商品簡介
With staffs that are collectively larger than the Russian army, the Big Four accounting firms are a keystone in global finance --but do they really provide stability and safety? Leading scholar Ian Gow and award-winning writer (and former KPMG director) Stuart Kells warn that a house of cards may be about to fall.
Across the globe, the so-called Big Four accounting and audit firms - Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG - are massively influential. Together, they earn more than $100 billion annually and employ almost one million people. In many profound ways, they have changed how we work, how we manage, how we invest and how we are governed. Stretching back centuries, their history is a fascinating story of wealth, power and luck. But today, the Big Four face an uncertain future - thanks to their push into China; their vulnerability to digital disruption and competition; and the hazards of providing traditional services in a new era of transparency. Surprisingly colorful and unquestionably authoritative, this account of the past, present and likely future of the Big Four is essential reading for anyone perplexed or fascinated by professional services, working in the industry, contemplating joining a professional services firm, or simply curious about the fate of the global economy.
作者簡介
Ian D. Gow is director of the Melbourne Centre for Corporate Governance and Regulation at the University of. Melbourne. Professor Gow has served on the faculties of Harvard Business School, where he taught in the MBA, doctoral, and executive education programs, and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He has held positions at Morgan Stanley, General Motors, Stern Stewart & Co. and Andersen Consulting.
Stuart Kells is a Melbourne-based author. He was formerly Assistant Auditor- General of the state of Victoria, and a director at KPMG. He also worked at Deloitte, S. G. Warburg and, after the 2008 financial crisis, with one of the receivers of Lehman Brothers. His history of Penguin
Books, Penguin and the Lane Brothers, won the Ashurst Australian Business
Literature Prize.
