Deloitte & Touche Essay, Research Paper

Deloitte & Touche: a firm with many opportunities

When an Accounting major is trying to find a firm to work for, there are 5 companies that typically come into mind. These companies are the Big 5 Accounting Firms, which include Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche, Arthur Andersen, and PriceWaterhouse Coopers. The choice the student now has to make is which Big 5 Firm to go with. On the outside they all appear to be basically the same and pretty much offer comparable benefits. It is the philosophy and employees of the firms that make them all different. Through research, I have determined that Deloitte & Touche offers the best possibility for my future. There are several different aspects of Deloitte & Touche that appealed to me. They ranged from the diverse segments of the company to the way that they treat their employees.

Deloitte & Touche offers a variety of jobs within their company. They range from the typical audit and tax to the new Enterprise Risk Services (ERS) section that they have established. This variety makes it easier for prospective employees to find what they are looking for at D&T. Each of these different services caters to several different types of companies in the corporate world, which range from healthcare companies to chemical companies. D&T wants to make sure that they meet the demands of the business world. One of the main strengths of D&T is that they are innovating their programs to meet the growing demand for e-commerce and company strategies in the business world. As more and more companies are getting accustomed to the Internet and the fast-paced technology, they realize that they need a consulting group to help out their strategy and their business. D&T saw this demand and integrated the Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group or Deloitte Consulting. Consulting groups are a fast growing commodity within the Big Five Firms. Deloitte Consulting has been able to stay competitive in the consulting field. Unlike other firms, they have been able to maintain close contacts with their parent firm. This shows D&T s ability to stay with the competition and be able to keep up with the growing markets of the business world. Companies that have used D&T for Accounting purposes know that they will get the same values with Deloitte Consulting.

Another aspect that keeps them on top of the business world is the fact that they are a global company. Currently over 700 offices are located in more than 130 countries. This is important because as technology is increasing the capabilities of maintaining resources globally is on the rise. The Internet makes it so that obtaining goods from foreign countries is only a mouse click away. This mainly applies to Deloitte Consulting because one of their main jobs is to help companies better engage in e-commerce. Being a global firm allows them to better convenience their clients because there won t be as much travel involved in an engagement.

The global aspect also helps D&T maintain a diverse client base. Between their audit, tax, and consulting departments, they have clients located all over the world. These foreign clients have grown accustomed to their particular culture. Having an office based in the client s country allows D&T to relate to the culture on a more personal level and enables D&T to maintain a better relationship with their clients.

D&T s ability to keep up with the rising technology and the global aspect of the industry keeps them competitive amongst other firms. Another thing that keeps them on top is their philosophy. This philosophy is to make a priority for clients and to disdain arrogance (Gerber, 6). D&T tries to work with the clients on all aspects to make them satisfied, whether it is on an audit, tax service, or even a consulting engagement. When a client asks for a certain task to be done, D&T can normally accomplish it, even if other firms have turned them away saying it is a hopeless cause. They want to build these good relationships with the clients so that they can keep their existing client base and also so the clients will recommend them to potential new clients.

In order for D&T to stay ahead in the industry they need to have the employees to initiate the new ideas. Currently, the job market is very high for accountants and consultants. D&T is using several incentive plans for current employees to recruit potential employees. Part of this incentive plan is that for every new hire a D&T employee recruits they will get a $2,500 recruiting bonus. The second part of the plans is that for every new hire they recruit, their name gets put into a drawing to win either a brand new Chevrolet Corvette or $50,000 in cash, which is comparable to the Corvette. This helps keep D&T s costs down because they do not have to hire headhunters to do their recruiting. It also helps keep the employees happy because they have the option to make some more money and feel like they participated in helping better the firm.

Another incentive for employees to work at D&T is that they try and make it easier for employees to balance their work life and their personal life. This is achieved through a variety of flexible work arrangements. One of the programs is a reduced hour program where employees can reduce their workload and continue being a part- time employee. Basically two professionals are doing the work of one. On the other hand, the reduced workload program allows the employees to temporarily reduce their workload for a defined period of time. This makes it possible for employees to take time off for the birth of a child, take care of an elderly family member, etc. Both males and females get an equal share of reducing their workload. An employee can also take advantage of D&T s flextime schedule. This enables a full- time employee to have some variations in the starting and ending times of the hours in their business day. This way a mom or dad can get to work early, put in an 8-hour day, and be off in time to pick up her child from school. One of the last of many options an employee has is to telecommute. Technology has made it able for many employees to work at least 50% of their time at home. This is a popular idea because it makes it possible for employees to stay at home with family members and still keep a full work load.

Along with the flexible work hours, D&T has made their offices a better place for women to work. Back in 1991, they realized that there was an increasing decline in the number of women leaving the firm. Instead of avoiding this problem, they faced it head on and changed the way their firm treated women workers. In 1993, they launched their Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women program. This program would make it possible for men and women to develop better working relationships, for women to obtain more career opportunities, and in general, make D&T offices a better environment for women to work in. The program has proven to be a success. Women have grown more comfortable working with men and have experienced a better since of belonging in the firm. In 1998, 11% of the partners at D&T were women, which was the highest of any Big Five Firm at the time. (Trimberger, 7).

These worker incentive programs have recognized D&T as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America by Fortune magazine for three consecutive years. (Business Wire). This gives D&T the upper hand of all the other Big Five Firms. It proves that they are meeting one of their missions, which is to provide our people with the best developmental tools available and offer staffing and career models tailored to individual interests. (www.dttus.com).

As the economy and business are growing, D&T is growing along with it. They have been expanding their company both globally and in their divisions. The Big Five Accounting firms have petitioned The American Bar Association (ABA) to allow corporate law as part of their firms. In the U.S., the ABA has not allowed lawyers to become part of the Big Five Accounting firms for fear that they would take over all the small law practices. The Big Five have shown that it is more of a convenience aspect for the customers. They can get their taxes done and get law advice at the same place. D&T is already preparing their company for this transition. If it gets passed, they want to be one of the first firms to initiate corporate law and step ahead of the other 4 firms.

Deloitte & Touche has managed to balance a diverse company and their employees. Their consulting group and global expansion has enabled them to stay competitive with other firms. Flexible work hours allow D&T to maintain their employees so that they can successfully balance work life and personal life. It also helps keep the employees happy and this, in return, is reflected onto the clients. Overall, D&T has done a successful job of meeting their mission, To help our clients and our people excel (www.dttus.com). There are many benefits for working at all the Big Five firms, but D&T has the best overall package that combines both company and employee values.

Works Cited

Deloitte & Touche and Norstan Consulting Announce Strategic Marketing Alliance; Firm to Use Auditor Assistant in Internal Audit Services. Business Wire. 11/27/2000.

Donion, J.P. A Mandate for Growth Chief Executive. Nov. 1996. n118:48-58.

Face Value: Strength in Numbers. Economist. Nov. 20, 1999 v.353n8146: 86.

Gerber, Cheryl. Deloitte & Touche Consulting takes cooperative, user- friendly path. ComputerWorld. July 28, 1997. v31n30: S6.

Gunn, Robert. Why CEO s are stuck on globalization. Canadian Underwriter. July 1, 1999. v66n7: 22-25.

Preston, Hubbard. E-Commerce Explosion. ComputerWorld. March 6, 2000.

Titunik, Vera. Get us an accountant, we give you a car. Fortune. Aug. 14, 2000. v142n4: 298.

Trimberger, Lisa. Deloitte & Touche: Retaining women means success. HR Focus. Nov. 1998. v75n11: 7-8.