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More and more news is coming out about the partners at the Oscars
First we speak about the two partners from the Oscars Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan. They had both been fired from the Oscars engagement since our last podcast. They are no longer going to be working counting ballots for the Oscars. The Oscar says they’re going to keep PwC for now. But they are considering whether they’re going to keep them going forward.
This week there is also some pretty bad pictures they came out showing Brian tweeting backstage with multiple envelopes in his hand. Now he ultimately ended up giving the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty. But these photos really showed him going to town on his social media minutes before Warren Beatty announced the wrong Oscar.
And the real reason why these two got fired was that after the wrong best picture was announced by Faye Dunaway they failed to act. Martha Ruiz and Brian didn't go on stage to correct their errors for another few minutes. And the producer of the Oscars said that they weren't ready for the moment. He said that they had rehearsed what they were supposed to do if the wrong winner was announced, and they still didn’t do it. The stage manager and the producers had to push them out on stage to correct their error.
Listening to one of my favorite podcasts. Which is the Bill Simmons podcast. He had Jimmy Kimmel on recently and this was one of Jimmy Kimmel’s first interviews since the Oscars.
Now these people are accountants at all. Bill Simmons is just a sports journalist. Jimmy Kimmel is a comedian. All they could talk about was how they this Oscar screwup was. Bill Simmons went so far to say that it would be one of the first paragraphs in Jimmy Kimmel’s obituary. Jimmy Kimmel laughed that off and said I really hope not. To which Bill Simmons said, I don’t think you know how big a deal this thing is. This is still going to be a big deal in a few months. When he said that, all I could do is shake my head. When I first saw this news, I thought it was a huge deal for PwC, but I didn’t think it would be as big as it is for them now. Their name and their brand, PwC, is always going to equal biggest Oscar mistake in history for the average American.
That’s why I think ultimately that Brian is going to have to retire or resign. Most likely I believe he will resign. I think PwC is standing behind him right now because of his leadership position and his years of service. As this bad news for the firm keeps snowballing, I don’t think they can keep standing by him.
Additionally, I don’t think he’ll be able to stay at PwC himself. I don’t think he’ll be able to put up with the embarrassment and the looks that he is going to get from his peers and his clients. That would be a big task for somebody that was mentally tough and prepared for it. The question is is he mentally tough enough and easy ready to handle all that. I don’t think he is and I don’t think Pricewaterhousecoopers is prepared to stand behind a man that is going to get a lot of heat. I really wouldn’t wish this situation upon anybody, and I hope that he ends up okay on the other side of this.
It has now been confirmed that Brian Cullinan wanted to be a celebrity himself. Variety came out with a piece stating that Cullinan wanted to perform a sketch at the Oscars. He pitched an idea to the producers of the Oscars to perform a sketch on stage with jimmy kimmel.
I have been saying all along that these two partners wanted to be celebrities. More specifically Brian. He had been taking tons of pictures with celebrities at the Oscars in the prior and current year. This just shows how much he wanted to be involved in the process. I think that should give some hesitation to PwC as to whether they should keep them. It was pretty evident how this error could occur. Yet PwC took no steps to monitor his social media, and make sure he was ready for this stage. And now they may pay a severe price for his actions.
Finally the partners now have security after their families have been threatened. Their addresses have been released on the internet along with photos of their homes. There are even photos of Brian's wife shopping that were taken by the paparazzi.
Check out our website for more details:
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-partners-receive-threats-2017-oscars-mistake/
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-fired-oscars/
In this episode we cover #envelopegate and what it means for PwC. PwC are just the nerdy accountants at the Oscars right? Not anymore. PwC wanted to be celebrities too. Now they are, but not for the reasons they wanted to be.
We cover the following topics
1. What went wrong at the Oscars for Pricewaterhousecoopers
2. What this means for PwC's brand
3. What PwC was supposed to be doing at the Oscars and how that led to this error.
4. Why the failure by the PwC partners at the Oscars reflects poorly on their staff
On a night where the 2017 Oscars were supposed to be all about Hollywood sticking it to Trump, they became about a big 4 accounting firm known as PwC.
PwC counts the ballots for the Oscars and has done so for 83 years. By all accounts they counted the ballots this time as well. What they didn't do was hand the presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the right envelope.
Will PwC lose the Oscars engagement? Will PwC lose fees on this engagement. What does this huge mistake mean for PwC's brand.
What will happen to Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz.
Warren Beatty ended up announcing La La Land as the winner for Best Picture instead of Moonlight.
Who is Brian Cullinan? Who is Martha Ruiz? We provide both of their backgrounds in this podcast episode
Check out our coverage on our site below:
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-fails-oscars-envelope/
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-oscars-2017-edition/
Blockchain has been in the news a lot lately. This is especially true for the big 4 accounting firms, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY.
They have been forming partnerships trying to come up with solution for their clients. Blockchain has the potential to disrupt many industries, so the big 4 need to advise their clients on how to avoid being left behind.
In this podcast episode we go over a brief summary of what a blockchain is. We also discuss why a blockchain might matter to the Big 4.
Lastly we go over what each firm is doing in the blockchain marketplace.
To learn more about blockchain visit our site:
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/blockchain-big-four-accounting-firms/
In today's episode we discuss what causes stress at the big 4 accounting firms.
Do you hear all the rumors about the big 4 being stressful but aren't sure why they are stressful. We go over several factors in today's podcast episode.
Do you think all the stress just relates to the long hours at PwC, KPMG, Deloitte or EY? No, that is just a symptom of the larger problems.
Long hours do cause stress but that isn't the only reason stress exists at the big 4.
