Inside Arthur Andersen: Shifting Values, Unexpected Consequences

Chapter 6. Sales Culture

Arthur Andersen was faced with maintaining the Andersen name and brand under internal and external pressures. By the 1990s, competition among the major accounting firms was intensifying, and Arthur Andersen was losing clients because of its tough conservative auditing opinions.^[1] Quality was still important at accounting firms such as Arthur Andersen, but success would now depend heavily on generating more revenues and improving profitability. With Andersen Consulting operating as a separate firm, Arthur Andersen lost a valuable resource and it found itself facing the same set of problems that it had faced in 1979. Audit revenue growth continued to remain flatter than desirable, and litigation was as powerful a threat ...