Gow and Kells unveil the Big Four story from the past to modern age and finally forecast what will happen on the firms. They structure the story into four parts, namely, Infancy, Maturity, The Difficulties of Adulthood and The Twilight Years.

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Infancy investigates the economic and cultural history of the Big Four. The authors share with us the Big Four’s global partnership structures, creation story of the modern accounting firm and the history of the Big Four partnerships.

Maturity describes how the Big Four change themselves in modern time.  Examples include how they defined professional values and boundaries, how they brand themselves and whom they hire. The focus here is finding how the modern Big Four culture emerged.

Part III, The Difficulties of Adulthood, highlights the challenges faced by the Big Four. Auditing is the foundation of the Big Four. However, it is apparent an underinvestment in auditing leading worse and worse of ‘audit quality’.

Gow and Kells then explore Big Four tax disasters and how a new ethic of disclosure is undermining old models of tax avoidance.  This part concludes the Big Four involved deeply in Chinese business that have gotten them into some serious hot water.

Finally, Part IV is concerned with obsolescence and endgames. Different pressures such as technological change, regulatory action and the arrival of disruptive competition are now forcing the firms to transform. Gow and Kells argue the Big Four can go wrong and fail with reference to the Medicis in the late middle ages and the Renaissance.