Some of the reasons that stress exists are:
1. Lack of mentorship
2. Underbidding by other accounting firms
3. Lack of goals and expectations
4. Long hours
5. Face time at the office (No, not the app)
6. Poor project management
7. Client focus
8. Client demands
Do you have thoughts about what causes stress at the big 4? Do you have questions about what we discussed on this episode? Visit our site and leave a comment on our forum.
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/
PwC back in court over MF Global
As you may recall PwC settled a lawsuit earlier this year that threatened its existence. That case was the Taylor Bean case that we covered here in great detail.
Taylor bean’s bankruptcy trustee was seeking $5 billion in damages.
PwC is facing another such case with MF Global. The MF Global moderator is also seeking billions of dollars. The MF Global moderator is seeking $3 billion in damages which is a decrease from their initial request of $10 billion in damages.
That case was all set to go to jury selection this next week, but both parties have agreed to seek mediation first. The judge wanted them to seek out mediation before the case goes to a lengthy trial.
The law firm representing PwC in the MF Global case is the same law firm that defended them in the taylor bean case. The name of the firm is King & Spalding. There is also a key witness in the MF Global case that was utilized in the Taylor Bean case. The witness is Lynn Turner who was a key witness in the Taylor bean case.
This mediation could result in a settlement, but if not the judge said that he would get them back on the court calendar in a matter of weeks.
Will PwC settle the case?
EY Indonesia fined by PCAOB
EY has had some trouble this year.
Ernst & Young settled with SEC over their audit of Weatherford.
EY also settled with SEC over independence issues.
They have once again settled with a regulatory agency. This time EY is settling with the PCAOB.
The Indonesian member firm of EY was fined $1 million for audit failure, noncooperation and standard violations. This really shows the PCAOB’s global reach here.
The fine relates to a 2011 audit of an Indonesian telecommunications company.
There was a lot of trickery going on in this investigation. The PCAOB stated that workpapers were being created during the investigation. It will be interesting to see whether EY has another bad year of audit sanctions.
Do you think EY will have another bad year?
KPMG’s Inaugural Data Analytics class selected
Last week KPMG selected the inaugural class for their Masters of Accounting with Data and Analytics program.
We previously covered that KPMG will pay for your masters degree if you choose to major in their data and analytics program.
The first class of 52 students was selected last week. Each participating university, Ohio State and Villanova, will have 26 students.
Visit our site for more details:
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-back-court-mf-global-ey-indonesia-fined/
In today's podcast we will be covering the biggest big 4 accounting firms news for the week ending January 27, 2017
The first story we cover is some comments made by AICPA CEO Barry Melancon. He made these statements on Tuesday January 24, 2017 at the Accountants club of America. He was speaking about the current state of the profession. He spoke about how all the new hires are choosing industry over public accounting. It appears that candidates are seeing better offers in industry versus the big 4.
The second story we cover is the news about Deloitte opening a blockchain lab in the Silicon Docks district of Dublin, Ireland.
Lastly we go over the news that KPMG is being investigated over the audit of Rolls Royce. Rolls Royce was fined by multiple government agencies around the world for bribing and other fraud. Now KPMG is being investigated since they were the auditors for the majority of the years the fraud was perpetrated.
Intro music by SK and the song is titled "Beats - Did it all for the money"
Make sure to visit https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/ for more big 4 news.
In this episode we cover an update on the PwC acquisition of GE's Tax Department. PwC came out with a press release on the Wall Street Journal saying that they estimate the acquisition of GE's tax department could make them $1 billion a year. We analyze whether that is feasible in this episode.
We also cover the news that KPMG is building a new training facility in the Orlando area.
Make sure to check out our website at https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com for more details on all of this news.
PwC recently announced the acquisition of GE's tax department.
This includes PwC hiring more than 600 employees from GE as well as GE's tax technology.
The deal will last for 5 years. At the end of the deal, GE will assess whether they want to continue using PwC to run their tax department.
PwC said that the GE employees will service GE and other PwC clients.
Listen to this episode to learn more details about the acquisition and to figure out whether this deal is better for PwC or GE.
visit our website for more details on this news
https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-acquires-ges-tax-department
In this episode of the big 4 accounting firms podcast we cover recent news about Deloitte's espionage practice.
It came to light recently that Deloitte utilized espionage to grow the government services practice.
They used form CIA spies and government employees to spy on client and other big 4 accounting firms. Learn more details in this episode.
Visit www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/deloitte-corporate-espionage for more details on the story
PwC has lost another huge client headquartered in Europe as a result of mandatory audit rotations.
That client is Glaxosmithkline.
PwC lost GSK to Deloitte. Learn how they lost GSK and what this means for PwC and the audit industry in general.
Visit www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/gsk-changes-auditor-from-pwc-to-deloitte for more details
Big 4 Accounting Firm, KPMG, released their 2016 financial results in early December 2016.
We cover key financial metrics and figures in this podcast episode.
We also cover the number of employees that KPMG had at the end of their 2016 fiscal year.
Make sure to visit our website for more details
www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/kpmg-revenue-2016
In this episode we go over what you can expect for a Big 4 Salary.
We cover the progression of salaries over a big 4 career.
We discuss how much you make at an associate level, senior associate level, manager level, senior manager level and even the partner level.
How much can you make as a partner? In what region of the country can you make the most money at the big 4 accounting firms?
These are all questions that we try to answer in this episode.
Visit www.thebig4accountingfirms.com for more details around big 4 career and salary expectations.
Learn about EY's latest attempt to recruit more millennials.
In this episode we discuss the upcoming film "The Accountant" starring Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick. Find out if the movie has anything to do with what it's like being a real accountant
Read more about The Accountant starring Ben Affleck in our blog.
We discuss PwC's new flexible dress code in this episode.