“Big Ship, Big Swimming”. This phrase has long become winged. Therefore, it is not surprising that shortly after the appearance of such large players as Deloitte in the audit market & Touche ”,“ PricewaterhouseCoopers ”,“ Ernst & Young ”and“ KPMG ”, they were dubbed“ Big Four ”. More than ten years have passed since the founding of world-famous consulting groups, and they still hold the leading position. Both in Russia and in all CIS countries.
According to preliminary estimates of experts, the total revenue of the companies that are part of the Big Four is about 100 billion. dollars. In Russia, they own 35.2% of the domestic market. Compared to other states, these figures are more than optimistic. So, in Germany and Kazakhstan, 80% of concerns are served by specialists of PriceWaterhouseCoopeers and KPMG companies. And this indicates oligopol. Moreover, clearly expressed.
In the vastness of the Russian Federation, the situation is somewhat different. According to the Ministry of Finance, only 1.3% of large Russian organizations are clients of the Big Four. Each of them, in fact, is gold -bearing residential auditors. After all, such companies pay not only for the services of financial experts, but also for the brand brand AKG. The margin for the “loud name” is very noticeable. For each corporate client, representatives of the Big Four receive 14.5 times more income than their Moscow colleagues. As for regional consulting companies, the situation here is even more remarkable: for one attracted client, market leaders receive 28 times more money than their little -known competitors. And despite the fact that Deloitte in companies & Touche ”,“ PricewaterhouseCoopers ”,“ Ernst & Young ”and“ KPMG ”work less than 2% of Russian auditors.
It is curious that the customers of the “big four” are not at all embarrassed by the margin for the brand. Moreover, representatives of large companies are sure: the money invested in audit services of this level will pay off a hundred. Partly, they are right, believing that the professional training of “big” specialists makes themselves felt. But the high qualification is not at all a guarantee of the lack of errors. After all, everyone can allow an error when working with financial documentation. Visual confirmation of this – the results of independent studies conducted in the United States. According to the tax authorities, over the past year, representatives of the Big Four made 65 serious mistakes to verify the accounting documentation of large American companies. Moreover, it is not a fact that all the errors of the auditors came into the view of experts.
So how much are the services of auditors with a sign Pro? According to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the work of the Big Four employees is estimated 5.6 times more than the works of the capital’s inside-specialists. In annual equivalent, this difference is very, very impressive. If you believe the numbers, the brand for the brand costs Russian firms in 14237 million. rubles of annual compensation. Whether these costs correspond to the high level of service is not to judge us. Yes, and to say that the margin for the brand is for the auditors of the “semolina” would be wrong. After all, gaining the trust of customers, and most importantly – to justify their expectations is not easy. Therefore, a significant part of the profit of consulting agencies goes to maintain personnel assets and, of course, the image of the company. And this means that the money spent on the services of auditors, one way or another, goes to the result. Significant and quite tangible.