Last week I received the latest Alumni newsletter from Deloitte, the firm in which I was a partner before establishing Guilford Accounting.
It included a fascinating article entitled ‘What can we learn about learning through work?’ and a podcast featuring the Dean of the EMEA Deloitte University which you can watch here.
Having trained at Arthur Andersen & Co. before becoming a partner at Deloitte I was fascinated by how closely the Deloitte University resembles the Arthur Andersen worldwide training in facility at St Charles outside Chicago which I attended in the 1970s.
Arthur Andersen & Co. opened its training centre in St. Charles, Illinois, in 1970 after the firm purchased the former home of a Catholic women’s college north of downtown St. Charles specifically to centralise its training operations. This facility became known as the Andersen Centre for Professional Education and was renowned for its rigorous and immersive training programmes for new recruits and the continuing education for partners and employees.
When Arthur Andersen collapsed in 2002 the St. Charles training centre was the firm’s only major operating asset left and after the closure the facility was rebranded as the “Q Center” and shifted its focus from exclusive internal training to serving as a conference and event centre becoming one of the largest conference centres in North America.
The opening of Deloitte University in 2024 is a reminder of just how ahead of the times Arthur Andersen & Co. was in the 1970s with its focus on training.
Of course the current UK practice of Deloitte benefited from the collapse of Arthur Andersen &Co. by recruiting many of its partners and staff. This noticeably changed the culture of Deloitte and has had a significant effect on its subsequent attitude to training.
I recall a conversation with my then senior partner in the 1990s (before the influx of ex-Andersen folk) in which I bemoaned the lack of training opportunities for both partners and staff to be met with the response that ‘if we train them they’ll leave!’ to which I remember replying ‘but what if we don’t train them and they stay?’ I must have rememberedd this from my Andersen days as it’s quoted in the podcast.
I am fortunate in that since I joined Arthur Andersen & Co. 50 years ago I experienced the best training available. I have continued to believe in investing in lifelong learning ever since wherher it be through courses, reading or more recently online resources.
Whatever life throws at you no-one can ever take away the knowledge and wisdom you have accumulated in life.
For any aspiring business leader or accountant that is probably the most important lesson you can ever learn.
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