October 3, 2002

6:12 AM

KPMG Consulting is now BearingPoint"Employees briefly rallied behind the chief executive's surname, Blazer, but that's also the name of a Chevrolet sport-utility vehicle. The name BearingPoint is based on navigational terms that signify 'setting a direction to an end point,' the company said." It seems like this one's going to last a bit longer than Monday did.
posted by dayvin (16 comments total)

And here the first thing it reminds me of is Global Crossing. Talk about your harbingers of doom.
posted by whatzit at 6:16 AM on October 3, 2002

The first thing it brings to mind with me is mooning: "The defendant was arrested for exposing his baring point to the opposing team".
posted by kerplunk at 6:47 AM on October 3, 2002

As in "Take that, Andersen! They haven't caught us being 'creative' yet!" perhaps?
posted by whatzit at 6:50 AM on October 3, 2002

Andersen Consulting becomes Accenture
PriceWaterhouseCoopers becomes Monday
Deloitte Consulting becomes Braxton
and now
KPMG Consulting becomes BearingPoint

To what aim? They all become single or compound words, but it seems like mid 90's branding ideologies to me.
posted by mook at 6:58 AM on October 3, 2002

yeah, that logo scales REAL WELL!.
posted by machaus at 7:14 AM on October 3, 2002

The first thing I think of is "Breaking Point" -- as in "hasn't this rebranding craze reached the...?"
posted by chandy72 at 7:16 AM on October 3, 2002

Maybe you guys don't like it, but KPMG always sounded like a good name for a radio station to me -- not an Accounting firm.

Although the new name makes no sense either...
posted by shepd at 7:19 AM on October 3, 2002

Braxton seems like the worst from the list above. It immediately brings to mind the female singer, and so much for owning the braxton.com domain name.
posted by dayvin at 7:41 AM on October 3, 2002

"BP - the oil company?"
"No, BearingPoint, the consultants"
"Oh"

Repeat.
posted by dagny at 7:44 AM on October 3, 2002

Looks like they remembered to register bearingpoint.co.uk. Oh well.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 7:46 AM on October 3, 2002

KPMG>>> BearingPoint

Boring Point
LoadBearingJoint
Be a Ringpoint
Pouring Pint
Daring Joint
Glaring Point
Despairing Point
Overbearing point.


pointless but bears up well to scruitny?
posted by HeadSessions at 7:59 AM on October 3, 2002

I think it is not the greatest, but then it could also be much worse. It's sad when we get used to such non-sensical made-up words as Viant and Scient and Accenture. So to put two actual words together is almost weird. And I can't imagine there are too many actual good names left anymore, esp. ones that will go well around the world (and not mean something else!). At least the logo isn't too bad.
posted by evening at 8:24 AM on October 3, 2002

Also, today marks the end of PwC Consulting. After the Monday debacle, the parent firm sold the consulting arm to IBM, which combined it with its Business Innovation Services unit (itself a part of IBM Global Services) to create IBM Business Consulting Services, by many measures the world's largest consulting firm (60,000+ employees). The PwC Consulting web site is blank, save a short message directing visitors to the IBM BCS site. Sort of depressing, actually.
posted by risenc at 8:33 AM on October 3, 2002

KPMG Consulting has had to change its name for legal reasons -- something to do with SEC filings and having a similar name to an accountancy firm or something like that. This reason was also behind Andersen and PwC and all them changing their names, after being forced to separate their consultancy and accountancy practises.

At least, that's how I understand it. I work for BearingPoint but in a non-US office, so I'm not entirely sure about the details.
posted by John Shaft at 4:11 PM on October 3, 2002

I am compelled to laugh maniacally. Variations on that navigation theme, along with the -Point suffix, were amongst the dozens of possibilities brainstormed over beer for a groupware product we built (but that never reached market) in my last tech job

They were all rejected as painfully uneuphonious. Boneheads.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:10 PM on October 3, 2002

Or is it ineuphonious? Sounds clumsy either way.

Heh.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:11 PM on October 3, 2002