When Smith took over in 2008, TurboTax was a market leader, but only a small portion of Americans filed their taxes online. Intuit’s QuickBooks accounting product remains a steady moneymaker, but in the past two decades TurboTax, its tax preparation product, has driven the company’s steadily growing profits and made it a Wall Street phenom. The company stresses values above all, urging employees to “deliver awesome” and pursue “integrity without compromise.” Get Our Top InvestigationsĮmail address This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
In a recent Super Bowl ad, Intuit portrayed itself as a gentle robot that liberates small-business owners from paperwork. Over time, the company, like the other giants of Big Tech, cultivated an image of being not just good at what it did, but good, period.
Intuit began in the 1980s as an accounting software company focused on helping people with their bookkeeping. The two posed for pictures, Simmons clad in black and the beaming CEO flashing the “rock on” hand sign. To Smith’s delight, his favorite rock star, Gene Simmons of Kiss, emerged. There, Smith arrived at his party in a DeLorean, and as he walked a red carpet, cheering employees waved “Brad is Rad” signs. Fittingly, the tour culminated in San Diego, the home of TurboTax, the software that transformed the company’s fortunes. In Ontario, employees wore T-shirts with Smith’s quasi-spiritual sayings: “Do whatever makes your heart beat fastest” and “Repetition doesn’t ruin the prayer.” In Bangalore, India, workers put on Smith face masks as they posed for selfies with the man himself. Smith had presided over 11 years of explosive growth, a period when Intuit had secured its place in the Silicon Valley pantheon, and the tour was like a long party.
Last fall, Intuit’s longtime CEO Brad Smith embarked on a farewell tour of the company’s offices around the world. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. Fidelity disclaims any liability arising out of your use (or the results obtained from, interpretations made as a result of, or any tax position taken in reliance on information provided pursuant to, your use) of these Intuit software products or the information or content furnished by Intuit.ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Fidelity does not make any warranties with regard to the information, content or software products or the results obtained by their use. Fidelity cannot guarantee that the information and content supplied is accurate, complete, or timely, or that the software products provided produce accurate and/or complete results. Intuit is solely responsible for the information, content and software products provided by Intuit. Intuit is not affiliated with Fidelity Brokerage Services (FBS) or their affiliates. in the United States and other countries and are used with permission. Intuit, the Intuit logo, TurboTax and TurboTax Online, among others, are registered trademarks and/or service marks of Intuit Inc.
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