Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, May 30, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, May 30, 2002 |
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Opinion
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Accountancy Columns - Account Speak Gulping guilt D. Murali
IT WAS one of those routine occasions when I usually run into CAs and when the chat rambles round where you did your articles, when you qualified, plus a fair amount of namedropping. "I can't tell you where I did my term," he said with a gulp, holding an unsipped coffee. I nodded understandingly; it must have been a dummy deal. "Andersen," he said, looking away. Now this could be the same story elsewhere too: A grandparent shuffles in the park-bench when his friend asks, "Is your daughter's son still in... ?" A prospective bride looks at the flooring, half-shy and half-ashamed, and blurts out, "I used to work in an audit firm... " A kid finds it tough to answer the question, "What is your pop?" Or the sweeper who is afraid of losing a new job if he disclosed he had worked `there' and Onyx-ed the shredded stuff. Well, the firm was to have folded about 55 years ago when its founder Arthur Andersen died. That would have been a natural demise, as happens with political parties and mommy-daddy shops. But in this age of quickfixes and smart solutions, it defeats logic that so many have to live with a `guilt' and smudge their CVs. In a world that can accommodate Saddams and other goddamned people, there is no real need to throw away the `Andersen' sticker as if it were chewed gum. Can we not paste it elsewhere? If we can accept `Amul' and `Lux' not only for their usual products but also for vests and briefs, why not have `Andersen' brand of soaps and shredders, pencils and knives, squirts and soft toys that everyone wants to have a squeeze at. With hordes of Fortune 500 companies deserting it, the firm could even think of offering the plain-vanilla bookkeeping work for clients. That could be like having a rocket-scientist as your chauffeur, or an ex Miss Universe at your reception desk. Flattering thoughts, but the idea is no different from giving a `community service' sentence to a convict. Why kill `Andersen'?
hindubusinessline@hotmail.com
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