Serba Dinamik vs KPMG: A classic case of deluded high and mighty

Someone asked for my opinion yesterday about Rocky's posting on the fight between Malaysian company Serba Dinamik and global accounting firm KPMG.

First I have to say that I hardly write about corporate stuff because I'm not of that world.

I don't like the corporate world and in fact I don't really like most corporate people because of their profit driven attitude.

"All I care about is the bottom line. I couldn't care less about your campfire stories."...one of them told me once. Urgh. What an arrogant prick.

Okay. Enough of that and back to this Serba Dinamik (SD) versus KPMG case, which Rocky found to be so interesting to write about.

I will try to make it as simple and easy to understand as possible.

The way I see it, it's a case of a bunch of arrogant  (in this case most likely young) pricks backed by the name of their all powerful international firm who think they can bully their lesser equals from a local company.

I suspect the fact that SD is a bumiputera owned and run company also contributed to the inflated ego of the KPMG boys and girls who were assigned to handle its accounts.

It's a known fact that among corporate people, bumiputera companies are not as highly regarded as others. Of course they don't say it, but such a racist mindset does exist in the supposedly "bottom line is all that matter" corporate world. 

Anyway, do bear in mind that what basically happened was that SD actually engaged KPMG to handle its account. KPMG then found something that it deemed not right and reported it to Securities Commission causing SD's shares to suffer thus prompting SD to want to sue because KPMG didn't even bother to discuss the matter with it before lodging the report. 

It's like you hiring someone to check on whether your cooking is good and that person think you didn't put enough salt in it. Instead of telling you of the need to put more salt, that person went straight to your mother-in-law and told her that you were a lousy cook leading to the whole village thinking you were not only a bad cook but also a cheating wife. Well, you know lah how people's mouths are.

To understand why the KPMG boys and girls ended up doing that, we need to see how these supposedly reputable and mighty global firms work when it got a puny (Rocky's word) local company as a client.

They would assigned a bunch of inexperienced junior executives (most are probably fresh grads) to handle the assignment. It's after all just a puny bumiputera company's account.

But mind you, despite being green and none the wiser, these cikus have the same mentality as their seniors of looking down at companies such as SD. Hey, they are from KPMG what, one of the Big Four, or is it now the Big Three....whatever.

That attitude is what I believe that led them to report to the regulator without bothering to discuss the perceived problems with SD.

SD has said that the problem reported by the KPMG cikus could have been simply rectified if it was discussed. Well, too late, damage done already as SD's shares had went down like crazy because of the report.

Personally, I don't have much sympathy for SD per se, as they were foolish enough to buy into the hype over KPMG being among the Big Four as the best for the job of handling its account. They should have just hired a bunch of good local accountants at very very much lower price to do it with equal or even better results.

Why I bothered to write about it is because the majority of actual SD shareholders are normal people and in a way that includes me. Hey EPF money is in there, okay, so that means my money is also there.

Anyway, it's good that SD is taking KPMG to court as this may not only help to reverse the dropping of its shares but also possibly change things for the better in the corporate world.

Maybe, it would make the corporate boys and girls realise that they are living under the hyped impression that they are always  superior than others, the very same attitude of those KPMG pricks when they dealt with the SD account.

Hopefully, this whole thing will really get to court and become very public instead of being shelved after another round of corporate wheelings and dealings.