. I just hope they don’t leak out confidential information to competitors or have someone hack the systems. With the hackers targeting all big companies, I can’t stop worrying.

 4.30 p.m.: Chief Risk Officer

Welcome, the master of them all! Last week when I crossed him in the corridors, he didn’t wish me. Nowadays he has a frozen look on his face. Completely expressionless ! Maybe dealing with all the bad news is getting to him.

No, wait a minute, why does he have a condensing look on his face. Maybe I have got this wrong. Previously he used to bow in respect, treat me like God. Now he ignores me. Oh, he knows more about what is wrong with the company than I do. I am dependent on him and he gets that. I can’t even fire him without board permission.

I will have to figure out how to set him right.

5.30 p.m.: Day-end

 Thank God, the day is over. I still haven’t figured out how to deal with the Board’s Risk Management Committee. Last month I could pull of the excuse that my throat was bad due to flu and didn’t say much. These risk managers did all the talking. What do I do this month?

If Vikram had managed Citi better, I wouldn’t have to swallow this bitter pill every month. Now CEOs are responsible for risk management and Vikram takes away a cool $200 million payout for all the trouble he has caused us.

What an odd bunch to deal with. At least they are off my back for 30 days. I will just keep my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong meanwhile.

I need a couple of drinks tonight.

Communicating to Bore Audience to Death – Come Join the Club.

One of the perks of an auditing career is that one can write boring and dry reports. Despite this, stakeholders still read every line of the report to see what is at risk, and how it affects their business. I call it a perk, since in this information age the probability of anyone reading a completely boring 50-page report or presentation is very low. Auditors have the privilege of writing them and repeatedly issuing them to an audience that never ignores the report.

 I as an auditor can give you various explanations on why auditorville try and put their audience to sleep without using any sedatives. Besides being caring citizens and do-gooders (at least we like to think so) to reduce insomnia amongst business managers, we write long pointless boring reports because our respective institutes guidelines say so. Now don’t ask me for evidence on this statement, it is an unwritten rule and accepted social etiquette of auditors. We believe our stakeholders should appreciate us for our tenacity to write such reports.

An Auditors Audience Courtesy visualphotos.com

On issuing the report, we choose to give a 30 slides presentation on the same in a monotone. This again is inspired by our charitable nature. Within 5 minutes of our presentation, nothing registers with the audience, some give glazed and blank looks while others nod off. This ensures that our presentation does not cause undue stress to our stakeholders and we do not have to provide emergency medical treatment to senior people. In case anyone shows interest and asks questions, we use mindboggling technical jargon to cause confusion and ensure inattentiveness in future. We feel entitled to use PowerPoint to use our “power” to make “pointless” presentations.

After issuing the report and giving the presentation, amongst auditorville we pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. So what if CXOs are left scratching their heads trying to figure out what we were trying to say in the lengthy presentation. Why should auditors tell CXOs in five minutes or two sentences what the main points are and how they should be mitigating risks? Do the CXOs expect us to sacrifice our sense of entitlement in boring them to death and not crib about them?

Come on now, admit it, as an auditor sometime in your career, you have done this. Some of us do it without realizing what we are doing and understanding our stakeholders expectations. We are prone to this as we rarely take feedback from other readers.

I realized that I was addicted to writing a thesis when I started this blog. I wrote a few articles, and then joined a Writers Forum on LinkedIn. I thought it would be a good idea to ask experienced writers viewpoint on the articles. Wow, did I get feedback. It ranged from “your blog post reads like a research paper” to “subject matter experts write technical jargon which normal readers won’t read, please use a ghost writer”. Some kindly suggested that they are willing to train me to write a blog post. Their points were valid and I wondered whether it was a good idea to hide under the writing-table. But, being a true battle hardened auditor I gained solace and comfort from other risk management bloggers. They were writing in the same style and tone. Yippee!

