RIP Booz & Company
PwC completed its acquisition of Booz & Co today.
Regulators approved the deal, as we expected.
They appear to have conveniently overlooked or ignored the large conflict of interest issues posed by a merger of this size between an accounting firm and a consultancy. We outlined these risks in an earlier article.
Booz & Co (a well known and respected brand in the consulting world) has also changed its name to “Strategy&”.
We understand that the name was changed for legal reasons, but if PwC is trying to create a new and powerful brand then “Strategy&” is a horrible choice. The name is not distinctive, remarkable or in any way interesting. It is merely descriptive & self limiting.
PwC reported that “This new name, which will be used alongside the PwC name and brand, reflects the strength in strategy consulting that Booz & Company brings to the PwC Network and the benefits this deal will bring to all clients and stakeholders.”
From the way that PwC describes the transition (and judging by the choice of name itself) it is clear which firm wears the pants in the PwC/Booz marriage.
PwC’s announcement also lacks any semblance of celebration. It feels to us more like reading an obituary. “Booz & Co is dead, and the employees who formerly worked there now serve the PwC juggernaut [insert evil laughter here]”.
As we highlighted in our earlier article, cultural integration is a difficult and delicate process.
We predicted that PwC would be tempted to do too much too soon, and these predictions appear to be coming true.