By Lavern Clarke, Satff reporterHENRY WILLIAMS, a senior partner with the accounting and consultancy firm KPMG Peat Marwick, is about to strike out on his own after 20 years and is teaming up with two other big names to launch their own consultancy.
Williams has partnered with John Beman, and I.V. Polly Brown, former president of Jampro, in a new management consultancy called FocalPoint Consulting Limited.
Beman and Brown now run their own firms, but under the arrangement, their companies will be merged into the new FocalPoint to form one entity. The company has already been registered and the partners have set up offices at the PCJ building in New Kingston.
Beman left KPMG to go solo two years ago; and since 1994, Brown has run Global Associates Limited as Chairman and chief executive.
FocalPoint will not become operational officially until January 1. Williams was on leave from KPMG last week and up to this point remains a partner, but he will exit the firm officially on November 30, Wednesday Business has learned.
"We have been planning this for three years," said Williams, who is also the current president of the Institute of Management Consultants of Jamaica. Beman is treasurer of the Institute and Brown is honorary secretary.
The partners envision themselves as a regional management consultancy, and have begun setting up a network of associates in major countries of the region, including Trinidad and Barbados, in preparation for the New Year launch.
Williams said his move is benchmarked on two factors: a personal peeve that consultancy has remained a secondary product to the auditing functions of the large accounting firms; and because international developments, partly based on regulatory changes, have seen accounting firms shedding their consultancies.
In the post-Enron meltdown, which brought the practices of its accountants Arthur Andersen under scrutiny, the American Securities Exchange Commission began laying out new guidelines to limit the operations of accounting firms to erase the conflicts in the roles the firms played in the corporate governance structure.
Additionally, with the emergence of more accounting malpractice at companies like WorldCom, the market started looking to separate entities for the services.
Consequently, players like KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers - two of the world's top five accounting firms - have been divesting that side of their operations, opening up business opportunities for consultancies.
While the trend has not fully manifested itself in the Caribbean, Williams said it was only a matter of time before it did.
The partners have been having discussions with the local PriceWaterhouseCoopers to send business their way. Managing Partner, Everton McDonald, says there have been some private discussions, but adds that while PWC has disposed of its consultancy arm, there are certain advisory services that the Jamaican office will continue to offer.
