Price Waterhouse Coopers - Essay Example

Price Waterhouse Coopers Price Waterhouse Coopers is the largest professional service firm in the world. It has its base in London, United Kingdom. The firm has 771 offices across 158 countries in the world. It also employs 169,000 employees in this various countries according to 2011 statistics (Fenez 4). This large firm was formed in 1998 through a merger between Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse. However, their trading name was shortened in 2010 to PwC as part of rebranding exercise (Fenez 4). An organization structure encompasses the activities that take place in the organization such as task allocation, coordination, and supervision, which are aimed at the achievement of the organization goals, objectives, missions, and visions. It is also the perspective that individuals view their organization and its environment (Baligh 7-10). The objectives of the organization determine the different ways in which an organization can be structured (Fenez 4-6). PwC organization structure is structured in a way to determine the mode in which it operates and performs. Its organization structure lets this enormous company to express the allocation of the responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities, which involve the branch, department, workgroup, and individual (Fenez 4). The following structures show the organization structure of the company depending with country. Organization Structure Depending With Country Chairperson Chairperson of the Board Vice Chairman Director, Tokyo Director, Toronto Director, Sydney Director, United States Director, Washington Director, Utrecht Director, Stockholm Director, Paris Director, Hong Kong Director, Frankfurt Director, Atlanta Director, London Director, Moscow Director, Luxembourg Director Sao Paulo Organization structure Depending On Department Chief information officer Director global Clients & Markets Director Advisory Services Director Operations Director Risk Management & Quality Director Strategy & Transformation Director Tax Director Legal Director Assurance Director Policy & Regulation Director Global Transformation Director Human Resources Director Innovation Director Information Technology Director Brand & Communications Director Public Relations Director PwC Experience Senior partner China & Hong Kong Senior partner Germany Senior partner United Kingdom Senior partner United States Director Technology Although success has prevailed failure in PWC, the company has in several occasions been on the lime light for its actions. For instance in 1990, Internal Revenue Service seized most of the assets of Willie Nelson who they claimed that he owned $32 million in back taxes. However, this was not the case since these were disallowable by IRS and on suing PWC Willie got a fat sum for damages. Nevertheless, PWC is one firm that provides services to like Academy of Motion Pictures arts and Sciences, which makes it the tabulator and certifier of votes for the Academy awards since 1934. An article Over Cutting Corporation Tax Rate by BBC, on 8 August 2011, quotes the PwC Company explaining the various implications of cutting Scotland’s rate of corporation tax being highly complex. The article features PwC Company giving the advisory role to the government and the entities involved. In this article, the company examines the various effects of cuts in Northern Ireland where a new rate of just 12.5% was proposed (BBC News). The comments by PwC followed similar comments echoed by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which argued that matching Northern Irelands proposals could cost Scottish taxpayers about £2.6bn a year a claim that was dismissed by the Scottish government. PwC mission statements and ideas were well communicated. The role communicated in this case was to give a sense of direction on where the country was headed to after it adjusted its corporation tax. The mission of the PwC Company is to provide intellectual expertise to the various agencies and individuals who need it (BBC News). In a second article by BBC News Company dated 10 November 2011, the financial stress hitting homes in Wales is dealt with. PwC analyses the situation by saying those homes in Wales and the north east of England has jointly suffered the greatest household financial stress since the start of the recession. In this analysis, PwC looked at the various indicators such as unemployment, the prices of houses and the rate of income (BBC News). PwC predicted a tough year 2012 for Wales and an increase in the rate of public sector job losses. In this article, the argument of the Wales government was that growth was its main priority while the UK government argued that the economy was still expanding. However, PwC argued that the country of Wales faced a big challenge to replace public sector jobs with quality full time private sector posts (BBC News). Similarly to the first case, the PwC Company was giving an advisory role to the government. This is because the argumentative case that it raised contrasted with the government’s argument and the information they gave, revealed the advantages and disadvantages of the government implementing that initiative (BBC News). In one more article, Audit reveals how inflated tenders cost sh. 1.1bn, on 28 January 2012, PWC unravels how CMC shareholders lost shillings 1.1 billion through-inflated charges paid over a period of 5 years. This money was paid to a company owned by a CMC board member and a former chair of the board Mr. Muthoka. In discovering this fraud, PWC is giving a sense of direction to board members who have lost a huge sum of money. The PWC report was authenticated by the Nairobi Stock exchange giving CMC a chance to claim their money from the logistics company. In the same