PwC’s Branding Week taught us nothing we didn’t already know.
So as you may recall, PwC launched its massive PR campaign two weeks ago, wrapped up in super-PR spin in this clip from ABC news:
Deloitte
Is this a diverse enough pose?
But this time it is called, “Diversifying Business Standards” and he’ll be touching on a number of issues that don’t have anything to do with with the “218 reprimands for failure to meet mandatory training requirements” (which may or may not include mandatory diversity training).
And we’re guessing he won’t make reference to the Chief Diversity Officer because if you don’t happen to have one, it’s simply impossible to be a diverse company.
Oh, and never mind the whole H-1B controversy at Deloitte Consulting. That will blow over.
We kid, we kid. Deloitte would never want to ruin spring break but they are giving a few students an alternative to drinking themselves blind for a week and possibly getting a bad case of crabs.
The firm is teaming up with the United Way and Teach for America for the third consecutive year to offer “Maximum Impact: Deloitte Alternative Spring Break”.
We might be a little late to the party on this but it just recently came across our desk and since trying to get a post up today is akin to turning water into wine, we’re running with it. And, frankly, if a large portion of you regularly read the “Public Accounting Report” we’ll be blown (BLOWN!) away.
The chart presented comes shows the 2009 client gains for the top ten firms. The determination of the ranking isn’t entirely clear (debunk the methodology if you feel obligated) to us so we’ll just go for some superficial analysis:
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You’re Hired, You’re Fired: Beware of the Big 4 Boomerang
By Francine McKenna
There’s no profession more conflicted about employee retention versus alumni relations than the auditors. On the one hand, the largest audit firms have well-oiled recruiting machines.
Their uncanny ability to identify and sway candidates early is rivaled only by professional baseball’s success at finding talented Dominicans still swinging stalks of sugar cane instead of bats. The firms spend millions of hours and dollars to compete for the top graduates. They love to see their names on lists of top places to intern and to start your career.
Accounting News Roundup: Earnings Management and ‘Quadrophobia’; Deloitte vs. PwC on Loan Losses; Joe Francis’ Tax Lien Dropped | 02.15.10
By Caleb NewquistHappy President’s Day! As we mentioned on Friday, we’ll keep you company throughout the day but it will be a little lighter schedule than normal. Most of you are suffering from a Valentine’s Day/Chinese New Year/Olympic Fever hangover anyway.
• For Some Firms, a Case of ‘Quadrophobia’ [WSJ]
Shout if you’ve heard this before: a study profiled by the Journal states that “many companies tweak quarterly earnings to meet investor expectations, and the “companies that adjust most often are more likely to restate earnings or be charged with accounting violations.”
So here’s another study on restatements and the companies that you can expect them from. BFD right? Earnings management is rampant. What makes this particular study unique is the authors looked at the frequency of companies rounding their numbers up to meet expectations and discovered that the number 4 appears less frequently in general and especially in the earnings of companies that restate their financial statements. Naturally, they call it “quadrophobia”:
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The Big 4 and Shameless Self-Promotion
By Francine McKenna
Many ask where I find things to write about. In addition to emails, calls and personal meetings with sources, over time I’ve developed a combination of Google Alerts, blogs and traditional media, and key Tweeters that I monitor, pretty much, 24/7.
I laugh out loud at the earnestness of some of firms’ press releases. You can quickly spot a “new study” or a particular PR push because it puts a firm on the front page of every newspaper and blog that’s even remotely interested in these announcements. Journalists and bloggers, especially those who have rigid deadlines and production quotas, are starving for content.
Getting a press release for a new study or a juicy pitch with a quote offer from one of the firms is a gift. Barring any other big news, you can almost guarantee anyone on a deadline or pressured for content will use it. It’s a sad comment on modern mainstream media and their lackluster coverage of the accounting industry when I see the same exact press release, with little variation or added research, analysis, or “god-forbid” contrary facts reprinted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and some obscure accounting blog.
We were notified last week about some exciting news for the capital market servants at Deloitte. DeloitteNet 2.0, the D’s new and improved internal intranet debuted today and the message was, because of this upgrade, your busy season, hell, your LIVES we’re going to be infinitely better:
Scheduled to launch Monday, January 25, DeloitteNet 2.0 is the result of an organization-wide effort to upgrade and redesign our intranet. It will include a new content structure and navigation, a new search engine, your very own “My DeloitteNet” site, and much more…
DeloitteNet will still be your go-to resource for the latest news and information. It will still provide access to essential tools and resources to get your job done, as well as offer access to the applications you need to manage your life here at Deloitte.
Not only that but Deloitte’s very own social networking phenomenon, D Street, would be fully integrated into the new intranet including a “My status” feature in case you want to tell everyone about the weather or how much you hate Mondays.
If you spent the last four days in a tryptophan-induced coma, you may have missed the news that there’s a bit of a problem in Dubai. A $59 billion problem.
Long/short: Dubai World, the state sponsored investment company, asked for a six month extension on repaying principal and interest maturities to its lenders.
While this spooked a lot of people, the latest reports indicate that Dubai is of the opinion that it’s NBD.
