KPMG - Research

KPMG is a leading professional services firm comprising over 152,000 professionals who work together to deliver value in more than 156 countries through in-depth industry insights in Audit, Tax & Advisory. The firm recorded more than USD 23 billion in revenues in 2012.

For the last three years, KPMG has been ranked as an ‘Ideal Employer’ on a global index of the world’s most attractive employers. The index is based on the opinions of close to 130,000 students from renowned academic institutions across many economies, including the United States, China, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and India. KPMG provides its employees with award-winning diversity initiatives and a formal mentoring program.

- The position in discussion is with the Research team at KPMG Global Services (KGS), which is KPMG’s knowledge services hub and is an integral part of the firm’s strategy to enhance innovation, build scalability, and improve profitability, globally.

- The Research team currently has 200+ members and offers research solutions to KPMG’s practitioners across service lines - Audit, Tax and Advisory (Transactions and Restructuring - T&R, Management Consulting - MC, Risk Consulting - RC), globally. Below are a few more details on the Research team:

- Research is a global capability deployed to help KPMG’s practitioners adapt rapidly to changes in the business environment by: identifying opportunities in the market; bringing more evidence based insights to their clients; and on the whole, helping them to be more successful in the market place
It is a world class Centre of Excellence (CoE) providing high quality solutions to internal clients; but it is expected that, over time, some solutions will be offered to KPMG clients

Within the Research umbrella, we are recruiting for the T&R Research Capability Hub that supports KPMG’s T&R practices based in the US, Europe and the Asia Pacific with research and advisory support. These services are offered to both KPMG T&R Advisory practitioners in sponsor countries as well as the firm’s (external) clients in those markets.

Please mention compensation details while applying.

T&R Research Capability Hub offers the following services:

- Business development support including industry reports, company profiles, triggering events reports, preparing asset sheets on company’s coming up for sale, etc.

- Client engagement support comprising Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) Analysis – target’s financial & strategic analysis based on and secondary research; target benchmarking – operational and financial; CIM writing; commercial due diligence research support; target identification; integration analysis; etc.

- Visibility enhancement solutions such as research support for thought papers, market research, thematic reports, white papers, etc.

- Other ad-hoc support such as data streams on M&A analysis, stock/commodity pricing, analyst/ annual/market research reports, newsletters and SEC filings

Please mention compensation details while applying.

Roles and Responsibilities:

We are recruiting candidates across levels in the T&R Research team. Working in the team, your responsibilities will include:

- Develop an understanding of KPMG’s T&R Group – their services, value proposition, sales cycle, client buyers, key business triggers for T&R services, etc.

- Project Management

- Address the complex research needs of the T&R Group for business development, updates on market development, and client engagements. Conceive, design and execute secondary research on:

- Company: its scope of business activity and business model, segments, revenue model, strategy, issues and challenges, M&A history, competitive positioning, organization structure, key management, recent developments, SWOT, etc.

- Market and competition: industry value chain, size and growth outlook, trends and drivers, challenges, competitive landscape, Porter’s / PESTLE analysis, etc.

- Financials: broad analysis of income statement, balance sheet, cash flows, ratios, segment performance, etc.

- Drive the analysis of the above to draw key insights; articulate findings through visually appealing / appropriate frameworks and in a clear, concise, and grammatically correct business English (both written and verbal)

Please mention compensation details while applying.

Team Management (for TLs and AMs):

- Guide Team Leaders (TL), Senior Analysts (SA) and Business Associates (BA) across each stage of projects - from communicating client requirements, scoping and work allocation, to continuous supervision and review across secondary research, analysis and discussions, story-lining, and preparing deliverables

- Ensure highest quality (for self and team members output) and on-time delivery for all the projects

- Mentor several counselees at any point in time

- Client/stakeholder Management

- Engage with the requestors/clients, interpret their requirements, estimate projects’ scope and timeline, and manage communication flow end-to-end independently

- Actively build and manage the relationship and interface with international T&R Research and other T&R professionals

- Lead in business development meetings/conference calls

Operations Management:

- Drive the team’s operations (staffing, MI, recruitment, etc.) and key initiatives (such as training, team get together, BD collaterals, etc.)

- Manage the improvement of various processes around Global Knowledge Management, Learning & Development & Thought Leadership. This will involve liaising with senior internal stakeholders and managing junior/off-shore resources and where appropriate escalating issues & recommending courses of action.

Please mention compensation details while applying.

Essential skills required:

- Project and Team management exposure

- Prior experience in project scoping, effort estimate, project work planning, team handling (of 7-8 team members), staffing, providing feedback, etc.

- Credible record of operating at a team management level

- High problem solving skills; ability to drive through to an outcome in circumstances of complexity and ambiguity

- Goal driven - should be focused on helping clients meet their requirements – by developing answers and solutions when client requirement remains unclear / changes, and by providing relevant insights and key questions to fit the client objective

Technical skills:

- Strong numerical, analytical and strategic thinking skills, and sound business / commercial acumen

- Ability to strategically analyze acquisition targets

- Robust understanding of finance fundamentals - income statement, balance sheet, cash flows, financial ratios

- Adept at strategic frameworks such as SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces, PESTLE, etc.

- Proficient across databases (such as Investext, Factiva, Capital IQ, MergerMarket, Lexis Nexis, etc.), in identifying surrogates, and triangulating data

- Ability to assess technical information to distill key strategic insights and convey these succinctly, clearly and confidently, verbally and in written form

- Produce professional, neat and client-ready power point presentations and excel worksheets

Behavioral skills:

- Personal drive and positive work ethic to deliver results within tight deadlines and in demanding situations

- Flexibility to adapt to a variety of engagement types, working hours and work environments and locations

- Excellent written and verbal communication skills

- Team player; self-driven and ability to work independently

Prior experience:

- The candidate must have 1 to 9 years of relevant experience in a similar role, particularly in a professional services firm / third-party KPO

Please mention compensation details while applying.

Education/Professional qualifications:

- MBA / CFA / CA / M.Com./ PG in Economics

Please mention compensation details while applying.