評論
打印
Business
商業報道
Consultancy firms
咨詢公司
Strategic moves
戰略舉措
Big consulting and accounting firms are making a risky move into strategy work
大型的咨詢和財務公司正在戰略上鋌而走險
OPERATIONS consultants sit at the front of the classroom, says a partner at a strategy consultancy. Strategy consultants stay in the back, not paying attention, throwing paper airplanes.
一家戰略咨詢公司的合伙人說：運營顧問坐在教室的前排，戰略顧問坐在教室的后排投擲紙飛機，
But they still get the girls and get rich. Like so many caricatures, this one is cruel but contains a grain of truth.
盡管沒人搭理，可是他們仍然能金錢美女雙收。和眾多的諷刺漫畫一樣，盡管殘忍，它卻道出了事實。
Operations consultants—the fine-detail guys who tinker with businesses' internal processes to make them run better.
運營顧問是一些細節家伙們，他們對貿易的內部流程進行粗略的處理，以使其運行更流暢。
generally do not enjoy the same glamour or financial rewards as strategy specialists, whose job is to advise firms on make-or-break deals, adopting new business models and other big stuff.
一般來說他們不如戰略專家搶手，也沒有他們賺錢多。戰略專家則是負責建議公司做孤注一擲的交易，采用新的商業模式或者其他大型事務。
Although in practice their work overlaps, the two have until now remained distinct businesses.
盡管在實際中他們的工作有重疊的部分，可是這兩者至今仍涇渭分明。
Strategy firms like McKinsey, Bain and the Boston Consulting Group hire from the top universities, are packed with highly paid partners and whisper their counsel in CEOs' ears.
戰略公司，比如麥肯錫，貝恩和波士頓咨詢公司，他們從頂尖大學雇傭大量的高薪員工，專門給總裁出謀劃策。
In contrast, operations specialists such as IBM, Accenture and the Big Four accounting firms employ armies of lower-paid grunts; and tend to answer to the client firm's finance or tech chiefs.
相反的，譬如IBM、埃森哲咨詢公司和四大會計師事務所這樣的操作專家則雇傭低薪大軍，往往他們卻做上了客戶公司的財務或技術主管。
This year, however, that line has begun to blur.
然而今年，他們的界限就變得模糊了。
In January Deloitte became the largest of the Big Four by scooping up the assets of Monitor, a strategy firm that had gone bust.
一月，德勤公司通過收購破產的戰略公司莫尼托成了四大會計師事務所之一。
And on October 30th its closest rival, PwC, said it would buy another strategy firm, Booz & Company, for a reported $1 billion.
十月三十號它最有力的競爭者普華永道會計師事務所宣稱將斥資十億美元收購另外一家戰略公司博斯公司。
If Booz's partners approve the deal, it will vault PwC back into first place.
如果博斯的合伙人批準了這筆交易，這將會幫助普華永道重登第一寶座。
The accountancies' push into strategy has been a decade in the making.
會計師們推進戰略的形成已經十個年頭了。
During the late-1990s technology bubble they beefed up their IT-consulting arms.
20世紀90年代末期，科技的進步使得他們不得不加強他們的IT咨詢武器。
But in 2001 Enron, an energy-trading firm, went bust and took its auditor, Arthur Andersen, down with it.
但是2001年一家能源交易公司安然破產了，它的審計員也被拖下水了。
In response, America's Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-governance reform, which banned firms from doing systems consulting for companies they audited.
于是，美國國會通過了薩班斯-奧克斯利公司監管改革法案，該法案禁止企業為他們審計的公司做系統的咨詢。
As a consolation prize, the Big Four made a fortune helping clients comply with the new law.
作為安慰獎，四大會計師事務所通過幫助顧客遵守新的法律而大發橫財。
Their advisory businesses, full of potential for conflicts of interest with their auditing side, by now seemed dispensable.
他們的咨詢業務與他們的審計方面充滿了潛在的利益沖突，現在看來也是可有可無了。
All but Deloitte had sold off those divisions by 2003.
除了德勤其他會計師事務所都在2003年前處理掉了這些部門。
Just as the workload from Sarbanes-Oxley began to dwindle, the 2008-09 financial crisis hit, causing consulting revenues to dip.
正如薩班斯-奧克斯利法案的出臺減少了工作量，2008年到2009年的金融危機的沖擊造成了咨詢工資的減少。
But once the economy recovered, the climate for the Big Four started to resemble the 1990s.
而一旦經濟復蘇，四大會計師事務所又會像20世紀90年代那樣如日中天。
They began to rush back into consultancy, encouraged by its high margins and double-digit annual growth rates at a time when revenue growth from auditing and tax work had slowed.
