During a very rocky period for the financial sector there has been a significant change in the emphasis of many company’s corporate message. The idea that honesty is the best policy is certainly back in fashion. The media repeatedly picks up on the fact that the public’s faith in the banking sector and the ‘big buck bankers’ has dramatically fallen but the change is certainly much, much bigger than that. Whereas the everyday consumer and bank saver may have lost some money through skeptical investments and/or lost trust in banks for paying their ‘elite’ huge bonuses throughout the bust period, businesses have been the unmentioned victims through all of this.

Of course, people know about the businesses and companies which have been weeded out throughout the recession but what’s often forgotten is the effect on those who are left. The impact has been huge, from companies frantically chasing debtors who would have otherwise been trusted ‘friends’ to companies desperately needing to streamline their finances to keep themselves in the green. The role of the honest accountant has never been more important.

Accountants have been hired and fired like crazy during the recession and the good ones, believe it or not, are doing rather well out of the national crisis. This is not to demonise them though, as the ‘good’ accountants are some of the few people who will turn the recession around!

To return to a point I made earlier - “honesty is the best policy” - the reputation of a company, especially with regards to their financial stability and capability has never been more important. I can speak from personal experience when I say that nowadays, if I don’t trust a company to put 100% of the money they should, where their mouth is, I’m simply not interested. Behind the scenes the accountants of firms can make or break their reputation within an industry. In fact the ‘PR Guys’ can’t do anything to change this image, it’s not a matter of marketing and advertising, or even presence within the industry, it comes down to timely experience and case-proven efficiency by a company. This is one of the reasons that companies are increasingly scrutinising their accountants and perhaps employing more/better staff to their team.

I’ve only given a very brief overview of how I perceive the current situation with regards to the financial sector and the impact of reputation and ‘honesty’. There are many important things to consider going on in the finance industry at the moment, but I’ve done my best to cut it down to something digestible.

This article was written by Johnny Smith - a platinum member of the EZine community.

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