Udayan Sen, outgoing Deloitte CEO, gives employees parting gift of iPads and Kindles

MUMBAI: Not many Deloitte employees would have ever imagined getting an iPad or Kindle as gifts before they headed for a long weekend break on Thursday. But that’s exactly what happened, much to their pleasant surprise.

Udayan Sen, CEO of Deloitte, who hung up his boots on March 31 after leading the India operations for eight years, ordered some parting gifts for his staffers. Sen also wrote to his employees, thanking them for "standing by him" for the past eight years.

"All assistant managers to directors got iPads, while all executives and senior executives got Kindles," an assistant manager with Deloitte, who didn’t wish to be identified, said. "It was a very emotional exit for all of us anyway," said another partner with the firm. Venkatram replaced Sen as the CEO of the company, an event ET had first reported on March 30. Sen is credited with integrating five of the country’s oldest and most reputed firms under the Deloitte umbrella eight years ago.

He integrated SB Bilimoria, CC Chokshi, Fraser & Ross, AF Ferguson and PC Hansotia, before the Big Four — Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC — started gaining market share.

"All the five firms had different cultures and senior directors and partners came with their own attitude. Sen not only brought all the firms under one roof, but also made sure that the network grows," said a senior partner in the firm.

Currently, Deloitte is the biggest amongst the Big Four when it comes to the number of major companies it audits. However, it is set to face a big challenge two years down the line when the compulsory audit rotation kicks in. So, beginning 2017, all of Deloitte’s auditing clients will have to change their auditors, which is set to impact the firm’s revenues.

"It’s ablessing in disguise (audit rotation). We can now take consulting and advisory work for all these big companies, and our profitability would only go up," a senior partner told ET.