At a dinner in Dhaka in 1986, I first met Ebrahim Dahodwala. He was the then the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan. In fact, he was the first President of the Institute from the profession, a position always held previously by the Secretaries to the Federal Government of Pakistan. He was…
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Ray’s World
Every global consulting company today has digital studios swarming with creative people in outlandish dresses, strange hairstyles and non-conformist thinking. In 2015, I visited the studio of Übermind, Inc which was acquired by Deloitte Consulting and rechristened Deloitte Digital. The CEO of the company was Shehryar Khan who did his schooling in Lahore, Pakistan. Their…
The “Made in Japan” CEO: Akio Morita who created Sony
In the fall of 1987, I had the privilege of meeting Akio Morita who was then the CEO of Sony Corporation, Japan. I had been invited by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) to co-write and present a paper at the XIII World Congress of Accountants which was held in Tokyo in October 1987. Morita-san…
Russi Mody: A man of steel and larger than life.
I had met Russi Mody at social occasions before but I did not know him well. In 1992, I was in my office in Price Waterhouse, when I received a call from him directly. He said, “Mr. Roy, I would like to discuss with you the Tata-Korf accounts, can I come and see you?” This…
The PwC Culture and Values: Anecdotes from past Leaders
The culture and values of an organization pass on from one generation to another. Neither brick and mortar endure nor people remain forever. But institutions which are built on solid values with a sustainable purpose, last a long time. The culture and value fabric of an organization are woven by anecdotes, stories, important events, inflexion…
Storm in a teacup at the Bengal Club
In May 2002, I was on a family holiday in Switzerland when I received a call from the Shri Amiya Gooptu, the President of the Bengal Club. The matter was urgent, he said. The General Committee (i.e. the Board of Directors) had decided to invite me to be a member and I should sign and…
The Big Deal: the Sale of PwC Consulting
After an abortive attempt to sell its consulting business to HP in 2000, the PwC leadership was looking for an opportunity to divest consulting. PwC officially announced that it was going for an IPO in June 2002. It fired the Global CEO of consulting and hired a new CEO from the airlines industry. His name…
My mentor from Down Under: Paul Brasher
I left India for the first time and landed in Melbourne, Australia on the 4th January 1979. It was a hot as hell summer. My first impressions of Down Under: I saw strangely dressed people walking in the airport. Men in shorts with long stockings and shoes and collared shirts with ties. I was soon…
On Price Waterhouse’s Secret Service to Bangladesh
Unlike in Sri Lanka, Price Waterhouse was traditionally strong in united Bengal largely because the India headquarters of the firm was in Calcutta. After partition, the Eastern part of Bengal became East Pakistan. R. Rahman, who used to work for Price Waterhouse, with his two friends Saifur Rahman and Aminul Haq formed Rahman, Rahman &…
Joseph Stiglitz: a proponent of development with shared prosperity
In September of 2011, I received a call from my friend from school Kaushik Basu. Kaushik was then the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India based in Delhi. He said that his famous economist friend from New York, Joseph Stiglitz would be in Calcutta with his wife Anya Schiffrin and would I host…