The management consulting team of KPMG is looking to hire nearly 8,000-9,000 people in India, a tenth of them to be deployed on projects overseas, as they see global clients increasingly want one of the Big Four audit firms to implement solutions and demonstrate results for the strategy guidance it gives them.
Traditionally, consulting and advisory firms have looked at global companies and helped them draw a strategy to either cut costs or improve business, most often using technology. The plan implementation is often done by their client employees or third-party vendors based on these strategies. This is changing, and the consulting firms are expected to deliver results, often pegging their fees to outcomes, said a top executive of KPMG. “They (clients) want you to deliver on the promise on the value you said you are going to deliver. They are getting outputs oriented,” Tim Jones, Partner and Global Head of Management Consulting told ET.
So, KPMG is consolidating its global delivery capability in India, its largest offshore base, hiring engineers and executives to deliver on the promises its consultants make to clients. The global trend is also reflected in India, said company executives. “It is even more pronounced (in India). Here, the client, say a retailer, asks you: I want a digital road map where you use digital techniques, improve customer experience and use multiple channels and help me sell more. (If it is achieved, he says) I will give you a percentage of increase in sales (and) If you can cut my costs, I will share part of the savings,” said Arvind Gupta, head of management consulting Advisory for KPMG India.
Analysts said that KPMG joins the other Big Four auditing firms such as Deloitte and E&Y in building an offshore base as they increasingly compete with global and Indian tech services players such as IBM, Accenture and Tata Consultancy Services in delivering technology services. “Like Deloitte and E&Y, they (KPMG) are now moving into the space which Accenture and the large Indian services company occupy by offering SI and manage services,” said Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of Everest Group, a global technology outsourcing advisory. “These services are not always in direct competition with the current book of business of the Indian firms but are clearly in spaces where the Indian firms want to grow.”
Jones admits that KPMG not just competes with its rivals, but also with firms such as IBM and Accenture, besides national IT leaders as it starts delivering services that earlier would have been outsourced to these companies by clients. “The other thing, (it is) also the strategy houses, McKinsey and Bain those guys are also moving down as well. We would compete against them, certainly in the strategy, consulting (space),” he said.
India’s traditional IT services companies are seeing a revival of business from clients globally, making them resume hiring in thousands to cater to the demand. At the same time, they are also witnessing their clients and other global multinationals set up captives and poach from them to deliver on the newer digital areas.
Analysts said this shift augurs well for the country due to the larger base of trained talent available here.
Sourced from the Economic Times - written by Raghu Krishnan