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You can read my stories here. This fall you can also see me talk about these stories live. And you can support my coverage of key conferences that will produce new stories about the audit firms and accounting profession.
This was originally posted Going Concern.com on August 12, 2009.
…there’s definitely collusion/shenanigans going on amongst the big 4 for compensation along with extending dates for promotions. Ratings manipulation is also going on along with unfair treatment of those that tried to go above and beyond….”
Both Deloitte and KPMG admitted last fall that job cuts [...]
There’s a great new update on the story of PwC’s cuts of more than 500 internal IT professionals in the Florida and Atlanta markets. It was written by Jeff Harrington at the St. Petersburg Times on Sunday August 8th. Harrington focuses primarily on the local impact of the cuts. He finds evidence that PwC promised [...]
In a move that was too big to hide, PricewaterhouseCoopers on Thursday cut between 500-800 professionals from its internal IT organization. Multiple sources are telling me the number is closer to 800. In any event, PwC admits, in an unprecedented press release, that there is no severance offered because they are giving professionals until the end of the year to find other jobs.
So many of you are no longer working for the Big 4 or next tier firms. Those of you who had a chance to stay long enough – not as common as in the past and more often not your choice these days – may be thinking about setting up your own shop. Whether it’s [...]
You may have been cut from one of the audit firms in the past several months. You may still be working but feeling a bit insecure. The cuts have been well documented here. Regardless of how much the firms and their cheerleaders try to diminish the significance of any individual action they’ve taken, they all add [...]
I think about the “one-firm firm” concept frequently. It’s an ideal that I can safely say all the Big 4 audit firms aspire to. And David Maister was the guru when I started in consulting in 1993 at KPMG Consulting. Later my mentor gave me his book, Managing Professional Services Firms, and I was hooked on the theory of professional services as well as the practice. So much has changed even in my professional life, which only goes back to the early 80’s. Front and center are the threats to the global network of all the firms and the focus on aggressive growth while diluting the partnership culture of the firms by perverting their compensation structure. Partner performance assessment has become a short-term, self-serving tool to throw disproportionate wealth to a small group of senior leadership.
New 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…
Whatever 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.
I’m getting more mail now than ever before. It seems word has gotten out that I will answer personally via email, on the phone, or in person if you like. In the last three years – this blog’s third year anniversary was October 12th – the more things have changed, the more they’ve stayed the same. I’ve been writing about cuts and reductions in force at the firms the whole time. I’ve been writing about litigation the whole time. I’ve been surprised and pleased at the amount of content the firms inadvertently provide every day given their stunts, scandals, silly statements and solipsistic attitude about anyone and anything outside their glass and stainless steel structures.
 Francine McKenna (@retheauditors) has more than twenty-five years of experience in consulting and professional services including tenure at two Big 4 firms, both in the US and abroad. Look for my column, "Accounting Watchdog" at Forbes.com and "Accountable" at American Banker. For more information, click "About" at the bottom of this page. For more information contact Francine McKenna, fmckenna@mckennapartners.com |
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