Deloitte’s distinctive Green Dot emerged out of a period of transition for the organization, but has since become a beloved and iconic symbol that embodies unity and a shared purpose for people around the world.

The Green Dot at the end of Deloitte’s logo is an instantly recognizable symbol of Deloitte. But would it be such a beloved feature if it had been a different color?

Deloitte rebranded in 2003 after its plan to sell its management consulting business fell through. As the organization faced the difficult task of reintegrating Deloitte Consulting, which had operated more or less independently since 1995, it felt a new brand identity was needed in order to bring the different pieces back together.

At the time, two trends dominated branding. The first was acronyms. Three of the Big Four accounting firms used an acronym, as did several other competitors. The second was to go short, as when Federal Express became FedEx.

Deloitte took a different direction. “The real equity was in the root of ‘Deloitte,’” said Suzanne Gylfe, Brand and Marketing managing director, Deloitte LLP. Deloitte was the name in longest continuous use in the accounting profession. “We needed to just come together and be Deloitte. . . . We were emerging stronger as one Deloitte.”

It was determined that the new logo would be a wordmark, but it needed something more. Deloitte’s advertising firm proposed moving the dot over the “i” to the end of word. William Parrett, CEO, Deloitte Global, 2003-2007, loved the idea—but, he said, “we’re accountants . . . we need to cross our ‘t’s’ and dot our ‘i’s.’” So the “i” in Deloitte got a square dot, to distinguish it from the round dot at the end.

Parrett also had feedback on the color. The original design had a fuchsia dot at the end of a blue “Deloitte.” The team tried a number of options, including yellow, orange and “light bronze.” But the only color that really worked was green.

Initially there was some concern that the Green Dot was too unusual and perhaps a bit silly – that it had too much personality. Some said they were reluctant to give out business cards with the Green Dot on them. But over time, the iconic symbol became embedded in Deloitte’s thinking, used as a byword for initiatives that span across Deloitte and providing the basis for Deloitte’s visual identity: a look that is distinctive, consistent and a 360-degree representation of Deloitte’s highly connected offer.

Now, Gylfe said, “if we told people we were getting rid of the Green Dot, they would probably cry. It’s that embedded in the culture.”

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On Dec. 1, 1856, a letter arrived at 4 Lothbury in the city of London, informing William Welch Deloitte that he had been named accountant to the Great Northern Railway. Deloitte, who was 38 at the time, was charged with investigating one of the biggest financial crises of 19th-century England.

There was no one better prepared for the assignment.

Deloitte was born in February 1818 in London. He left school at 15, at a time when 12-year-olds legally worked 12-hour days, to join the Official Assignee in Bankruptcy of the City of London. After honing his craft for a dozen years, he set up shop across Basinghall Street as an independent accountant on April 23, 1845.

It was an auspicious time for a young accountant. The British economy was expanding rapidly, and with it the number of people in financial difficulty. During his first year in business, Deloitte had nearly 100 clients, many of them facing their day in bankruptcy court. But Deloitte was also engaged in more substantial matters: A classmate was partner in the firm that made the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. As a result, Deloitte went on to serve as accountant to a number of large cable companies.

In 1849, Deloitte was named accountant to Great Western Railway, one of the earliest joint-stock companies in Britain. The appointment, which took place when the company’s stock value was faltering, was designed to “inspire general confidence” in the railroad’s management. Deloitte was the first independent accountant to a public company.

Deloitte used the appointment to win business in other growing industries, including docks, collieries, ironworks, hotels, banks, insurance companies, newspapers, and other railways, including Great Northern.

Deloitte was not concerned solely with his and his firm’s success. He helped establish the forms required from railroad accounts after the Railway Companies Act 1867, and served as an original council member of the Institute of Accountants. He was also the fourth vice president and fifth president of its successor, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Deloitte retired in 1897, a year before his death, as “the oldest practicing accountant living,” and as the head of one of the leading firms in London, with some 70 staff. His organization—and name—live on.

I am Accountant to the Auditors of the Great Western, Lancashire & Yorkshire, South Wales and other important Railway companies, which I hope will be considered sufficient guarantee for my integrity and qualifications. I can obtain testimonials of the very highest character.

