How many executives at smaller companies will start seeing things the way Clary does? (See "Same Straw, Smaller Back.") If new regulations and poor returns drive many smaller companies from the public markets, Group B firms may end up losing as much business as they gain. But even more tellingly, as Grant Thornton's Starr observes, "we as a profession have lost the public trust." Until the public regains that confidence, liability insurance and burgeoning regulations will remain troublesome, and the Second Six will find it difficult to step out of the second rank.
The Big 8
As of a decade ago, the names of the Big 8 accounting firms were Arthur Andersen, Coopers and Lybrand, Deloitte Haskins and Sells, Ernst and Whinney, Peat Marwick Mitchell (later KPMG Peat Marwick), Price Waterhouse, Touche Ross, and Arthur Young.
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