當審計和稅收工作的工資增長緩慢而咨詢的工資年翻一番時，受高利潤的誘惑，他們又開始重操舊業。
In particular, Deloitte and PwC began gobbling up operations consultancies as they sparred for the top spot.
尤其是德勤和普華永道，在坐上頭把交椅的過程中，他們狼吞虎咽一般并購咨詢公司。
For years the strategy firms remained beyond the Big Four's grasp.
幾年里戰略公司都不被四大巨頭看重。
During the 2000s they had mostly prospered on their own, and their partners shuddered at the thought of being subsumed into giant bureaucracies.
2000年里它們自己昌盛了，他們的合伙人想到要卷入復雜的官僚政治就戰戰兢兢。
After the financial crisis, however, midsized strategy consultants hit hard times.
然而金融危機之后，中型戰略咨詢公司遇上了寒冬。
Cost-conscious companies with globalising businesses wanted either to hire boutiques with deep knowledge of their industries, or to benefit from the scale of generalist firms with offices everywhere.
注重節約成本的全球化企業要么雇傭有著豐富行業知識的精品店，要么就從到處都有辦公室的多面手公司的規模上受益。
Too big for some clients and too small for others, Monitor went under, and Booz—a spin-off from Booz Allen Hamilton, which now focuses on operations work for governments—went on the block.
像莫尼托這樣不大不小的公司倒閉了，而現在將重心放在操作工作上的博斯艾倫的子公司博斯則繼續步履維艱。
Both Booz and PwC say that the two sides of consulting are converging, and that more clients want a one-stop shop that can both devise a strategy and execute it.
博斯和普華永道都表示雙方正在合并中，而且更多的客戶都表示想要既能出謀劃策又能去實行策略的一站式商店。
Deloitte and Monitor claim their integration is already bearing fruit.
德勤和莫尼托則宣稱他們的合并已經初見成效，
There's been a very healthy two-way cross-selling opportunity, says Mike Canning of Deloitte.
德勤的邁克坎寧說：雙方有著非常良好的交叉銷售的機遇。
Nonetheless, Booz's leadership still faces a hard sell to get the deal passed.
盡管如此，博斯的領導地位仍面臨一筆艱難的交易的完成。
In 2010 the company's partners voted down a proposed merger with AT Kearney, another midsized strategy firm. This marriage involves far more risks.
2010年，博斯的合作伙伴投票否決了合并另一家中型戰略公司科尼爾的決議。
A significant number of Booz's clients would immediately be in doubt because PwC audits them—strategy consulting for audit clients is banned in many countries, and even where it is legal it is frowned upon.
這樁聯姻的風險大得多。相當一部分博斯的客戶立馬就會猶疑，因為普華永道審計他們，在很多國家替審計客戶作戰略咨詢是明令禁止的，即使合法也是令人不悅的。
Since the Big Four are structured as associations of national partnerships, Booz's staff would probably end up being divided by country, hindering the global co-operation that many big clients seek.
由于四大巨頭是國家合作伙伴組織，博斯的員工最終可能被國家分開，阻礙許多大客戶尋覓的全球合作商機。
Most important, each of Booz's 300 partners would have to trade meaningful sway over the direction of a highly profitable firm for a minuscule stake in a diversified, lower-margin empire.
最重要的是，為了從高盈利的公司轉化成一個極小的股權多元的、低利潤的帝國，博斯的300個合作伙伴每一個都要作有意義的貿易。
If the sale is approved, the test of its success will come in a few years, after Booz's partners receive their full payout and can head off.
如果銷售被批準了，博斯的合作伙伴收到了全額支付并能轉移方向后，接下來的幾年里對它成功與否的考驗將會到來。
An exodus would leave PwC empty-handed.
大批合作伙伴的離去將會使得普華永道一無所獲。
The Big Four are also running a risk far greater than the cost of their purchases.
四大巨頭也在運行風險，比他們所購物花銷要大得多的風險。
A decade ago they placated regulators by retreating from advisory work.
10年前他們退出咨詢工作穩住監管者。
High-profile deals like the Booz-PwC tie-up put the conflict of interest between auditing and consulting back in the spotlight:
諸如博斯和普華永道的結合這樣高調的交易使審計和咨詢的利益沖突再度成為人們關注的焦點：
after it was announced, Arthur Levitt, a former head of America's Securities and Exchange Commission, warned that the firms were slipping back towards old, bad habits.
消息傳出后，美國證券交易委員會前任掌門人亞瑟萊維特警告說該公司正在向陳舊和惡劣的習性倒退。
Any gains from pushing into strategy work might end up being outweighed by the cost of another regulatory crackdown.
推行戰略工作的任何收益也將被用在監管鎮壓的開銷而抵消。