William Welch Deloitte, Feb. 27, 1855

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At its 175th anniversary, Deloitte is the largest professional services provider in the world. Its name is the oldest in the industry. It has been a pioneer in nearly every aspect of auditing and consulting. And it continues to grow, with record aggregate member firm revenue of $46.2 billion in FY19, and more than 300,000 professionals across Deloitte, who are helping to meet client needs in the emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution.

But Punit Renjen, who became Deloitte Global CEO in 2015, wants Deloitte to be more than the biggest and the best. He wants it to be iconic.

“Our performance in FY2019 is evidence that a purpose-led approach works,” he said. “Disruption and transformation are shaping business and society today, imposing new and urgent responsibilities on business leaders. Deloitte is meeting these challenges by building an equitable and sustainable business for the long term and holding itself accountable for the triple-bottom line of people, profit and planet.”

Those aspirations are encapsulated in Deloitte’s Shared Values of leading the way, serving with integrity, taking care of each other, fostering inclusion and collaborating for measurable impact. “Exceptional organizations are led by a purpose, a reason for being that transcends the everyday and underlies everything they do,” said Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen.

Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen at the 2017 World Meeting.

Timeline

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President Abraham Lincoln is the signatory of one of Deloitte’s most valuable artifacts: The Lincoln Proclamation.

In July 1864, Elijah Sells, the father of Deloitte founder Elijah W. Sells, was appointed as the third auditor of the Treasury of the United States by President Lincoln. The following year, he was appointed auditor of the US Post Office. Both honors were preserved for posterity in proclamations by President Lincoln.

The elder Sells shared his passion for accounting and public service with his son. In addition to cofounding Haskins & Sells, Elijah W. Sells contributed to the modernization of the US Treasury as a member of the Dockery Commission in 1893, and formulated a plan for world peace in 1915 that foreshadowed the League of Nations and United Nations.

The Sells family wasn’t the only branch in Deloitte’s family tree with notable contributions to the accounting profession and the greater good. Howard Irwin Ross, a third-generation accountant and partner in the Deloitte predecessor firm P.S. Ross & Sons from 1942 to 1969, was descended from Philip S. Ross, the firm’s founder; and Suheil Saba, son of Deloitte Middle East founder Fuad Saba, became a managing partner of Saba & Co. in 1976 and carried forward his father’s legacy of international expansion.

Another legacy organization has a similar story. John Ballantine Niven was a second-generation accountant who joined George A. Touche in 1900 to establish Touche, Niven & Co.. Today, George Touche’s great-grandson, William Touche, is senior audit partner and vice-chair of Deloitte UK, and his great-great-grandson Harry is a senior consultant with Deloitte Digital in the UK.

The Lincoln Proclamation serves as a powerful reminder of Deloitte’s history of multigenerational service to the accounting profession—steeped in shared values and tradition, but always looking forward and anticipating clients’ next challenge. “Companies have to reinvent themselves to survive, and Deloitte is no exception to that,” said William Touche. “We’re very large, we do some important public interest work, but with size brings a certain level of scrutiny and much more responsibility. . . . We do have a strong voice, and we need to use it very wisely and very responsibly.”

Know Ye: That reposing special trust and confidence in the Integrity and Ability of Elijah Sells do appoint him to be Third Auditor of the Treasury of the United States and do authorize and empower him to execute and fulfill the duties of that office.

President Abraham Lincoln, about the father of Haskins & Sells cofounder Elijah W. Sells, 1864

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World War I, which was the most destructive conflict in human history at the time, sent politicians and other leaders on a quest for answers. Among them was Elijah W. Sells, cofounder of Haskins & Sells. He was not only an important figure in the field of accounting but also a forward-thinking progressive who sought to pool humanity’s resources to do the most good.

Sells formed Haskins & Sells with Charles Waldo Haskins in New York City in 1895. As the firm grew, stories abounded of Sells’ good works, from giving his overcoat to a staff accountant to handing out fruit to the needy. When World War I broke out in 1914, Sells devoted that same energy to pursuing a peaceful solution.

At the 1915 Meeting of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, Sells proposed a 19-point plan for international peace. Sells’ boldest idea was the establishment of an international peace-keeping tribunal with its own military. President Woodrow Wilson’s plan for the League of Nations and, later, the United Nations, brought this idea to life.

