I’ve blogged before about the absence of management consulting blogs. Well it looks like Deloitte is signaling that they will not enter this realm because of risk and lack of clarity on how to legally protect the firm, which is a partnership structure.
From Rob O’Neill at the Sydney Morning Herald (need to register to see full article):
Big four accounting firm Deloitte has put corporate blogging on the back-burner following robust internal discussions about the company’s online strategies.
A proposal to start corporate blogging on leadership issues was put forward by the firm’s director of digital marketing and communications, Ryf Quail. But senior partners were concerned about legally protecting the firm, which is bound by a partnership structure.
I would speculate that by going public on this matter, and since Deloitte is considered to be a market leader in the consulting space, this is signaling 1) to employees that online strategies are a serious matter but need to be addressed appropriately and 2) to competing firms that Deloitte is not moving on blogging (and thus, other firms may really want to follow suit [like car manufacturers do with price leadership strategies of rising prices in a oligopoly-like market structure]).
Hat tip on Deloitte article: Niall Cook.