Deloitte

Deloitte
Type UK private company, limited by guarantee
Industry Professional services
Founded London, United Kingdom (1845)
Headquarters New York City, United States
Area served Worldwide
Key people John P. Connolly (Chairman)
Jim Quigley (CEO)[1]
Services Audit
Consulting
Financial advisory
Tax
Revenue decrease US$26.1 billion (2009)
Employees 169,000 (July 2009)[2]
Website Deloitte.com/global

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (also branded as Deloitte) is one of the largest professional services organizations in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG.

According to the organization's website as of 2009, Deloitte has approximately 169,000 staff at work in 140 countries, delivering audit, tax, consulting and financial advisory services through its member firms.

Its global headquarters is located in Paramount Plaza, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York.[3]

Contents

History

Early history

In 1845 William Welch Deloitte opened an office in Basinghall Street in London. Deloitte was the first person to be appointed an independent auditor of a public company.[4] He went on to open an office in New York in 1880.[4]

In 1895 Charles Waldo Haskins and Eijah Watt Sells formed Haskins & Sells in New York.[4]

In 1898 George Touche established an office in London and then in 1900 joined John Ballantine Niven in establishing the firm of Touche Niven in the Johnston Building at 30 Broad Street in New York.[4] At the time, there were fewer than 500 CPAs practicing in the United States, but the new era of income taxes was soon to generate enormous demand for accounting professionals.

On April 1, 1933, Colonel Arthur Hazelton Carter, President of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants and Managing Partner of Haskins & Sells, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking and Currency. Carter helped convince Congress that independent audits should be mandatory for public companies.[4]

In 1947, Detroit accountant George Bailey, then president of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, launched his own organization. The new entity enjoyed such a positive start that in less than a year, the partners merged with Touche Niven and A.R. Smart to form Touche, Niven, Bailey & Smart.[4] Headed by Bailey, the organization grew rapidly, in part by creating a dedicated management consulting function. It also forged closer links with organizations established by the co-founder of Touche Niven, George Touche: the Canadian organization Ross and the British organization George A. Touche.[4] In 1960, the firm was renamed Touche, Ross, Bailey & Smart, becoming Touche Ross in 1969.[4]

Mergers

In 1952 Deloitte merged with Haskins & Sells to form Deloitte, Haskins & Sells.[4] In 1968 Nobuzo Tohmatsu formed Tohmatsu Awoki & Co, a firm based in Japan that was to become part of the Touche Ross network in 1975.[4] In 1972 Robert Trueblood, Chairman of Touche Ross, led the committee responsible for recommending the establishment of the Financial Accounting Standards Board.[4] He led the expansion of Touche Ross in that era.

In 1982, David Moxley and W. Grant Gregory became the leaders at Touche Ross. In 1985, Edward A. Kangas, a management consultant, was appointed managing partner of Touche Ross. In 1984, J. Michael Cook became managing partner of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells.

In 1989 Deloitte Haskins & Sells in the USA merged with Touche Ross in the USA to form Deloitte & Touche. The merged firm was led jointly by J. Michael Cook and Edward A. Kangas. Led by the UK partnership, a smaller number of Deloitte Haskins & Sells member firms rejected the merger with Touche Ross and shortly thereafter merged with Coopers & Lybrand to form Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte (later to merge with Price Waterhouse to become PwC).[5] Some member firms of Touche Ross also rejected the merger with Deloitte Haskins & Sells and merged with other firms.[5]

Recent history

Deloitte Office Building in Downtown Chicago

At the time of the US-led mergers to form Deloitte & Touche, the name of the international firm was a problem, because there was no worldwide exclusive access to the names "Deloitte" or "Touche Ross" - key member firms such as Deloitte in UK and Touche Ross in Australia had not joined the merger. The name DRT International was therefore chosen, referring to Deloitte, Ross and Tohmatsu. In 1993 the international firm was renamed Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu to reflect the contribution from the Japanese firm.[4] as well as agreements to use both of the names Deloitte and Touche.

