Newman leaves the blogosphere
Farewell to Jeremy Newman, who stood down as BDO Stoy Hayward's UK chief on Friday. And farewell too to his blog. Launched in 2006, Newman was the first large firm managing partner to blog. Sadly, as Newman heads off into the sunset so does his blog. And as none of his contemporaries has followed his lead, regular public access to thinking at that level will be limited.
There is some good news, though....
After a break Newman will return in October as head of BDO International and and he does intend to blog again at BDO International's website.
By then he'll have plenty in his intray - not least the £264m claim from Banco Espirito Santo in the US on BDO Seidman that it was negligent in its audits of factoring company Bankest. It's a case incidentally that could lead to an international network being found liable for the actions of a member firm. So it should make for interesting reading.
And while Newman plays this threat down on AccountancyAgeTV this week - available here from Thursday - the danger is clear and present.
Hopefully by then he won't be the only senior figure within a firm doing so.
It's not just about senior figures - there are precious few blogs openly involving UK employees of major accounting firms at any level.
I'm not sure if firms have rules against it, whether the culture of firms would prevent it, or whether client confidentiality issues are stronger than in other industries, but for some reason there is a lack of transparency...
Posted by Anonymous | July 14, 2008 11:53 AM
I haven't heard of firms preventing staff from hosting blogs but I agree that there are precious few around. I suspect it's culture rather than diktat. But I'd love to know if anyone out there has been ordered to take one down - or warned not to post in the first place.
Posted by Damian Wild | July 22, 2008 6:35 AM