PwC Consulting makes 'Monday' announcement

PwC Consulting announced its new name June 9, and it is at once familiar and strange.

When the management and technology consulting business splits in August from its parent PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP of New York, the new company will be known as "Monday."

The name has triggered a lot of head scratching. By about 3 p.m. June 10, 74 percent of respondents to a CNN online survey about the name change had reacted with the thought, "What were they thinking?" Seven percent said the change was "inspired;" 19 percent said it was "not bad." CNN did not reveal how many people had participated in the survey.

The new name will make its official debut when PwC Consulting splits from PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of a $1 billion initial public offering of its stock, according to a PwC Consulting statement.

PwC Consulting first announced in March that it would change its name and brand identity to mark its separation from PricewaterhouseCoopers and to distinguish its management consulting and technology services from its competitors.

"Monday: Don't skip breakfast, do great work, be happy, repeat," says one of the company's new branding graphics. The name was devised by Wolff Olins, a unit of global advertising conglomerate Omnicom Group Inc. of New York, which is assisting PwC Consulting in its branding campaign.

Greg Brenneman, president and chief executive officer of PwC Consulting, said the new name "is exactly what we want it to be as we create our new business: a real word, concise, recognizable, global and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results."

"Monday," he said, stands for "real people, real experience, real business."

The new logo can be viewed at www.introducingmonday.com.

PwC Consulting employs more than 32,000 people in 52 countries and territories on six continents. It is one of several management and technology consulting firms to split from its auditing and accounting parent companies in recent years.

Andersen Consulting split from parent firm Andersen, changing its name to Accenture Ltd. KPMG Consulting Inc. split from KPMG International and must change its name as part of the separation agreement, but has not yet done so.

PricewaterhouseCoopers ranked No. 46 on Washington Technology's list of top 100 federal IT vendors for 2001. PricewaterhouseCoopers took in $128.3 million in federal prime contracting dollars in 2001, according to Washington Technology's analysis. The company had income of $7.5 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2001, including government and services revenue of $1.14 billion.