I know it is disheartening to hear that these mere earthlings don’t understand our superior technical knowledge. Some bosses are rude enough to advise us that we take help of the communication team in the organization. Now how can auditors with their sensitive and confidential information rely upon a communication manager? Either ways, communication team is only experienced in writing poetry and jingles. Auditors are a breed apart.

Now with my serious-concentrating-furrowed-auditor look I would like to tell you the main observation and recommendation.

Observation

Auditors spend 40% of their project time in documentation, writing reports and giving presentations. However, it has been noticed that communication skills are an auditor’s weakest link. Without the ability to effectively communicate, auditors are unable to influence stakeholders and get their buy-in. Hence, the audit recommendations do not get the desired attention.

Recommendation

We suggest that organization should provide auditors required training in verbal and written communication skills to address this drawback.

Sounded familiar, didn’t it. Where do you think we are going wrong? Any ideas?

Happy Holi

 

Wishing all my readers

A Happy Holi.

Hope your life is filled with colours this spring.

  

Warm Regards,

Sonia

  

Image Courtesy: 24indnews.blogspot.com  

 

Subscribe to my Facebook Page RiskBoard Community

Dear Readers,

I had launched the RiskBoard Facebook Page sometime back and it has slowly picked up. Besides posting this blog’s information, I link various interesting articles of other bloggers. I have today put a number of articles of the bloggers whom I normally read and find useful content from a few perspectives.

I request you to have a look and if you like the page please subscribe. Here is the link :

RiskBoard Community

Riskboard Community Fanpage

Feel free to send me a friendship invite. You can also follow me on twitter @soniajaspal68.

All the links for my social network are available on the blog. Look forward to interacting with you more frequently.

Best wishes,

Sonia

Risks at Christmas Time

It was Christmas yesterday and everybody is in a holiday mood. I don’t think any serious work will be done until New Year. I hope all of you are having a great time and enjoying yourself thoroughly. I am not going to put the regular corporate risks on this weekend post. Holidays and the partying bring different risks altogether. Therefore, here are some interesting posts about it.

The first is from Risk Management Monitor in which Jared Wade is discussing the risk mitigation plans Santa Claus had implemented to deal with the Christmas workload.

Christmas season is celebrated by giving gifts to your loved ones, friends and colleagues. Sometimes the choice is difficult since one doesn’t know the personal tastes. Moreover, you really-really want the receiver to like your gift. So the unique ones are remembered and cherished. Employees of AlixPartners received an unusual gift from their client Cerbus Capital Management’s Remington Arms. AlixPartners employees could buy rifles and shotguns at a 33% discount. The new way of celebrating the spirit of generosity and kindness of Christmas is by gifting arms and ammunition.

The holiday season has one aspect that sometimes has significant repercussions in life. With all the attraction available at parties, it is easy to fall in love, have a fling and find someone oh so irresistible. Some are smitten enough to marry quickly. A few of these married spouses later wonder why they got married in the first place. It is all right for normal folks to make these mistakes. But not the CEO’s. Finally, there is something, which common folks can do wrong and get away with, and CEOs are not so lucky. Here is an article describing the CEO’s divorce as a corporate risk. Why?  The CEOs financials earnings and assets are disclosed in divorce cases. Public and regulators start asking questions on the information available and corporate brand image suffers.

Enjoy the stories below by clicking on the headings.

1.     Managing Risk at the North Pole (via Risk Management Monitor)

It looks like Santa has been busy trying to improve his risk management this year. There are a lot of threats and just like all companies, Santa’s Workshop is not immune to new-age concerns. Given his giant list of who is naughty and who is nice, for example, he fears that a security breach that exposes his billions of person records could bring crippling lawsuits.

Santa Claus has announced the appointment of a Christmas Risk Officer (CRO) as part of a coordinated plan to maintain resilience at Grotto SE, the North Pole based toy manufacturing plant, as well as Claus’ flying sledge-based global distribution facility.

