It's not every accounting conference that the attendees have a chance to come away with a bit of horticulture knowledge.
Speaking earlier this week to a crowd of CPAs, it wasn't statistics, or legalese, or accounting theory that Public Company Accounting Oversight Board member Charles Niemeier turned to in describing the problems at the root of the accounting environment. It was the mozo bamboo plant. And in making the case for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, it was the history of the automotive seat belt.
In fact, analogies frequently popped up in his presentation at the New York State Society of CPAs' annual Sarbanes-Oxley conference, which focuses on current developments in the law. Niemeier told the audience that the Southeast Asian bamboo plant can appear to lie dormant for up to five years, before growing as much as a foot a day and to more than 100 feet total.
The suddenness of that growth spurt is a bit deceptive though, he said. For much of those early years, the plant is developing a complex root system. It's only then that it has the foundation for its shoots to take off.
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