| | By Mick James
Times may be getting
hard in the UK economy,
but I’m still
encountering a lot of
firms who, if not
exactly bullish, are
still cautiously
optimistic about their
growth plans. Many of
these are smaller firms,
however, who are still
growing into their
niche, so it was useful
to get a perspective
from Alan Buckle, head
of KPMG’s Global
Advisory practice, a
27,000 strong group of
which consultancy has
been a rapidly growing
part.
“We’re still
recruiting but it’s very
careful and targeted,”
he says, although he
later explains that this
caution is as much
determined by the firm’s
care of its reputation
as the economy.
“We only hire people
we expect to succeed,”
he says. “In other
organisations it’s
considered OK to take a
chance but, particularly
with senior people, we
are very careful who we
hire.”
“Historically, the
consultancy business has
followed the economy
quite closely with a
time lag – but it’s
always ‘different this
time’,” he says. “Last
time we were heavily
geared toward things
like Oracle and SAP,
this time we are much
closer to clients and | |
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| | their agenda, we can see
what their plans and
priorities are and we
are much more flexible.”
This “more
people-based, less
industrial” KPMG is a
result of the firm’s
reinvention of itself
after its largely
involuntary exit from
and (according to
Buckle) completely
involuntary re-entry
into the consulting
business.
“We had absolutely no
intention of building it
up again, but clients
kept saying ‘we’ve got
issues in our supply
chain, could one of your
chaps come and talk to
us, you must have
somebody’,” he says.
“The market defines the
space we work in.”
The result, says
Buckle, is a business in
which consultancy –
although KPMG prefers
the term “advisory”
believing it to be
better understood around
the world – is a much
better fit with the KPMG
brand.
“When we had the
consultancy business
before we had a lot of
‘Who do we want to be’
type conversations,” he
says. “We don’t have
those now. People ask us
if we are going back
into the systems
integration business and
we say ‘no way’. It’s
obvious when you take
step back and look at
it: you run those | |
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This also highlights
what Buckle sees as a
key differentiator for
KPMG: “This is an
environment where
collaboration is
rewarded,” he says. “If
you don’t have the
ability to work with
colleagues there’s a cap
on your development –
that’s not the case
elsewhere.”
Buckle acknowledges
that much of KPMG’s
growth has come from
client pull and the
transfer of work back
from the systems
integrators. But he is
also very proud of the
firm’s achievement,
pointing out that not
only have these forces
now stabilised, but that
a few years ago many
thought the Big Four
would never make it back
into consultancy at all.
“Performance
consulting has been
built from virtually
nothing to a £100m-plus
business with 700
consultants,” he says.
“We have scaled very
fast, and we feel we are
now definitely at
critical mass.”
A priority now is not
just the integration of
practices, but the
integration of KPMG as a
global force.
“It’s something we
always beat ourselves up
over, but in reality we
have no difficulty in
putting teams together
from, say, South Korea,
China and the UK,” says | |
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| | Buckle. “We talk about
‘the network’ as if it
was a bad thing, but we
take our strengths for
granted.”
What is happening now
is that the firm is not
only creating more and
more international teams
but increasingly moving
its people around the
globe.
“There are constant
rotations through
Moscow, and we’ve had
people take up
leadership roles in
India and China,” he
says. “I think,
particularly in a
recession, if I was an
ambitious 30-something,
I’d have to ask myself,
am I going to get better
experiences in the
Middle East or Russia?
My tip would be to go
and do something
overseas for a few
years.”
Ultimately, Buckle
sees the only
constraints on KPMG’s
renewed growth as being
the brand and its
values.
“We have a brand
built up over a hundred
years and that’s
something people
sometimes only
understand the strength
of when they leave us,”
he says. “The question
is, where does the brand
take you? Maybe we work
more with the CFO than
the CEO – but if I was a
systems integrator I
would die to work at the
CFO level.” | |
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