In 1995, the partners of Deloitte & Touche decided to create Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group (now known as Deloitte Consulting).[6]

In 2002, Arthur Andersen's UK practice, the firm's largest practice outside the U.S., agreed to merge with Deloitte's UK practice. Andersen's practices in Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Mexico, Brazil and Canada also agreed to merge with Deloitte.[7][8] The spin off of Deloitte France's consulting division led to the creation of Ineum Consulting.[9]

In 2009, Deloitte purchased the North American Public Service practice of BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting) after it filed for bankruptcy protection.[10] The firm also took over the UK property consultants Drivers Jonas in January 2010.[11]

Global structure

For many years, the organization and its network of member firms were legally organized as a Swiss Verein. As of 31 July 2010, members of the Verein became part of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTTL), a UK private company, limited by guarantee. Each member firm within its global network remains a separate and independent legal entity, subject to the laws and professional regulations of the particular country or countries in which it operates.

As separate and legal entities, member firms and DTTL cannot obligate each other. Professional services continue to be provided by member firms only and not DTTL.

Name and branding

While in 1989, in most countries, Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged with Touche Ross forming Deloitte & Touche, in the United Kingdom the local firm of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged instead with Coopers & Lybrand (which today is PwC).[12] For some years after the merger, the merged UK firm was called Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte and the local firm of Touche Ross kept its original name. In the mid-1990s however, both UK firms changed their names to match those of their respective international organizations.

While the full name of the UK private company is Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, in 1989 it initially branded itself DRT International. In 2003 the rebranding campaign was commissioned by Bill Parrett, the then CEO of DTT, and led by Jerry Leamon, the global Clients and Markets leader.[13]

According to the company website, Deloitte now refers to the brand under which tens of thousands of dedicated professionals in independent firms throughout the world collaborate to provide audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, and tax services to selected clients.[14]

In 2008, Deloitte adopted its new “Always One Step Ahead” (AOSA) brand positioning platform to support the existing Deloitte vision: “To be the Standard of Excellence”. AOSA represents the global organization’s value proposition, and is never used as a tagline. The recent launch of the Green Dot ad campaign also aligns with Deloitte’s brand strategy and positioning framework. Currently, the campaign generates external brand awareness and recognition for Deloitte by highlighting its wide range of professional services to clients around the world.

Services

Deloitte offices at Tower 600 of the Renaissance Center in Detroit.

Deloitte member firms offer services in the following functions, with country-specific variations on their legal implementation (i.e. all operating within a single company or through separate legal entities operating as subsidiaries of an umbrella legal entity for the country).[15]

Deloitte serves various clients in financial services, consumer & industrial products, energy & resources, health care & life sciences, public sector, technology, media, & telecommunications, and other industries and subcategories. Not all services are offered in all countries.

It is reported that Deloitte generated global consulting revenue of $6.5 billion in 2009. Punit Renjen, the head of Deloitte Consulting in the U.S., wants Deloitte to be seen as a "category of one," a firm that can compete in high-end strategy advice against McKinsey and in information technology work against others. In 2009, Deloitte is ranked No. 2 behind McKinsey among strategic consulting firms, and the second-largest consulting firm globally, slightly smaller than IBM. It targets clients that "are not only expecting great insight but that it be implementable and that results ... generated ... are tangible and measurable".[20]

Deloitte does not place as strong an emphasis on the offshoring model as some of the other professional services companies. However, the U.S. member firm has investments in delivery centers in India, known internally as "Region 10."

There are also non-client-facing subsidiaries that comprise the people that operate the firm itself, such as finance (except project controllers); human resources; communications; marketing; Strategy, Research & Innovation; mail and printing services; technology support; and administrative assistants. Other subsidiaries exist to maintain ownership of Deloitte's various intellectual property assets.

Sarbanes-Oxley regulations apply to what combinations of services Deloitte's U.S. member firm can provide a client. For example, a particular client may not be able to engage Deloitte for both corporate audit and consulting services at the same time. Additionally, Deloitte staff in client-facing positions must certify independence from financial interests in the firm's clients at least annually to avoid conflicts of interest and insider trading.

Staff

Deloitte offers its staff a variety of career models to choose from based on their preferences, geographic location and business need. These career models also vary for each function. Traditional titles for Consulting are "consultant" through "principal", FAS has "associate" through "partner", and the delivery-focused track features "specialist" through "specialist leader".

Deloitte hires entry-level personnel to client-facing functions through their graduate recruitment programs at selected universities.

