What's in a name?
Latest victim of the curse of Andersen Consulting is … Andersen Consulting, as usual. Despite being in the seventh year of their decree nisi from Arthur Andersen, and accompanying every press release with a “Note to Editors” which reads “Do not confuse us with Arthur Andersen or Keith Burgess will pull your arm off and hit you with the soggy end”, the consultants are still regularly confused with their beancounter siblings, particularly by the national press. Most recent culprit is the Daily Telegraph which confidently attributed Andersen’s latest multimillion outsourcing coup to “accountants Arthur Andersen”. Meanwhile the Arthur Andersen press office chuckles benignly and invests its publicity budget on consols.
Small wonder that many Andersen (C) partners dream privately of an absolute separation, followed perhaps by a new, brand-friendly name. At this point I would normally launch a competition, “Find a new name for Andersen”, but I will refrain until I can persuade its marketing department to stump up for a Wolf Ollins-size fee as a prize.