1) Whether or not people outside the accounting profession should use the acronym 'GAAP'.
2) Whether people use the term as jargon to help aggrandize their position.
I have no comment on point 2. On point 1, though, my position is the polar opposite of yours. Business people in general (and especially CEOs!) should understand the principles of accounting, the ways in which transactions are recorded etc. If they don't understand these things, how are they meant to understand their company's financial statements? If they can't understand their company's financial statements, how are they meant to manage the company?
BTW - I am also a qualified accountant, although this is not related to my current job. I feel so strongly about these issues, though, is that I periodically run an 'Intro to Accounting and Finance' course for interested colleagues, and have delivered similar training courses at other large tech companies in the past.
Actually I agree with your points, my comment was made in a rush and on reflection is full of hubris. My complaint was with the article which is attempting to define terms for newcomers not defining this term. I didn't mean non accountants shouldn't use the term, I meant that use of this term as an acronymn without definition in a definitions of things article seemed inappropriate.
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You're talking about two different issues:
1) Whether or not people outside the accounting profession should use the acronym 'GAAP'.
2) Whether people use the term as jargon to help aggrandize their position.
I have no comment on point 2. On point 1, though, my position is the polar opposite of yours. Business people in general (and especially CEOs!) should understand the principles of accounting, the ways in which transactions are recorded etc. If they don't understand these things, how are they meant to understand their company's financial statements? If they can't understand their company's financial statements, how are they meant to manage the company?
BTW - I am also a qualified accountant, although this is not related to my current job. I feel so strongly about these issues, though, is that I periodically run an 'Intro to Accounting and Finance' course for interested colleagues, and have delivered similar training courses at other large tech companies in the past.
Actually I agree with your points, my comment was made in a rush and on reflection is full of hubris. My complaint was with the article which is attempting to define terms for newcomers not defining this term. I didn't mean non accountants shouldn't use the term, I meant that use of this term as an acronymn without definition in a definitions of things article seemed inappropriate.