Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (Nov. 10, 2003) -- The Big Four accounting firms' "feeding frenzy" for Fortune 500 business is creating a windfall of middle-market business opportunity for the best of the accounting profession, a leading practice management consultant told some 700 practitioners at the Creative Solutions Inc. annual users conference here.
Allan D. Koltin, president of Chicago-based PDI Global, said that the Big Four now consider engagements with small capitalization companies that have annual revenues of $50 million to $500 million "the scraps." He added, “They don't want to deal with scraps. So my advice to you is to seize the opportunity."
Koltin said the Big Four are still dealing with the shakeup caused by the demise of Andersen. He noted that when that firm ceased operations, it created new business for the remaining Big Four that has helped them within a year to realize organic growth that would have otherwise taken 10 years to achieve, with much of the growth coming from Fortune 500 businesses that had been Andersen clients.
"The Fortune 500 is really what the Big Four want to focus on. There's a feeding frenzy going on," Koltin told the CSI audience. Dexter, Mich.-based CSI is a Thomson business.
-- Roger Russell
