Arthur Young was born in Scotland. He obtained the law degree from his university study but he did not like practicing law. Instead, he was interested in banking and also investment. Therefore, he traveled to the US in 1890 and tried to find opportunities to work in the accounting field. In 1906, he created his own accounting firm called Arthur Young & Company. The co-founder of this firm included his brother Stanley.

What they are famous for

Arthur Young was an innovator in the accounting field. He tried to use different ways to look into the details of accounting documents and provided good advice for clients. The advisory services provided by Arthur Young were particularly well. Of course, the core business of accounting firms like bookkeeping and auditing were also famous in the company of Arthur Young.

When the accounting firms entered the era of global competition, all accounting firms had to find a way to survive in the competitive market. In 1924, Arthur Young allied with some professional accounting firms from Britain, such as Broads Paterson & Co. With this, Arthur Young could focus on his business in the US while his partners would work hard in the UK and they would build a common network of business together in order to survive in the global market.

How they affected the world today

Since Arthur Young provided a very solid foundation for the company to grow, the company of Arthur Young maintained a nice market share among all accounting firms. It was one of the big eight firms in the 1990’s. In the 1990’s, Arthur Young decided to merge with the Ernst & Whinney firm in order to become a more competitive firm. This gave birth to the Ernst & Young accounting firm.

From this, the importance of Arthur Young could be found. Without the work of Arthur Young, the company could not be a good one in the accounting field and it would not be easy for Ernst & Young to be formed nowadays. It would be precious to have the existence of Arthur Young and his work was important in building the professional image of accountants from Scotland. At that time, there were the US accountants and British accountants and Arthur Young demonstrated that Scottish accountants could also work in a professional way in the auditing field.

While he was leading the company, Arthur Young tried to educate all the company staff with his experiences. This knowledge-sharing culture helped the accountants to learn from their seniors and grow. When they become senior, they would also teach the juniors.

To conclude, Arthur Young was influential to the modern accounting field. The establishment of his company helped the accounting world to have a solid and reliable service provider, which is Ernst & Young. Up till now, Ernst & Young still keeps the good professional practice in all accounting and auditing projects and it is always trying its best to make sure that the quality of audit engagement projects would be free from materials errors.