My interview for ISB was smooth for the most part. There were hardly any difficult questions and most of it was general conversation about the economy & the CA profession.

One of the panel members was a CA, though he did not tell me that initially. He had put forward the question "Do you think the CA profession is getting commoditized?" By commoditization what he meant was that is it only about the fees being quoted or is the quality of work also taken into account. This was a question where we had a healthy debate...almost 10 minutes went into this.

My take on the same was basically as follows:

1. The quality is definitely taken into account. I gave an illustration of a recent assignment which we won for a listed Company which is part of the Sensex. This was a prestigious assignment not only because of the brand name of the Client but because the scale & scope of the assignment was unprecented for the CA profession in India. It required about 50-60 people working full time on the assignment across different locations in India. Further, all the Big 4 had put in very aggressive proposals for the assignment.

2. In the end it came to us. I don't think this was solely because of the fees we had quoted which in any case was quite high. The team which we had put together for the delivery was of the highest quality. It involved specialists from respective fields and were headed by the Service Leader of the Practice for India as well as the Territory Senior Partner for India. Also we had planned to involve Senior Partners from overseas territories (one from US & one from Malaysia) who would be involved hands-on with the Project. Added to it was the deep experience PwC already possessed in this field. I believe it was the strength of the team which we brought across the table which ultimately clinched the assignment for us.

3. On a different note, I feel that fees quoted should in any case be a major issue. If all the Big 4 are bidding for a project, logically the team expertise & experience across them would be more or less similar in nature. So in a situation where there are 4 options, all equally good, for a Company to choose from, it is logical that it would choose the cheapest option. In the end, the Company has to look to its bottom line also. If you get equal quality of service from X for Rs. 1 million why would you select Y & pay him Rs. 2 million.

4. The problem would arise if you are just concentrating on the cost rather than the quality. In a situation where the Big 4 is quoting Rs. 10 Lacs & ABC Co. is quoting Rs. 2 Lacs and the assignment is awarded to ABC without regard to the fact that the Big 4 can give a much much better quality output then there is a problem. It would mean that the Client is just interested in getting the job done from a regulatory perspective and not from the point of value addition & possible improvements.

To summarize, I guess the problem is not with the profession but the mindsets of the Client Management. They alone can decide their perspective - are they interested in better quality or is it only about cost control. That I believe is the major differentiator and also an indicator to where the CA profession is heading on a long term.