The Boundary Problem

A recent FT article about the drop in partner promotions at the Big Four was forwarded to me by many. The numbers showed a dramatic drop of 35% over three years. Deloitte cut from 124 to 60. EY from 74 to 34. PwC nearly halved. Meanwhile, partner profits hit record highs. KPMG: £816,000. Deloitte: £1 million+. I started writing about this trend a year ago and I can only see it increasing. The conventional read is that firms are protecting dying models through access restriction, pulling up the ladder behind existing partners while the industry contracts. But this interpretation misses...