LEADER - Rover can boost your reputation.
Accountants are boring, runs the popular misconception. Tied to their desks, they make dry decisions about tax, audit and very little else.
Anyone still deluding themselves that this is the reality of the profession today should have been dragged in to the 21st century by the conclusion of the latest chapter of the Rover saga. Put simply, accountants helped secure the future of the firm.
A team from Deloittes worked flat out for ten days – including the last 48 hours without sleep – to raise the millions at stake. It was a feat that many a merchant bank corporate finance team would have been hard pressed to achieve.
The story doesn’t end there. Days after concluding the deal new Rover boss John Towers was telling the world how Rover was not losing as much as big, bad BMW had claimed. It was, he said, all down to German accounting standards and their requirement to depreciate assets more quickly. It has been a story extensively covered here since 1998.
Deloittes has sought to capitalise on its involvement in the Rover debate with a series of adverts in the national press announcing its role, a welcome boost for the firm.
But the profession at large should take heart – especially after almost one in three accountants quizzed in our Big Question survey last week said they were embarrassed to tell people at parties they are accountants.
Accountancy dull? The Rover case shows it is anything but.