SALY
A short title, yes. But, it’s a short title with big implications.
What is SALY?
SALY is not the name of your sister, mother, wife, or girlfriend. After all, it’s not even spelled correctly.
SALY is simple: It stands for Same As Last Year.
Where did SALY Come From?
SALY is a term I came across ages ago when I was discharging my duties as a CPA. I was privileged to work with a firm called Coopers & Lybrand – a Big Eight firm. Back in the day (shall we say, the late 1980s), there were eight large, national accounting firms.
Let me see if I can remember them:
- Coopers & Lybrand (now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers)
- Pricewaterhouse (now part of … you guessed it)
- Peat Marwick Mitchell & Company (now part of KPMG)
- Ernst & Whinney (now part of Ernst & Young)
- Deloitte, Haskins, and Sells (now Deloitte)
- Arthur Anderson (politically exterminated by the government after a bad audit)
- Arthur Young (now part of Ernst & Young)
- Touche Ross (would become part of Deloitte & Touche)
Back to SALY
Anyway, from my experience, the audit teams I served on at Coopers & Lybrand did excellent work. All of the associates, senior associates, managers, and partners were exceptional. The approach? Beat up the balance sheet and do flux (fluctuation) analysis on the P & L (Profit & Loss).
As an auditor, your general expectation was that account balances should be fairly comparable to the prior year. This would give the auditor “comfort” that the client’s accounting was at least consistent.
And since accounting is the language of business, it stood to reason that the underlying economics of the business were the same. So, the idea was (and is) that things pretty much just inch along.
And so SALY was an acrostic. SALY was to suggest that things looked “normal.” As an auditor, SALY became synonymous with everything appears OK. If the balance sheet accounts were solid and supported, and fluctuations or account changes were SALY, then these were indicators that things seemed normal.
And as I would later learn, SALY wasn’t necessarily a term indigenous to Coopers & Lybrand: It represented the general state of things in business.
How Do You Feel About SALY?
You, the reader, might be an entrepreneur in a recent start up. Or, you might be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Whatever the case, ask yourself the following questions:
- Looking back on this past year, do things appear SALY?
- A year from now, will things be SALY again?
- Do you really want SALY for the business or organization that you work in, oversee, steward, etc.?
If you are an entrepreneur and you need your company to make more money, the answer to the preceding questions is probably no. And, if you are the CEO of a publicly-traded Fortune 500 company, your board of directors and shareholders would also probably tell you no.
SALY as and is the Default
You see, at Blue Elevator™, we don’t like SALY. Unless, of course, SALY represents year after year of big increases in revenue and profit.
Because, if you aren’t involved in the rigorous process of Innovate™, Accelerate™, and Replicate™, your SALY will likely be the same as the PYR (another short form word us auditors use for “Prior Year”).
The reason? Just ask The Blue Elevator™ Group clients – and they will tell you. Every business is headed towards a plateau. And, a plateau is just another name for SALY.
The Blue Elevator™ Group clients will also tell you that just a hint of SALY means that you are already headed for that inevitable and eventual decline.
Say Goodbye to SALY
At Blue Elevator™, we help business owners at all levels say goodbye to SALY.
Let us help you walk through your own version of Innovate™, Accelerate™, and Replicate™. These words are generalized, but the approach never is.
All businesses, organizations, and leadership teams are as unique as the industries and the personalities involved. Accordingly, all of our advisory is custom and collaborative. But, most importantly, it is actionable.
Contact us and, God willing, let us help you say goodbye to SALY!
NOV
About the Author:
Ken Moll is the Principal and Founder of Blue Elevator®. With professional experience spanning four decades, Ken has a breadth of foundational business knowledge rarely found – making him part of an elite class of professionals. Ken's passion is helping clients of Blue Elevator® get their “business to the next level™.”