Deloitte throws more weight at Canadian Tech practice

Deloitte has a powerful brand name, both in Canada and globally, and I look forward to being a part of their research process – gathering information, thinking about it, drawing conclusions, and then sharing those conclusions with those who are interested.

I will be able to draw on a huge team (Deloitte has >4000 partners worldwide and 500 in Canada, and 135,000 employees globally generating US$20B in revenues) with significant resources and direct access to thought leaders and leading company executives.

There are two broad categories of research in the investment industry: day-to-day detail stuff (“Company XYZ beat earnings by a penny and their gross margin was down from last quarter”) and bigger picture stuff (“It looks like the enterprise software industry is consolidating and ABC needs to buy XYZ.”). Both are vital to the workings of the capital markets, but I always found it more interesting (and profitable) when I read and made decisions based on the second category. Working with Deloitte will allow me to focus on those broader industry trends…so expect to hear from me directly and in the media about what we think.

I will continue to write my column for the National Post, but given the investment-centric mandate of the column that will be separate from Deloitte and will appear under my name only.

Further, what I will be doing with Deloitte (researching industry trends, attending cutting edge conferences, meeting with CEOs of leading North American companies) is very similar to what I did as a money manager in my previous life. Therefore I will also be starting up a money management firm that intends on offering a hedge fund product and high net worth asset management. That is targeted to commence business in September, and you can look forward to hearing more from me about that over the coming months.