The United States emerged as an industrial powerhouse during this period, and accountants were in high demand. Haskins & Sells exemplified the patriotic spirit that inspired citizens of the United States after it entered the war in 1917. More than three dozen Haskins & Sells accountants served in the U.S. military during World War I. Additionally, when the American National Red Cross needed help enrolling Red Cross employees for overseas service, Haskins & Sells volunteered to help.

The desire to make the world a better place remains a priority today. Deloitte seeks to have a tangible, measurable, attributable impact where it matters most. WorldClass provides a shared goal to make a “measurable, attributable impact” by helping 50 million people around the world develop professional skills and access opportunities to succeed by 2030.

Elsewhere, Deloitte Australia is helping to shape policy that will serve to protect the Great Barrier Reef, the largest living structure on Earth, with a value of $56 billion. Deloitte Global is also working with companies to help minimize their financing of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Another initiative is a collaboration between Deloitte Consulting in the USA and Free the Slaves, an international NGO dedicated to combating human trafficking.

Elijah W. Sells

Elijah W. Sells estimated the size of the world's militaries and military budgets in 1915. He also broke down each nation's contribution to a proposed world peace tribunal.

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In 1862, managing clerk Henry Dever became William Welch Deloitte’s third partner. Dever rewarded Deloitte’s faith in him with a lifetime of service. Among other accomplishments, Dever served as liquidator for the Great Eastern Steamship Co. and C. de Murrieta & Co. accounts. Similarly, George Cloutte, who joined Deloitte’s staff in 1869, rose to chief clerk in the late 1880s and became the sixth partner in 1889.

Cloutte and Dever serve as reminders that Deloitte’s dedication to cultivating leaders from within is truly part of the organization’s DNA.

Deloitte’s legacy firms also grew leaders from within. Charles Stewart Ludlam began his career at Haskins & Sells in 1897 as New York CPA No. 115 and became the firm’s third partner in 1903. At Touche, Niven & Co., Victor H. Stempf joined the firm’s St. Louis office in 1915 and was named partner in 1922. Similar success stories from around the world followed as Deloitte expanded. Rita Nikolian joined Deloitte as a secretary in 1988 and eventually became a partner in the Tax Consulting department of Deloitte’s São Paulo office.

In the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Deloitte continues to attract talented young professionals and help prepare them for roles with greater responsibility. Deloitte University’s state-of-the-art facility offers Deloitte professionals world-class leadership development programs, and Deloitte’s Business Chemistry® methodology uses insights from neuro-anthropology and genetics to help future leaders understand their own business styles and lead teams more effectively. This future-focused leadership development is a vital part of ensuring that 100 years from now, Deloitte is still providing leading client service, even as the technology landscape changes and new business challenges arise.

Haskins & Sells launches its Department for Professional Training in March 1918.

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Industry 4.0 is revolutionizing business, communications, our daily lives—and our governments. And as it has for more than a century, the public sector turns to Deloitte for perspective and help on how to use technology to help better serve citizens.

In fact, Deloitte in the US might not exist if it weren’t for public sector work. In his first inaugural address in 1885, President Grover Cleveland called for “reform in the administration of the Government and the application of business principles to public affairs.” In response to this call to action, Congress created the Dockery Commission, which hired auditors Charles Waldo Haskins and Elijah Watt Sells to investigate the federal government’s recordkeeping systems and make recommendations for improvement. It was the first time the US government had hired public accountants.

Haskins and Sells found buildings filled with records, overflowing into the corridors. They found departments and bureaus years behind in their work. And they watched as clerks copied letters by hand, some two decades after the introduction of the commercial typewriter.

As part of the Dockery Commission, Haskins and Sells made several recommendations, including the overhaul of an accounting system in place since Alexander Hamilton served as the first Treasury Secretary. Some of the most effective measures included a dramatic reduction in copying and an increase in typewriters. These changes contributed to more than $600,000 in annual savings.

After spending two years in Washington, the two men established Haskins & Sells in New York in 1895. Their earliest clients included federal government entities, including the US Post Office (also a client of Deloitte, Plender, Griffiths & Co.) and the city governments of Chicago, Brooklyn, Atlanta, Houston, and Havana, Cuba.

