Accountant Town

Samuel Price – A Senior Accountant

Biography

Samuel Price was born in 1821. He was the important accountant in England because he contributed a lot to the development of a famous global accounting firm nowadays.

Samuel Price came from Bristol. He was the son of a stone potter locally. He did not give up his study.

After his study, he entered a local firm called Bradley, Bernard & Co. as the junior accounting staff. In 1848, he formed partnership with William Edwards. However, the partnership was a very short one because the partnership dissolved in 1849.

After the failure in forming that partnership, Samuel Price decided to run his own accounting office. In the following decade, the firm was led by Samuel Price and the firm grew in a stable rate.

What they are famous for

In 1865, he received offer from other people to form partnership again. This time, there were two men called Holyland and Waterhouse who made the offer. At that time, Samuel Price decided to spend more time on the Institute of Accountants instead of operating the accounting firm so he accepted the partnership offer. He left the office work for his partners and he devoted a lot of time to the Institute of Accountants in his country.

In 1880, the England & Wales Institute of Chartered Accountants was formed. The institute was important in the development of accounting industry in England.

How they affected the world today

The establishment of the Institute mentioned above was one of the influential achievements that Samuel Price had made for the world nowadays. He tried to codify the practice of accountants in the UK and this helped the UK accounting firms to gain international respect and reputation. Therefore, Samuel Price could be regarded as one of the most important gatekeepers of the accounting standards in the UK back then.

Of course, another important achievement that Samuel Price had made to the world was his accounting office. Holyland later quitted the partnership and Price and Waterhouse were left. They continued to build the firm and gained significant reputation in the accounting industry. The office of Price Waterhouse was expanded to New York from the UK in 1890, three years after the death of Samuel Price.

Although Samuel Price did not witness the firm’s expansion to other parts of the world, his work was the important key for such an expansion. The prudence elements injected by Samuel Price and Waterhouse helped them firm to keep the reputation over the hundred years of operation and this helped the whole firm to become the largest accounting firm in the current world. The integration with the Cooper firm helps the firm to become PricewaterhouseCoopers in the current world.

In conclusion, Samuel Price was an important man who guided the English accountants to build the professional image. The formation of his accounting office helped the accounting industry to have a reliable accounting firm. Without his efforts in accounting standards safeguard, it could be hard for accountants to gain support from clients nowadays.

James Marwick – The Scottish accountant

Biography

James Marwick was the son of Sir James David Marwick, who was the Orcadian. James Marwick was a hard-working man and he was qualified to be the chartered accountant when he was young. He began his accounting work in Glasgow and later he travelled to Australia for the bank examination of some Scottish investors.

What they are famous for

An important fact about James Marwick is that he was one of the founders of the KPMG firm. In 1894, he travelled to the USA and he was impressed by the numerous business opportunities there. As a result, he decided to stay there and tried to look for a reliable partner for him to cooperate and expand the accounting business.

The schoolmate of James Marwick, Roger Mitchell, joined him and tried to find business opportunities in the New York City. They tried to form the business practice of accounting and it was labeled as the perfect partnership for ‘front office and back office cooperation’.

After several years of time, they expanded the business to other countries. There was the London office of their business. This established the solid foundation for the firm to achieve further successes in the later time.

How they affected the world today

James Marwick was an important man in the Scottish accounting industry. He was one of the earliest chartered accountants there and he was one of the pioneers in exploring overseas business opportunities in the accounting field. He stayed in the US and explored the opportunities there and he did not give up in finding a reliable partner to cooperate and build good success of the business.

Although James Marwick did not actually witness the formation and naming of KPMG firm, the accounting office that he established was the fundamental part of KPMG global in the world nowadays. The KPMG firm was built by the client network established by James Marwick and it was him and Mitchell who helped to find the other partner of the firm, the ‘P’ of KPMG. Without their efforts in finding the reliable partners, the firm could never achieve success in the later time and evolved to the KPMG firm internationally.

Because James Marwick established the London office apart from headquarter in the US, there were a lot of important achievements that he has made. For example, he had to travel around 15,000 miles per year in order to supervise the work of the both offices. With no computer technology at that time, it was actually not easy to maintain the contact between two offices and the travel made by James Marwick and his partner was necessary. But this type of communication helped the firm to be stable. Otherwise, the firm could hardly achieve a good internal control and business supervision.

To conclude, James Marwick was the one who insisted the quality of accounting work. Even though he had to travel for a long distance, he did not give up in doing so. Therefore, the firm’s success is attributable to his efforts.

George Touche – The Co-founder a Big 4 Accounting Firm

Biography

George Touche was born in Edinburgh. He was the son of a banker so he has a close connection to the business world since he grew up. He studied in the Edinburgh Institute and the University of Edinburgh later. Then, he became the chartered accountants in 1878.

What they are famous for

George Touche did not start his career as the accountant right after his graduation. Instead, he was appointed as the secretary and director of many companies gradually. It was partly attributed to his family reputation at that time.

In 1899, he established his own firm in accounting field. The firm was called George Touch & Co. When he worked in this company, he tried to relax the work of an accountant. Instead of urging his staff to work a lot to achieve the result, he would emphasize the importance of being people-oriented in management. He would not try to make the staff work too hard. Instead, he would give his staff time to take a break and stop a bit when they were too frustrated.

Apart from being a famous accountant, George Touche was also a politician. This was a bit different from the traditional image of an accountant. George Touche was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament in the North Islington and he was knighted in 1917.

How they affected the world today

As mentioned above, George Touche introduced a new way of management to the accounting firm. Later, when the firm was integrated or merged with other accounting firms, the business management practice of George Touche was still kept. In other words, the later Deloitte firm evolved from Touche was also more people-oriented than result-oriented. No doubt, staff had to work very hard from time to time in order to achieve the result. However, they would be given time to take a rest and to think more from their personal goals instead of only working on the auditing or accounting papers. This was an important practice which helped many of the accountants to control their emotion and work-life balance well.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu was an important accounting firm in the world nowadays. It is regarded as one of the important big four accounting firms in the current world. Part of the foundations of this firm comes from the office established by George Touche. The firm of George Touche mainly handled the tax work at that time and this helped the partnership of Deloitte Touche grow very well because the income tax projects were not handled by many accountants at that time. In other words, the market share of George Touche firm in the tax field was large and this helped the whole partnership to grow.

In conclusion, George Touche was an important person in establishing Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Although it could not see the result achieves by the firm nowadays, his great work done in the initial establishment of the firm and the management of staff there helped the firm to achieve its results nowadays.