Grant Thornton & Robson Rhodes merger

Is this a real challenge to the dominance of the Big 4 in the UK?

Despite the fact that E&Y's UK revenues are £650 million more than the projected revenues from this soon-to-be-merged firm, it will create an interesting dynamic.

After all, the partners will be in a position to put bid for projects previously our of their range by being able to place more staff on bigger projects. And yet, by being smaller than the Big 4, they may be able to adapt to and respond to market changes more quickly too. And if their overheads are smaller than the Big 4, they may be able to offer big corporations and public sector clients the services a Big 4 firm can offer, but without the associated costs.

This is a firm that, because of its size, will own an interesting middle ground between the Big 4 and the second tier firms. Maybe it will be a new Big 4-and-a-half?

As long as it's not called GrantthorntonRobsonrhodes.

the Heresiarch
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Congratulations KPMG...

...on winning the "City award" at the Opportunity Now annual awards dinner.

For those of you who don't know, this is an award for gender equality, inclusion and innovation in the workplace, particularly in helping women to succeed.

The firm's winning entry focused on its flexible working programme for its 10,300 UK staff, which offers a wide range of working options to its people. These include shorter working weeks, home working, job share, unpaid leave, annualised days, career breaks, additional holiday purchase and ‘glide’ time – when the start and finish times of the working day can be adjusted.

Such a positive award gives great PR to firms that can often be seen as "offices of grey men in grey suits". Those of us who work in and with these firms know that they aren't (usually!) like this, but not so the 'outside world'. So the more that clients and potential clients get to see that the professional services are staffed by an array of different kinds of people - different genders, different ethnicities, different cultural orientations and different sexual orientations - the more likely they are to want to establish client-adviser relations.

After all, rather than a man in a grey suit, they may be able to find someone who acts like them and thinks like them, and so relates better to them. And that builds a stronger client relationship which lasts longer too.

the Heresiarch
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