When do sales incentives move from the realm of legal to the realm of the nefarious? When do company communications become so code-word laden as to demonstrate corrupt intent? Those were only a couple of questions which arose for me when reading an article in the Wall Street Journal that explored the revision of sales figures by the car manufacturer Fiat-Chrysler.
The article detailed the code words the company used when it wanted or needed to ramp up sales, usually at the end of a month or quarter. It would usually begin with an e-mail or con call from the “unnatural acts department” and was “meant to convey the urgency of drumming up last minute vehicle sales.” But was this simply a “way to rally dealers to meet objectives” or did it portend some more malicious such as stuffing the sales channel at the end of the month or quarter, then unwinding the sale at the beginning of the next accounting period, all to make the numbers look good?
