Today also marks the inauguration of senior partner Ian Powell, only the third since the firm was created. But more than that it has a rival snapping at its heels for the first time, a regulator determined to inject more competition into the audit market and a business climate that is as unfriendly as it has ever seen.

Powell acknowledges as much in an interview with the Financial Times this morning.
'If you're number one and you're not agile, you're a target,' he says. 'We're a relatively conservative industry, and we've been a relatively conservative organisation . . . Now it's time for us to really start to use our position as market leader.'

So what challenges await Powell? Well, chief among them is the fact that PwC grew by 6% in the year to 30 June, taking its turnover to £2.1m. Deloitte is expected to announce it is within striking distance when it reveals its annual results later this year. Its anticipated 12% growth rate would see it break the £2bn barrier.

Meanwhile as a partner from the advisory side of the business, he'll know better than most that it faces a mountain to climb in the advisory market where only Deloitte - that pesky firm again - is taken seriously as a rival to the pure(r) play consultancies like Cap Gemini and Accenture.

And while few expect the Financial Reporting Council to extend the top end of the audit market any time soon, the depleted-to-decimated state of the markets PwC serves will keep Powell awake most nights for the foreseeable future. In truth he's not alone in that.

But, as he acknowledges himself, so long as PwC is the number firm all eyes will be trained in its direction.