More than 50 years after the Dockery Commission, Haskins & Sells managing partner Arthur H. Carter—Elijah Sells’ son-in-law—served on its successor, the Hoover Commission. And as the computer transformed the workplace during the Third Industrial Revolution, governments flocked to Touche, Ross, Bailey & Smart’s pioneering consulting practice, establishing the firm as another leading provider of specialized skills to the public sector.

Today, in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Deloitte is helping clients in government adopt the latest technologies. Far beyond the typewriters and primitive computers of generations past, Deloitte of today is using blockchain, augmented reality and artificial intelligence to speed and improve its work on behalf of constituents.

On Haskins & Sells:

To your rare business capacity, and peculiar adaptation to analyzing old and formulating plans for new methods, is in great measure due the credit for the reorganization of the accounting system of the United States Government. It was in many respects the most extensive and important undertaking of the kind in the history of the country.

US Rep. Alexander M. Dockery, 1895

On Charles Waldo Haskins, cofounder of Haskins & Sells:

Mr. Haskins saw 10 years ago what the rest of the world has come to see more clearly since—that the intricacies of modern corporate organizations and the multiplying of governmental activities were destined to create a new professional or give a new significance to one already existing in a minor way.

John H. McCracken, acting chancellor, New York University, 1910

Charles Waldo Haskins, left, and Elijah Watt Sells, founders of Haskins & Sells.

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More than 40 years after first opening its doors, William Welch Deloitte’s London-based practice still had only one office. Its work, however, included audits for companies with business interests in the United States, Latin America, Australia and China.

“I am almost obliged to conceal the fact that you are in Africa for fear of getting more work for you to do there,” Deloitte partner John George Griffiths wrote to staff member Edward Adams in 1888. Griffiths himself went to Paris twice a year to inspect the books of one client, and visited New York the same year Adams went to South Africa. Two years later, Deloitte opened its first international office, on Wall Street.

Deloitte’s international footprint grew quickly thereafter. By the start of World War I in 1914, there were offices in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Russia and Cuba, as well as on the island of Java (a joint venture with George A. Touche & Co. that was the first formal connection between Deloitte and Touche), and in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (the future Zimbabwe). Engagements came from Ireland, Norway, India, Egypt, Chile and Singapore.

The structure of these new practices would resonate with Deloitte professionals today: a network of associated firms, each with their own partners, who referred work to those in other associated firms. The New York office would soon be the hub of a network of its own branch offices across North America. Associated firms in continental Europe and southern Africa followed suit.

During this era, Deloitte legacy organizations were pursuing their own global expansion. Haskins & Sells was the first American accounting firm to open a London office, in 1901, and in the subsequent 25 years opened additional offices in China and the Philippines. In 1925, Deloitte and Haskins & Sells merged their Canadian, Cuban and Mexican practices, and five years later formed a joint venture in Europe, South America and South Africa. The two firms merged in 1952, ushering in a period of major global growth, opening the first Tokyo office in 1955. (Tohmatsu Awoki & Co. was established 13 years later, in 1968.)

Meanwhile, Touche Ross was increasing its global footprint even more quickly, doubling the number of countries with associated firms between 1960 and 1962. In 1961 alone, Touche Ross opened offices in Argentina, the Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, France, Jamaica, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and Switzerland, and later in the decade made its first affiliation with an Indian auditor, laying the groundwork for today’s Deloitte India.

The explosive growth of Touche Ross led it to formalize the member firm structure that continues today. This concept of member firms dates to 1974, when a federation of 30 Touche Ross member firms were established. A dozen years later, Touche Ross had 54 national firms.

Today, Deloitte remains a global network of member firms. In 2016, eight European member firms joined forces as Deloitte North West Europe, now known as Deloitte North and South Europe. A subsequent combination brought together Deloitte member firms in Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Taiwan to create Deloitte Asia Pacific. The most recent regional combination resulted in Deloitte DCE GmbH, with more than 6,000 professionals across Germany, France, Luxembourg, Austria and Central Europe.

Philip Simpson Ross

An early Deloitte office in Belgium, 1935.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (“DTTL”), its global network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more.

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