Practice Manager: KPMG tiptoes around Makinson Cowell's clients
The Big Four firm's latest acquisition will keep its brand, with 'independence' being the byword
IT’s OFTEN THE CASE that acquisitions of one firm by another sees the latter’s brand retained, for a time.
The usual reason for this is to not upset the client base, which, in some cases, might have chosen the firm over its now acquirer.
But where the acquirer is a global business, namely KPMG, and the acquisitions is a twenty-year old board advisory firm, Makinson Cowell, you’d expect the co-founder’s names to disappear into the ether. Not so.
The brand will live on – alongside KPMG’s – as Makinson Cowell/KPMG.
This is unlikely to be forever sustained – the Makinson Cowell brand will probably be ushered off stage left at some point when nobody’s looking.
But it does illustrate that in a world where the large firms are viewed as all-consuming and powerful, the last thing they want to do is give Makinson Cowell’s clients the jitters. After all, Makinson Cowell, apparently boasts a large number of FTSE CEOs on speed dial. KPMG won’t want to ride roughshod over them.
Oh, and the word ‘independent’ is used eight times in the press release of the deal.
