The Moment You’ve All Been Waiting For

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

thumbs up2.jpgIf you work at KPMG anyway. We heard that the annual employee survey was sent out today so that’s exciting. The most thrilling news is that FIVE of you will win $200 AMEX gift cards for participating. If there are questions missing on the survey that are not addressed, feel free to bring those up in the comments.
The only other firm that we’ve heard about having their survey is E&Y so if yours is rolling out be sure to let us know.

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Former KPMG Employee Now a Bean Slinger; May Have the Best Burrito in London

It’s my understanding that burritos are hard to come by in London. Apparently they just opened the first Chipotle there. For many of you, a life without burritos slapped together in 90 seconds (not including the wait on line) isn’t a life worth living. The Brits have managed to survive for a number of centuries without tortillas overstuffed with sour cream and free-range pork. And while Chipotle can certainly churn out a fine burrito, if you happen to find yourself in Spitalfields, East London you might check out Poncho No. 8. It was started by Nick Troen and Frank Yeung, Troen being the ex-Klynvedlian and Yeung a former equities trader at Goldman Sachs.

The friends spent the next three years living together, talking about going into business one day. After a brief separation — Troen worked for KPMG, the accountancy firm, and Innocent, the smoothie maker, before doing a masters, while Yeung worked for Goldman Sachs, the investment bank — they quit their jobs, moved back in together and four months ago launched a Mexican restaurant.

Although it is early days, Poncho No. 8 (Poncho Ocho), their pocket-sized restaurant in Spitalfields, East London, employs a staff of nine, sees 300 customers a day queue down the street for “gourmet” burritos and took £100,000 in its first quarter.

Troen and Yeung are unashamedly influenced by Innocent, the wildly successful fruit drink company also started by graduate friends. “It was always a company we admired. The branding and style had a big impact on us,” Troen says.

Poncho was a typical back of the envelope idea — “we looked at the numbers and thought ‘why has no one done this?’, ” Yeung says — brought to life via the same mix of ingenious, vaguely hippy branding and healthy ingredients. The restaurant features a green-painted “Guac Shack” while the website offers a “countdown to lunch” for bored office workers.

Starting a new Mexican wave [Times via BI]

Promotion Watch ’10: KPMG Announcing New Managers This Week?

While the timing seems early (Klynveld is on a 9/30 FYE), there has been a lot of chatter about the announcement of this year’s class of new managers happening this week.

From a Tim Flynn foot soldier close to the situation:

Heard on Monday that national was supposed to communicate yesterday or today, with communication to us this week.


And as you might imagine, there is some anxiety out there:

I’ll tell you one thing, the SA3s that don’t get promoted, they better get a ridiculous compensation package at the time they tell us we’re getting fucked. Otherwise, we’re all leaving. Two years in a row taking it up the ass from Uncle Peat? No thank you.

That’s the word from an office in the western region. Back east, there seems to be less concern:

DC already [announced], or everyone already knows, at least. Anyone with the requisite number of years and their CPA was promoted but DC has been bleeding employees lately. Everyone’s quitting or going on rotation at the senior and manager levels. Mostly quitting.

And what about those SA3s that don’t get the bump because A) they aren’t particularly popular or B) don’t have their CPA? Turns out KPMG is prepared for that. We’ve learned that the firm is offering a new training this summer specifically for SA4s. Soooo, we imagine that training could have some discussions that goes like this:

SA4 #1: Skipped over?

SA4 #2: Failed FAR three times. You?

SA4 #1: Was told that I’m “not quite ready” (hand quotes, eye roll) and that the 4th year will better prepare me for manager.

SA4 #2: Sucks.

SA4 #1: Sucks.

Keep us posted if you get the yay or nay in your office.

UPDATE: To answer a question in the comments, this is for the audit side of the house. If you’re tax or advisory feel free to weigh in on your own promotion possibilities.