A Guest Post From Professor Bob Graff: The Search For Value
By Francine • Jan 11th, 2010The second in a series of articles by Professor Bob Graff a retired PricewaterhouseCoopers partner living in South Korea.
Archive for the ‘Audit Firm Management’ Category
The Problem With Value: Professor Bob Graff
By Francine • Dec 24th, 2009Bob Graff is a retired PricewaterhouseCoopers partner living in South Korea. This guest post was written exclusively for re: The Auditors.
Veteran’s Day In PwC Advisory: Say Auf Wiedersehen
By Francine • Nov 2nd, 2009New US Advisory Leader, Dana McIlwain laid out the bad news: The time has come to cut. Average utilization is hovering at 69%. Cash collections are millions short. Campus recruiting for Advisory has been stopped cold. Business sucks and then there’s the 800+ BearingPoint folks to absorb. On November 11th the rank and file partners, fortified after training and coaching by HR via a webcast in the next few days, will chop 300+ professionals from PwC Advisory…
Zombies Among Us: The Mainstream Media and Financial Journalism
By Francine • Oct 31st, 2009Whatever I do now, it’s in service to my desire to write. If I work for pay, whether as a consultant or a paid speaker, the objective is to earn enough to be able to write. For someone who wants to be a freelance writer, potentially paid by the media organizations who I’m accusing of not stepping up to cover the audit firms in a critical manner, I’ve sure slammed those same publications often enough.
It’s a long list.
@Going Concern “Birds On A Wire: How Do The Firms Get The Word Out?”
By Francine • Oct 7th, 2009My new post is up @Going Concern
“…I’ve been ruminating about these global engagements and the new organizational structures. I’ve also been thinking about the communication approaches these firms use when a crisis hits. What was the reaction of the PwC partners last December when Satyam’s CEO confessed? PwC has its hands all over many of [...]
Auditing Standard 5: How Now, Brown Cow?
By Francine • Oct 3rd, 2009On September 24, 2009 the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued a report on the first year of implementation of Auditing Standard No. 5. There’s something negative to say about each of the components reviewed.
@Going Concern “Can I Have Your Autograph?”
By Francine • Sep 30th, 2009My new post is up @Going Concern.
“The PCAOB approved Auditing Standard No. 7, Engagement Quality Review on July 28, 2009. They also issued a Concept Release on requiring the engagement partner to sign the audit report. The comment period closed September 11th and boy oh boy were there a lot of comments. The firms came [...]
McKenna On Auditor Litigation: Securities Docket’s Mid-Year Update and Schein v. EY
By Francine • Jul 11th, 2009Last Thursday I participated in the “2009 Mid-Year Review – Securities Litigation and Enforcement” sponsored by Securities Docket. The webcast is part of BrightTalk’s Securities Litigation Summit, and follows-up and provides an update to the popular “2008 Year in Review” we presented in January 2009.
I joined several of the leading bloggers in the securities litigation [...]
BDO International – Yellow Card or Red Flag?
By Francine • May 20th, 2009If you’ve been reading me for a while, you know that I pretty much stick to discussing the largest 4 audit/accounting firms. This is for practical reasons – keeping my sanity in dealing with so much information – and to be realistic. Put the three next tier firms in the US together and they don’t equal either the critical mass in terms of experience and infrastructure nor the client/revenue base of any one of the Big 4. They will never, either individually or collectively, be able to step up and absorb the detritus from another Big 4 firm failure, either in the US or out.
That doesn’t mean the next tier don’t serve the clients they have well. Mostly. Just means that the next tier are not ready to play in the same pitch as Ronaldo.
What I’d Do: Part 2 – First We Focus On The Client
By Francine • Apr 13th, 2009What can the audit firms do to improve scrutiny of public companies – especially the ones governments have invested so much taxpayer money in – now when we need it the most? Can it be done? I think so. Starting at the top, at a strategic level, I recommend first that firms make significant changes by refocusing on their true client – the shareholders and investors of the public companies they audit.
Francine McKenna (@retheauditors) has more than twenty years of experience in consulting and professional services including tenure at two Big 4 firms, both in the US and abroad. For more info, check the "About" page.