Professional Review on PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers)
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a professional services network that operates internationally. The company is ranked as the second-largest professional services company in the world. It is also one of the Big Four auditors, along with KPMG, Deloitte, and EY. Its headquarters based in London, United Kingdom.
PwC consists of a network of companies in 158 countries and 721 locations.
History
The company was formed in1998 by a merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand.
Coopers & Lybrand was founded in 1854 by William Cooper as an accountancy practice in London. Coopers & Lybrand also came as a merger between Cooper Brothers, Lybrand, Currie and Co, McDonald, and Ross Bross & Montgomery in 1957.
Price Waterhouse, on the other hand, was founded in 1849 by Samuel Lowell Price, an accountant. It was started as an accountancy practice in London. Price Waterhouse was also formed from the partnership between Price, William Hopkins Holyland, and Edwin Waterhouse.
After the merger, the company had a great
professional consulting branch, as did other major accountancy firms, generating much of its fees. Though cyclical, Management Consulting Services were the fastest growing and often most profitable area of the practice.
PwC planned to capitalize on MCS's rapid growth through its sale to Hewlett Packard but negotiations broke down in 2000. This made the company acquire Canada's largest SAP consulting partner Omnilogic Systems.
In November 2017, PwC made a record of being the first company among the Big Four accounting firms to accept virtual currency as payment by accepting bitcoin as payment for advisory services.
The brand name PwC was formed in September 2010 as part of the company’s rebranding effort.
Corporate Affairs
As of 2018, the company earned a yearly revenue of US$41.3 billion. Of the total revenue, $13.78 billion was made by its Advisory practice, $10.45 billion by its Tax practice and $17.06 billion from its Assurance practice.
The company is led by Robert Moritz who acts as the chairman. It employs approximately 250,930 employees.
The company remains the 5th largest privately owned company in the United States as of 2017.
Services
Out of the 500 companies in the Fortune 500, PwC provides services to 420 companies.
The company offers the following services; Assurance, Advisory, Tax Advisory, Tax Controversy, Strategy Consulting, Data & Analytics, Management Consulting, Financial Advisory, Actuarial And Legal.
The company is organized into the following three service lines:
• Assurance (41%) – these are services that are typically associated with financial audits.
• Advisory (33%) – these are services offered by PwC include two actuarial
• Tax (25%) – the company deals in International tax planning and compliance with local tax laws, human resources consulting, legal services, transfer pricing and customs.
Culture
The company is said to have a less competitive atmosphere because of the following endeavors:
• Charitable foundation – the company runs the PwC Charitable Foundation.
• Supporting education – in 2015, the company gave a $100,000 donation to the Florida International College of Business and the School of Accounting.
• Workers’ rights – employees at PwC are so free that they are the ones to suggest their own working hours.
• Code of conduct
Offices
The company has partners in about 800 offices across 157 countries in the world with more than 200,000 employees.
Prominent offices include; Seaport office tower in Boston and Magwa Crescent Waterfall City tower Midrand, South Africa.
Sum Up
Despite offering financial services, the company also sponsors Canada's CFO of the year awards. It also sponsors the international non-profit organization Slush, which organizes events that match technology and entrepreneurs' talents with major corporations and investors.
If at any time you may need a professional service, PwC will be the better option.
