At Least One SEC Commissioner Has a Sense of Humor
Michael Piwowar made a funny: Imagine a world where GAAP or other reporting standards did not exist – where management could develop its own numbers based on its own poorly-defined criteria. Management might be tempted to create numbers that provide the illusion of performance but in reality are largely irrelevant to measuring the actual performance […]
In Honor of CPA Day, Let’s Talk Maryland Colleges’ CPA Exam Results
Contributor note: I'm in Annapolis all day with Tom Hood and the amazing Maryland Association of CPAs for their annual CPA Day. Follow #CPADAY12 on Twitter for live updates as Maryland CPAs storm the State House! Though no one has asked for these results, it's only fitting that I cover Maryland CPA exam performance from […]
2010 CPA Exam All-Stars, Illinois Edition
This one's for my FIBs! Based on the 2011 Candidate Performance book (2010 CPA exam data), Illinois ranked 4th in size of the 55th NASBA jurisdictions (trumped only by California, New York and Texas) and ranked 10th in overall CPA exam performance. 4,274 Illinois candidates sat for the exam in 2010 and they took 2,509 […]
At Last, Here Are the Top (and Bottom) CPA Exam Performers Among New York Colleges
Alright, you guys have hounded me enough. I'm sorry it took so long but there are A LOT of New York schools. I mean a lot. And I'm not too smart when it comes to numbers so it's kind of overwhelming to pick through the data in the 2011 Candidate Performance Book for the info […]
And Now, We’re Going to Judge Florida Colleges’ Performance on the CPA Exam
First, can I just say I am beyond thrilled that you guys even care about these CPA exam stats? I mean that. I half expected all of you to call me a boring loser for wasting precious Going Concern real estate going over these, so thanks for proving me wrong. I might still be a […]
Women Partners at PwC: It’s Not About Numbers
PwC UK Chairman Ian Powell would like to see more women around the office (obviously he hasn’t been to the San Francisco digs lately) but is taking this new stance slow. As in really slow.
As is, 14% of PwC’s partners are women. 14%! Trailblazers that they are, Powell has decided a target of something like 20% will be reasonable to start. Obviously something is driving the ladies away, however, as P-Dubs takes on over 400 new women a year of the 1000 new grads they hire. What’s wrong, girls, not the dream career you daydreamed it would be in college? “We take on over a thousand graduates a year and the number of women is in the high forties in terms of percentage,” Powell said.
Powell is not suggesting positive discrimination, in which women are treated like the fragile little things they are and given all sorts of breaks like months off to pop out kids, flexible work schedules to allow for time with their progeny and equal pay despite these many concessions.
While the UK considers quotas to force the profession to hire on (or is that keep) more women, Powell insists it is not just a numbers game. Funny, we thought 20% was a number? “There is a lot of debate about quotas but we don’t think that is the way forward. This is not just a numbers game.”
This begs the obvious question: if we’re pushing for “diversity” and making a huge deal out of this, aren’t we ignoring more important qualities such as skill, quality of work and talent by focusing on things like sex and race just to appear to be diverse? If a man, woman, and black transsexual all have the exact same educational background and skill, I’m totally OK with a company going for the most diverse option but we all know there is no such thing as equality. Interviewees come from all backgrounds and bring a variety of talents to the table – that is what firms need to be looking for, not high heels and African ancestors. Equality means being given equal opportunity to thrive and grow, not special favors just because one happens to lack a Y chromosome.
PricewaterhouseCoopers targets women [Telegraph]