Not long ago, Arthur Andersen announced a new Business Audit system. This major advance in auditing financial statements is designed to give clients better, more timely insights to improve financial reporting processes and to manage business risks better. Andersen says more than 125 teams in 10 countries field-tested the system. Alarmingly, even the highest-ranked firms scored only average or a little above in working to integrate laterals into the firm culture. Last year, the firm created an Office of Retention and hired its first national director of orientation.
Management is the preserve of a distinct class of professionals whose only job is to manage.
The management of Andersen is in the hands of full-time business people who are not trying to be practitioners. They are motivated to develop business and to think about nothing else. If business development requires a substantial long-term investment, they will arrange it. The investment may hit current profits or penalize partners, but it will not hit the managers. They are paid specifically to make this sort of decision.