Andersen Just Had to Get Back Into Consulting. Look at What Happened.
CORRECTION: The Washington Investing column in the Feb. 11 Business section incorrectly reported the status of Ernst & Young's consulting practice. Ernst & Young sold its global management and information technology consulting practice in May 2000. (Published 2/12/02)</br></br>Last week, the big accounting firms all said that having seen the light of Enron, they will somehow segregate their accounting and consulting operations.</br></br>The consulting conflict is obviously not the only thing that's wrong with corporate accounting, but building a barrier between auditing and consulting or splitting them into separate companies is a good start.</br></br>Cutting apart the two businesses, as the accounting firms well know, will be radical surgery, requiring the companies to fundamentally change the way they manage, operate and market their services.</br></br>The separation anxiety will be greatest at Ernst & Young, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The need for the split was recognized years ago by KPMG and what was then known as Arthur Andersen.