Happy Monday! Here are your headlines.
SOX turned 20 over the weekend. SEC Chair Gary Gensler had some things to say about Sarbanes-Oxley’s past, present, and future. Tim Ryan on leadership: “Too often, I find in corporate America, we go into the huddle where we agree on a pass play but not on what routes everybody is running,” he said in a recent interview. “My experience has taught me that one of the enemies of great teams is lack of clarity, on the part of our leaders, in showing well-meaning people what they’re looking for. I think that’s one of the most important lessons of leadership.” KPMG let the interns loose in Bahrain, so far 1/5 of them have full-time offers. Alibaba is on a NYSE delisting watchlist, one of more than 270 firms to be added to the SEC’s list of Chinese companies that might be delisted for not meeting auditing requirements. A longread on the EY split — ‘Project Everest’ — with a free branding suggestion: “In an EY split, ‘Ernst’ could go one way and ‘Young’ could go the other; and perhaps the firm’s successor parts could also revive some of the names from EY’s past – such as Whinney, McClelland and Moore – and therefore exploit even more of the historical brand value.” From last Friday’s Footnotes, more than half of the fines levied against UK accounting firms last year belonged to KPMG.
Attn NJCPA members: sign up for The CPA Pipeline: Challenges and Opportunities for the Profession panel webcast on Thursday, August 11. It’s technically open to everyone but free to NJCPA members. A certain Going Concern editor will be there.
Friend of GC and known kitten cuddler Sam E. Antar on audit quality:
Crazy Eddie Memoirs: Companies are not paying for a real audit when the hire the Big 4. They are paying for the false integrity that comes from their brand names. https://t.co/xeAGniJmzR
— Sam E. Antar (@SamAntar) August 1, 2022
r/accounting drops a nugget of wisdom for the younguns tempted by industry offers:
ICYMI: Is It Time to Break Up With Your Big 4 Firm? A Quiz
Here’s a few things we’re working on this week, I have yet to set up my bullet journal for August meaning my to-dos are scattered across a hundred Post-its on my desk so it’s a short list:
- Continuing last week’s discussion about small firm struggles
- Big 4 dick-measuring season is almost upon us
- Why ethics training is what’s broken, not people’s ethics
- LGBT-friendly accounting firms
- Pay inequality: firms hate this one simple trick
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Lastly, this YouTube channel seems like it might be relevant to some of you, it’s supposed to calm your nerves and soothe your soul. Sure hope it works! Have a great week, everyone.