The new CRO, Mrs Santa Claus, is believed to be unhappy about the appointment but accepts that someone has to do it if clients’ confidence in Christmas is to be retained.

Grotto insiders told lloyds.com that the move to appoint a CRO was prompted by the Icelandic ash cloud that caused massive business interruption problems earlier this year, particularly for North European businesses. Sources also say that, in line with other big company CEOs, Santa Claus is also increasingly concerned about linked risks to do with brand and reputation, as well data security.

Hopefully this, as well as other new risk management initiatives from the Clauses, will help ensure you all get your toys, TVs and tubesocks this year.

2.         The Gift of Guns, Courtesy of Cerberus ( via Deal Book New York Times)

For employees of AlixPartners, finding a last-minute holiday gift may have gotten a little easier.

Thanks to some holiday generosity from a client, Cerberus Capital Management’s Remington Arms, staff members at the consultancy can choose from an array of rifles and shotguns — with a 33 percent discount.

In an internal memorandum obtained by DealBook, an AlixPartners director, Ralf Schwarzendahl, informed employees that Remington has opened up its “friends and family” discount program to the firm. (Other companies that work closely with the gun maker have also been extended the offer.)

The attached flier noted that the offer applied to about 91 bolt-action rifles, repeating shotguns and .22 caliber rimfire rifles. Free shipping? Naturally — but, as Mr. Schwarzendahl says, employees still have to pay the federal transfer fee that some dealers charge. The program began on Dec. 8 and runs through Jan. 19.

“AlixPartners takes discretion very seriously and, generally, does not comment on matters of this sort,” said a spokesman for the consulting firm.

3.   Is your divorce a corporate risk? (Via Mail Guardian Online)

There’s only one thing more fascinating than a celebrity marriage, and that’s a celebrity divorce. Particularly when it’s messy, vituperative and, yes, expensive.

But it’s when we think of divorce as a corporate risk that it takes on another whole dimension and provides cautionary tales to give CEOs nightmares. It may be bad enough that the dirty laundry of CEOs is aired in public, but the whole process can cause a chain of complex reactions: damage to company brand; shareholders asking questions, which can ultimately benefit the public but not necessarily the company; and the tricky financial fall-out of some truly convoluted deals.

Not to mention how the hits a company takes may affect the average employee.

Take Elon Musk’s divorce from his wife Justine, for example.

Musk ploughed most of his own money into Tesla, off the back of his sales of Zip2 and PayPal to Compaq and eBay respectively. Tesla has been his ‘baby’ in a certain sense — his electric car venture has consumed him. He netted $48-million in income investments between 2005 and 2008, which were sunk back into Tesla and SpaceX, a space exploration concern. But court filings brought his cash-flow problems to light, revealing he was living off personal loans from friends since October 2009.

Tesla also had cash-flow problems and had borrowed from the United States government (a cool $465-million in low-interest loans) through a Department of Energy loan programme.

At the time, Tesla was looking to go the IPO route — but the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pored over Musk’s personal financial affairs, asking whether Tesla was forthright enough in its filings regarding how his impending divorce would affect the company’s bottom line. Tesla was relying heavily on Musk’s continued financial interest in his entrepreneurial venture, reimbursing him for his private jet flights in return, as well as awarding him 6,7-million stock options in December 2009.

I hope you enjoyed the posts this year. I am taking this week off and I will see you all next year.

Wishing all my readers Happy Holidays. I hope all of us get to welcome 2011 with a lot of joy and serenity.

Best Wishes,

Sonia

If I Were An Auditor

I am dedicating the song “If I were an auditor” to all the auditors who are working overtime and weekends to finalize financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2010. Audit life is tough, involves a whole lot of hard work and sacrifices, including from family and friends. Just remember your better halves and thank them for their continuous support and love. There is another life waiting for you after the year-end.

Have fun and a nice weekend.

Sonia