article, PWC is performing and advisory role to CMC who are now aware that they could have prevented this occurrence if they had given their tender on competitive bases (Okemwa web) Price Waterhouse Coopers uses social media to reach out to its diversified clients. Some of these social media include valuable information from its company and analysis of various micro and macro-economic variables. This information is useful to the company, as well as the outsiders who are interested in the information (BBC News). One way the company accesses its clients through social media is through the PwC chat section. This section provides live communication between the clients and the company. It allows clients to have a basic understanding of the company and acknowledges the clients of the various products and services that the company is able to provide. Secondly, PwC uses Twitter as a social media to access its clients. This media, similar to its website chat services, allows the management and the clients to interact. It allows the clients to give and gain information about the company and the clients can negotiate on the task that they want fulfilled by the company Naff and Kellough 5). Price Waterhouse Coopers is also available on the social networking site, Facebook. This social networking site allows the customers to interact with the company. The company also updates some of its valuable information in this site. This makes it easy for the company and its clients to interact and understand each other (Naff and Kellough 5). The great strength of the company using this social media network is that it allows the company to access and market itself to its clients. It also allows the company to market itself to new clients and reach to new markets. The social networking service is a good source for the company to acknowledge the world of its corporate social responsibilities (Naff and Kellough 5). One of the greatest risks that the company faces is the leakage of the information through these sources. The various individuals that are allocated the duty to update this information may provide information that is not necessary to members of these social networking sites. Secondly, the quality of information provided in this case is not adequate, as may be required. PwC is a large company, which needs to provide enough information to its clients. However, these social sites are not adequately covered. The use of these social media is in concurrence with the company’s mission and ideas. This is because they aim at providing this information to the public as part of their marketing strategies. Without the use of these social sites, the company would have faced difficulties market themselves to the public (BBC News). The company uses it website to access its clients. The website is segmented into various subsections, which have different applications. One of them is the login in section. This section allows the users of this website to register with the company. Important information is realized to this users in comparison the other users. The website also contains the contact addresses of the various branches that the company operates in. This contact information gives access to the website users to the branches available in the world. Clients use this contact addresses to reach out to the company and have their tasks solved by the company (Fenez 4). One of the strengths of this website is that it delivers the information about the internal strengths of the company to its clients. It exposes the unique selling proposition of the company to its clients. This is an internal strength of the company. As for the external strength, the company has a competitive advantage in that it is able to carry out research and other professional services at a lower cost as compared to its rivals (Fenez 4). This feature is included in the company’s website since the company allows clients to upload tasks on their website and negotiate the cost online. Weaknesses of this website are seen in that it does not adequately cover the information that all the clients may be willing to have. The company did an excellent job in including the contacts of its various branches in its website (Fenez 4). However, I feel that the company needs to improve its website to show how it is doing as part of the corporate social responsibility. The company should utilize the various potentials of the youths who are graduating from the different colleges in various countries. Its website should be formatted in a way that will enable the recent graduates to register and apply for various positions in the company. In addition, the website should be upgraded at a regular basis. This will enable the willing persons to access various information that they are interested in. However, I like to recommend the company for the enormous efforts that they have put to recruit large number of people and the advice they have given which have transformed the world. Works Cited Baligh, Helmy. Organization Structures: Theory and Design, Analysis and Prescription. New York: Birkhäuser, 2006. Print. BBC News. “BBC News: Scotland Business.” 2011. bbc.co.uk. Web 13, April 2012. < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-14452480 > BBC News. “Financial stress hitting homes in Wales, says PwC.” 2011. bbc.co.uk. Web 13, April 2012 BBC News. “PwC creating 247 highly-paid jobs in Belfast.” 2011. bbc.co.uk. Web 13, April 2012 Fenez, Marcel. PricewaterhouseCoopers Industry Outlook, in Conversation with TF1 and BBC Worldwide. 2009. Print. Naff, Katherine and Edward Kellough. A Changing Workforce: Understanding Diversity Programs in the Federal Government. Human capital series. 2011. Print. Okemwa, Job. “Audit reveals how inflated tenders cost sh. 1.1bn.” Kenya Car Bazaar. 2012. Web, 19 April 2012. Read More