People in H&S: Al Cardone "..Achievement, learning and fun";

              PEOPLE IN H&S AlCardone
"...achievement, learning and fun
'My decision to join Haskins & Sells took
about ten seconds" says New York office
partner Albert A. Cardone, "and in the
fourteen years I've been with the Firm,
I've never regretted that decision'.'
The year was 1959. It was a Friday
afternoon in the spring. First Lieutenant
Al Cardone was scheduled for discharge
from active service in the Marine Corps
shortly and had taken a week's leave for
interviews at accounting firms in New
York City. "I was looking for a firm that
would provide the same kind of
leadership that I respected and was used
to in the Marine Corps" Al recalls. "I was
married and we were expecting our first
child in about three months, so I just
didn't have the time for lengthy
deliberations. The partners who
interviewed me that day were Frank
Fields and Walter Ruschmeyer, and right
away I felt that they were the kind of
professional people that I wanted to
work with. After we had talked awhile, I
was offered a position with the Firm and
they asked me to think about it, which I
did.. .for about ten seconds. And almost
like an extension of that first meeting,
the people I've been associated with over
the years have been outstanding!'
Al Cardone was born in Brooklyn, which
is only a short subway ride away from
the New York office at Two Broadway.
His father was a painting contractor and
the family also ran a retail paint and
hardware business. He was "raised in
the business" and drawn to the
accounting profession because of it. "At
an early age I developed a respect for the
ability of the accountant who handled
our business affairs. He left the
impression that he had the highest type
of professionalism; that he could become
expert in the intricacies of our business
and speak knowledgeably about our
business and many other kinds of
businesses. So I never had a problem as
far as the selection of a
profession went'.'
Al's first six and a half years with the
Firm provided what he calls "highly
diversified experience with hospitals
and other non-profit organizations,
commercial companies and banks!' He
believes that this experience was
especially beneficial because of the
unusual manner in which he acquired it.
'Rather than 'round robin' type experience
of auditing several clients in different
industries for several months each
during a year," says Al, "my assignments
were with clients who required
continuous services for extended periods.
Thus I spent almost three years
continuously on the Memorial Hospital
for Cancer and Allied Diseases
engagement performing, in addition to
the basic audits, cost studies and other
MAS type services. My assignment as
the senior on Cluett Peabody &
Company similarly extended beyond the
basic audits to include audits of
prospective acquisitions and SEC
registrations that occupied most of my
time for two years. Finally, my experience
in the banking industry as senior on the
Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company
engagement coincided with the SEC
requirements for public disclosure of
banks' financial statements. So what was
planned as my summer job turned into a
continuous year-round assignment.
T believe the knowledge I acquired of an
industry's practices and problems
through such experience has been
invaluable to me. I often compare my
experience to that of our young
accountants who are concerned when
they are assigned to a client requiring
our services for an extended time. I
believe such an assignment helps them
acquire expertise in an industry during
the formative stage of their career, and
it should be viewed as a challenge. I
believe that acceptance of that challenge
with enthusiasm, rather than
apprehension, is a sure formula for
success in these changing and
complex times."
Al was appointed principal in 1966, the
year Medicare began. Because of the
New York office's heavy involvement
with hospitals, Al concentrated much of
his attention on that field, working
directly with clients and auditing cost
reports required under the Medicare and
Blue Cross programs.
As a result of the Medicare program,
enormous attention was directed toward
the hospital industry's accounting and
reporting practices and, in particular,
the need for cost reduction because of
rising hospital costs. With the increased
need for high level expertise in the health
care field, Al found himself more and
more involved, both on and off the job,
working with the Hospital Financial
Management Association, and the Health
Care Institutions Committee of the New
York State Society of CPAs. He is now
chairman of that committee, and also
serves on the American Institute's
Committee on Health Care Institutions,
the committee that formulated the
Hospital Audit Guide.
In 1967 he presented a paper entitled
Medicare —Highlights of the Audit of
Provider's Cost Statement before the
technical session of the New York State
Society. It later appeared in the Society
publication.
In 1969 and 1970, at the request of our
client, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, Al became a member of a
cost and cost analysis subcommittee of
the Task Force on Automated
Multiphasic Health Testing and Services
organized by the National Center for
Health Services Research and
Development. Because of his expertise in
the health care field, Al has been a
frequent speaker before various chapters
of the Hospital Financial Management
Association throughout the country, and
other groups such as the Greater New
York Hospital Association and the United
Hospital Fund.
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