11/25/2023 0 Comments Touche ross![]() “I am convinced,” said someone who has known him fair years, “that Russell Palmer determined the day he joined Touche Ross that he was going to be head of the firm.” ![]() He joined the Detroit office of Touche Ross in 1956, and later worked in the Denver and Philadelphia offices. ![]() swimming star-and majored in accounting in the business program, graduating with honors. tended Michigan State University on an athletic scholarship - he was a high school. His own favorite maxim: “He can who thinks he can.” Raised in Jackson, Mich., he at. ![]() The new Touche program “Operation Taxwedge,” is an example of Mr. He denies any intention of pirating the competition, but adds, “Of course, if people approach us, we'll talk.” Palmer wants to pull in tax specialists from the outside. “Most see tax as an adjunct to their other business.” “No other firm really emphasizes its tax department,” he said. Palmer would like to see the tax share increase to 20 percent. Currently, 71 percent of the firm's revenues come from audit, 16 percent from tax and 13 percent from management advisory services. Now Touche is preparing to change the mix of its business by embarking upon a major expansion of its tax counseling work. Accounting firms have been forced to scramble for new business by seeking out smaller, closely held companies as audit clients and bidding for management consulting work in the lucrative public sector. In the 1960's, he noted, accounting firms did not have to plan for growth because of the steady influx of audit clients that resulted from the apparently endless stream of newly formed public companies registering with the S.E.C: “Business came rolling in over the transom,” he said.īut with the decline of the stock market in the 1970's, that source dried up. Palmer heatedly insists that growth is not a luxury but a necessity in a profession that is increasingly beset by severe competitive pressures, including sharp price‐cutting. as evidence that the firm has grown at a faster pace than its quality controls. They point to a recent $30 million judgment against Touche in connection with its audit of the now‐bankrupt United States Financial Corporation and major unsettled disciplinary charges filed by the S.E.C. Some competitors also grumble about ‘Touche's alleged “unprofessionalism” and slipping technical capabilities. Palmer's open discussion ofgrowth objectives does not endear him to his competitors in a field where reticence is considered next to godliness. We're probably growing at a rate of 7 or 8 percent annually.” Percent real growth internally, but we're not hitting it. “We're aiming for 10ĭeborah Rankin is a business and financial reporter for The New York Times. He predicts that Touche's revenues for fiscal 1978, reflecting the Lasser merger, will approach $260 million for the United States and $450 million internationally. His stated goal is to put his firm into the No. Palmer has overseen substantial gains at Touche, which has roughly doubled revenues in that time to $185 million in the United States and $350 million worldwide. Nonetheless, in the six years since he assumed the top spot, Mr. Firm-tofirm comparisons are difficult since the private accounting partnerships do not have to publicly disclose their own, as opposed to their public clients', financial data. Palmer, the merger catapulted Touche off the bottom rung of the Big Eight ladder, though some in the industry doubt that claim. Palmer indicated during a recent interview in his New York office, was to provide a base from which Touche can launch an ambitious expansion of its tax consulting services.Īccording to Mr. Lasser & Company, a medium‐sized accounting concern. Palmer masterminded Touche's merger ,last fall with J.K. The youngest managing partner of any of the major accounting firms, the 43-year-old Mr. Along the way, he's been buffeted by some stormy encounters with the courts and the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as by sharp criticism from his competitors, who have been less than impressed with his free‐wheeling and outspoken style. Palmer has been the quarterback of a campaign to push Touche's growth through aggressive marketing and expansion through merger. But for now, he is on a rather different tack he runs Touche Ross & Company, one of the nation's largest and most controversial accounting firms.Ĭlearly the golden boy of a once staid profession, Mr. Palmer could be running for public office. Strapping good looks, engaging smile, seemingly relentless jollity - Russell E.
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