Associate Consultant- Research

About this opportunity

KPMG Global Services (KGS) was set up in India in 2008. It is a strategic global delivery organization, which works with more than 50 KPMG member firms to provide a progressive, scalable and customized approach to business requirements

The KGS journey has been one of consistent growth, with a current employee count of nearly 10,000 operating from four locations in India — Bengaluru, Gurugram, Kochi, and Pune, providing a range of Advisory and Tax-related services to member firms within the KPMG network.

As part of KPMG in India, we were ranked among the top companies to work for in the country for four years in a row by LinkedIn and recognized as one of the top three employers in the region for women, as well as for policies on Inclusion & Diversity by ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India).

Team Overview

The position in discussion is with the Knowledge & Insights team, which is part of the Capability Hubs (CH) unit 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.

KGS’ CH is integral to the firm’s strategy of enhancing innovation, building scalability, and improving profitability. This Unit currently has 1,000+ members’ strong capability.

KGS CH has been offering deep insights and solutions to KPMG’s practitioners across service lines viz. Audit, Tax, and Advisory (Deal Advisory, Management Consulting, and Risk Consulting) globally.

Roles and Responsibilities

We are recruiting for an Associate Consultant in the Research and Benchmarking team. Working as an Associate Consultant in the team, your responsibilities will include

• Contribute to research and benchmarking assignments - either as a part of an ongoing client engagement or as a part of business development efforts conducted by the entity
• Conceive, design, and execute secondary research on:
• Point of View papers and Thought leaderships across penitent industry/ sector trends
• Company: business model, segments, revenue model, strategy, issues/challenges, M&A history, competitive positioning, organization structure, key management, recent developments, SWOT, etc.
• Market: industry value chain, size and growth outlook, trends and drivers, growth inhibitors and challenges, competitive landscape, Porter’s / PESTLE analysis, etc.
• Benchmarking: basic understanding of the role of support functions, salary benchmarking, cost benchmarking, and vendor assessment from a business perspective
• Financials: broad analysis of income statement, balance sheet, cash flows, ratios, segment performance, etc.
• Competitors: comparative performance of companies on financial and operational KPIs, relative strengths and weaknesses, etc
• Prepare client deliverables (MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, MS Word) – prepare client-ready presentations that are well structured, logical, and clear to understand
• Undertake exhaustive research for deliverables and triangulate information and data points from various data sources
• Suggest alternative data sources/research methodologies, suggest proxies, and run creative queries to fetch difficult to obtain data
• Logical thought structuring and ability to draw insights/so-what’s in simple to mid-complex projects with guidance
• Articulate findings through the use of clear, concise, and grammatically correct business English (both written and verbal)
• Ability to develop simple bespoke frameworks to represent research and offer innovative ways of presenting information
• Proactively seek guidance to decode scope requirements and ask relevant questions to get to the big picture
• Proactively use past learning to connect dots, offer innovative ways of presenting information and develop simple bespoke frameworks
• Meet all internal/external timelines and provide solutions in case of delays
• Adequately assist project lead on client calls
• Work reasonably independently, with appropriate supervision and guidance from a Consultant/Assistant Manager/Manager
• Work collaboratively with onshore KPMG teams in the development of and delivery of presentations and key findings

Mandatory Skills

• Qualifications: MBA /M.Com/ PG in Commerce
• Total Experience: The candidate must have 1-3 years of relevant experience in a similar role, particularly in a leading consulting firm (e.g. international consulting firm, Big 4, global investment bank, leading research house)

Technical Skills

• Proficiency in MS-Office - Intermediate/Advanced MS-Excel, MS-PowerPoint, and MS-Word
• Highly articulate with excellent communication and presentation skills (especially PowerPoint)
• Experience in doing data analysis, preparing reports, thought leadership, media articles, industry landscapes, company analysis, and regulatory updates
• Ability to synthesize qualitative and quantitative data quickly and draw meaningful insights
• Primary/secondary research and benchmarking proficiency in using specialized databases and free sources
• Strong numerical, analytical, and strategic thinking skills, and sound business / commercial acumen
• Adept at strategic frameworks such as SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces, PESTLE, etc.
• A pragmatic approach to analysis and problem solving; ability to drive through to an outcome in circumstances of complexity and ambiguity
• Ability to assess technical information to distill key strategic insights and convey these succinctly, clearly, and confidently, verbally and in written form
• Proficiency in using specialized databases and free sources
• Sustained research exposure (a minimum of 1 year continuously) to the below-mentioned sectors will be an added edge :
• Financial Services, Industrial Manufacturing, Technology, Media and Telecom, Consumer Goods and Retail, Energy and Natural Resources, and Healthcare and Life Science

Behavioral/Team skills

• Personal drive and positive work ethic to deliver results within tight deadlines and in demanding situations
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Attention to detail
• Prioritization and effective time management skills
• Effective team player
• Ability to handle client communication
• Ability to work independently and motivate team members