The Big Four: The Curious Past and Perilous Future of the Global Accounting Monopoly
Written by Ian D. Gow and Stuart Kells
Narrated by Wayne Shepherd
4/5
()
About this audiobook
With staffs that are collectively larger than the Russian army and combined revenues of over $130 billion a year, the Big Four accounting firms—Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG—are a keystone of global commerce. But leading scholar Ian Gow and award-winning author Stuart Kells warn that a house of cards may be about to fall.
Stretching back to the Medicis in Renaissance Florence, this book is a fascinating story of wealth, power, and luck. The founders of the Big Four lived surprisingly colorful lives. Samuel Price, for example, married his own niece. Between the world wars, Nicholas Waterhouse collected postage stamps while also hosting decadent parties in his fashionable London home.
All four firms have endured major calamities in recent decades. There have been hundreds of court cases and legal prosecutions for failed audits, tax scandals, and breaches of independence. The firms have come so close to “extinction level events” that regulators have required them to prepare “living wills.” And 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.
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 or considering working in the industry, or simply curious about the fate of the global economy.
Ian D. Gow
Ian D. Gow is currently at Harvard Business School and will soon take up a professorship at the University of Melbourne. Before Harvard, he held positions at Morgan Stanley, General Motors, Stern Stewart & Co. and Andersen Consulting. He has a PhD in business from Stanford University, an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and degrees in commerce and law from UNSW.
Related to The Big Four
Related audiobooks
VC: An American History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Elite: Inside the Minds of the Truly Wealthy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Panic!: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Financial Deal: Understanding the Dodd-Frank Act and Its (Unintended) Consequences Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Zombie Banks: How Broken Banks and Debtor Nations Are Crippling the Global Economy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDevil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Money Plot: A History of Currency's Power to Enchant, Control, and Manipulate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shadow Market: How a Group of Wealthy Nations and Powerful Investors Secretly Dominate the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Day the Markets Roared: How a 1982 Forecast Sparked a Global Bull Market Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Finance Curse: How Global Finance Is Making Us All Poorer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Other People's Money: The Real Business of Finance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Capitalist's Lament: How Wall Street Is Fleecing You and Ruining America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lying For Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wall Street MBA, Third Edition: Your Personal Crash Course in Corporate Finance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vanishing American Corporation: Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Liar's Ball: The Extraordinary Saga of How One Building Broke the World's Toughest Tycoons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Catching Lightning in a Bottle: How Merrill Lynch Revolutionized the Financial World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Land of Enterprise: A Business History of the United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Corporate & Business History For You
Good to Great Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5DisneyWar Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People - and the Fight for Our Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Secret Formula: The Inside Story of How Coca-Cola Became the Best-Known Brand in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barbarians at the Gate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company, Third Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bezonomics: How Amazon Is Changing Our Lives and What the World's Best Companies Are Learning from It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Secret History of Brands: The Dark and Twisted Beginnings of the Brand Names We Know and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Built from Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Big Four
4 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's good to see a book about big 4 because despite its huge importance and influence, we don't have many books on it. The book does a good job of covering the history of Big 4. The issues with the book are as follows.
First, it is true that auditors can be massively influenced by the client. However, if such case was so prevalent then we would not have audit and the audit market would collapse.
Second, I have heard and saw cases of poor audits. Also, it is true that inexperienced auditors are not that great. But if inexperienced auditors made such a mess, we would see much more fraud and craziness.
Third, the comparison to Medici family was interesting but not necessary-
Overall, nice to see a book about Big 4 but it would have been better if it talked more about what is working and why the audit market has not collapsed if there were so many problems. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Superb. This book seems to touch all the big questions about how the Big 4 came to be, as well as who and what they are. The conjecture over the future of Public Accounting is the start of an exciting discussion. I highly recommend this well narrated audiobook.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book was okay, but had a decent amount of filler material and wandered between hustorical and current times. It didn't dive as deep as I would have hoped.