The organization is consistently rated by Fortune as one of their "100 Best Companies To Work For".[21]

In 2007 and 2009, Deloitte was rated the number one place to launch your career by BusinessWeek. [22][23]

Corporate Social Networking

The U.S. member firm of Deloitte has deployed a social/professional networking environment for its consultants.[24] Deloitte's "D Street" began when the firm's talent organization wanted to make a large company feel smaller. In addition, it wanted to create an environment that would appeal to its mostly younger workforce. After getting the support of Deloitte leadership and partnering with internal IT, communications and knowledge management groups, the team launched the alpha version of D Street in June 2007, basing it on a commercially available collaborative platform. The initial rollout was to 1,500 employees.[25] Deloitte also leverages an expertise discovery device known as iConnect.[26] iConnect conducts a keyword search across any relevant user-driven database to highlight who may possess knowledge that is of use to others. The process of discovery is obscured from the person discovered.

Major clients

Major clients include (note that not all of these are audit clients nor have they been confirmed by Deloitte member firms):

Disputes

Disputes involving Deloitte include:

Sponsorship

The U.K. member firm of Deloitte is a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics.[36] The Canadian member firm is also the official professional services supplier for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games[37] and 2010 Winter Paralympic Games.[38] The US member firm of Deloitte is a sponsor of the United States Olympic Committee.[39]

Notable current and former employees

Business

Politics and public service

Other

See also

References

  1. ↑ Deloitte: Leadership
  2. ↑ Deloitte Annual Review 2009
  3. ↑ "Contact Us." Deloitte. Retrieved on December 7, 2009.
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 Deloitte history
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Deloitte Touche merger done The New York Times
  6. ↑ Deloitte Consulting, Page 6
  7. ↑ Suzanne Kapner (2002-04-11). "ENRON'S MANY STRANDS: THE ACCOUNTANTS; British Unit Of Andersen Is Defecting To Deloitte". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/11/business/enron-s-many-strands-accountants-british-unit-andersen-defecting-deloitte.html?scp=14&sq=arthur%20andersen%20deloitte&st=Search. Retrieved 2010-02-24. 
  8. ↑ "Canadian Unit To Join Deloitte". New York Times. 2002-04-13. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/13/business/international-business-canadian-unit-to-join-deloitte.html?pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2010-02-24. 
  9. ↑ Ineum Consulting at Oracle.com, August 2008
  10. ↑ BearingPoint to sell business units to Deloitte, PwC, Washington Business Journal, March 24, 2009
  11. ↑ Deloitte acquires Drivers Jonas, Financial Times, 21 January 2010
  12. ↑ PWC: History and milestones
  13. ↑ Ernst & Young launches rebrand plan (refers to Deloitte rebranding in 2003)
  14. ↑ About Deloitte
  15. ↑ Deloitte: Services offered
  16. ↑ Assurance & Advisory services
  17. ↑ Deloitte: Financial Advisory services
  18. ↑ Deloitte: Tax services
  19. ↑ Local businesses in Calgary, Canada
  20. ↑ "Deloitte Consulting is Hiring". BusinessWeek. 2010-02-19. http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/feb2010/ca20100211_911815.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5. 
  21. ↑ Fortune: 100 best companies to work for
  22. ↑ Businessweek 2007
  23. ↑ Businessweek 2009
  24. ↑ "Firm's social network" GreenDotLife Discussion Board, October 29, 2007.
  25. ↑ "The new employee connection: Social networking behind the firewall" Computer World, August 11, 2008.
  26. ↑ Managing expertise at Deloitte
  27. ↑ 2008 Federal Reserve Report to Congress
  28. ↑ Deloitte settles in Adelphia scandal
  29. ↑ Deloitte faces double trouble in China
  30. ↑ How a London council's visionary IT plan became a project management nightmare
  31. ↑ E-Health Insider :: Ireland suspends two national health IT projects
  32. ↑ LAUSD teachers start boycott
  33. ↑ Los Angeles school district SAP implementation still broken
  34. ↑ Update: LAUSD payroll problems stabilized
  35. ↑ California court officials, judges spar over costly computer system
  36. ↑ Deloitte becomes first London 2012 tier two sponsor
  37. ↑ Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games
  38. ↑ Deloitte named Official Professional Services Provider to Vancouver 2010 Winter Games
  39. ↑ Deloitte Announces Sponsorship of U.S. Olympic Committee and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams

External links

Big Four auditors
Deloitte · Ernst & Young · KPMG · PwC