He continues, 'mysteriously' to Kellaway's mind and mine for that matter: 'As our brand strengthens, the commitment we have to each other also increases.'
There's a final helping of 'mush': 'We will take our performance to the next level, provided we move forward collaboratively, as a team.'
Kellaway isn't impressed: 'Quigley doesn't sound as if he means it. He sounds as if he's had a partial lobotomy.'
She concludes: 'Does this then mean that Quigley's is the worst motivational e-mail ever? Alas no. The saddest thing about his words is not that they are bad in the corporate scheme of things. They are simply average.'
Glorious stuff. And while we're on the subject of Deloitte, I see (via Accmanpro, though the post appears to take a pop at our esteemed publication) that the firm has a fan forum.
GreenDotLife promises the real story on Deloitte. I think. The site itself doesn't name the organisation it's tracks, stressing: 'This site is not affiliated with any company you may think it's affiliated with, and while we can't name the company we think you think it might be affiliated with, we're pretty sure you're thinking what we're thinking'. The mask does slip occasionally and and the D word slips out. The branding is also a giveaway.
Tantalisingly, it also appears to suggest that the site was taken down due to corporate pressure.
'When we brought down GreenDotLife we got many e-mails asking why and if it would ever return to grace your Internet connection again,' the site says. 'he answer is: we took it down because we were asked to by certain parties. Why are we putting it back up now? Cause we got a really impassioned letter saying that reading new posts on GDL was the highlight of someone's day and in fact, we missed it as well.'

Needless to say I'll be keeping an eye on it from here on in.

'Peter Jibson, managing partner of Mazars in Scotland, says his firm intends to meet its goal of doubling Scottish turnover to £14m within five years, at least partly through mergers, which he says the firm will pursue only if target firms "have the right values and approach".

'Sandy Manson, the new chief executive of Johnston Carmichael, detects a "number of opportunities" for further acquisitions, but he adds his firm will only do deals where there is a "good fit" with his firm's culture and approach.'

Tenon is also looking at targets:' Scottish managing director Tom MacLennan says the firm - which gained its Scottish presence through the acquisition of Scott Oswald in 2001 - is "particularly interested in talking to accountancy firms that want to partner with a national practice, to smaller firms that can offer a specialist service, or to established firms looking for development or managed exit opportunities".

'He wants to boost turnover from £15.8m to £25m by 2012.'

And Jim Campbell, senior partner of Campbell Dallas, says: "The long-term strategy for the practice has for some time been the creation of a Scotland-wide presence to back the firm's Scotland-wide offering," he says.'

For Scotland, read the rest of the UK - and perhaps the world.

In Canada the firm has called off talks with BDO Dunwoody, but in Australia Grant Thornton is being acquired by WHK Group, a consolidator, for cash and approximately 600,000 WHK Group shares. The deal is expected to complete on July 1.

'Female chartered accountants still experience a ‘glass ceiling’ in the workplace as they strive to become partners at their firms,' concluded the research team led by Professor Elizabeth Gammie of Aberdeen Business  School, Robert  Gordon  University.

'The reason – a ‘macho’ culture of long hours and informal male networks in operation within professional accountancy firms.'

Nearly a third of women of the 600 or so ICAS members who responded to the questionnaire felt that they had experienced workplace discrimination.

Some of the interviewees tell terrible stories of their workplaces.

'When I first became a partner I walked into my first partners’ meeting and one partner said, ‘oh great you are here to make the coffee,' said one female Big 4 partner. A female partner in a large firm repeats a story I've heard many times. 'If I had a £1, and I know some of the female senior managers as well, if they had a £1, for every time somebody said to them are you thinking about babies and when are you going off to have them? So there is that issue that is always hanging around,' she said.

Another female Big Four partner hits the nail on the head when she said: 'The different way men treat women hasn’t stopped. I was frustrated by the reaction of some of my fellow partners or clients, although I now react differently to chauvinistic comments. I have learnt to handle it better; I now laugh them off, although I still receive the odd comments which are indicative of an underlying chauvinistic feeling. If you are 28 and striving for the top then you may react differently.'

 
Taken together our Top 50 and the ICAS research should give firms plenty to think about over the summer.