Job Details
Company Overview:
Our client provides a global consultancy, independent research, and custom benchmarking for the investment management industry, including asset managers, public, pension, superannuation funds, insurance companies, wealth managers, and vendors/asset servicers. They focus on helping their clients improve their operational efficiencies, scale for growth, generate alpha, improve their client experience, and offer additional services.
Their services include research, benchmarking, strategy development, system search & selection, implementation support across various areas such as investment operations, portfolio management & trading, performance & investment risk, data, distribution, enterprise risk & compliance, technology, and advisor services. Their mission is to deliver insights, advice, and services to help drive transformational change within the global investment industry.
Our client plans to reinvent themselves as a business as part of their core growth plan. Leaning on their heritage in research, they plan to invest heavily in growing their consulting division to provide a truly independent advisory/insight-led approach within the Asset Management consulting market. With very few competitors offering this agnostic approach they believe with the right people in place they can accelerate growth both in the US and Internationally.
Position Overview:
Given the aforementioned plan to reinvent their business and grow the consulting division, the search for our client is focused on recruiting a Global Head of Consulting to help revolutionize how they approach the Asset Management consulting market. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience running and growing teams or divisions within their current business and be able to balance their time between sales, delivery and practice leadership. With full accountability to design the operating model and go-to-market strategy and with investment behind them to execute, this individual will have the white space and freedom to build a consulting business fit for future growth and expansion.
Successful candidates will be highly intelligent, analytical and results-driven individuals who have shown a track record of commercial success in their careers to date with experience of establishing and growing a similar function in a competitor firm. This will be blended with a balanced, well-rounded personality exhibiting the ability to think strategically, execute effectively, and most importantly build good relationships with people around them. In addition, they will also be expected to contribute to client and commercial development, as the business looks to grow and develop its brand moving forward.
Position Summary:
- Win and lead the successful execution of large-scale and complex Consulting & Technology projects within the North American market in Operations Consulting. Liaise with teams situated across different service lines and geographies in their business, utilizing them to offer a multifunctional service to the client where appropriate.
- Significantly expand their exposure to relevant business and technology stakeholders within major Asset Management companies by establishing credible peer-to-peer relationships with CEO s, COOs, CDOs, CIOs, CTOs and related Vice Presidents/Executives in the business; demonstrate the value-proposition of their business in supporting clients with Operational Transformation topics across the full lifecycle of advisory/concept through to implementation.
- Help develop an exceptional Consulting team within the USA and Internationally, through the recruitment and development of high-quality consultants.
- Leverage successful client case studies and the delivery team capability in order to increase market share of consulting revenue across the Asset Management industry in the USA and Internationally.
- Work with the Business development team to build relationships, identify opportunities, manage aspects of the sales process, and work through the contract finalization process
- Quickly understand existing Consulting services offering and supplement this with personal/team expertise; suggest changes or new business development and sales strategies for business and technology consulting work relating across the Asset Management sector, ensuring rapid traction and sustainable growth in revenue and market share.
- Assist the Marketing and Operations Team with increasing their brand awareness across the Asset Management industry, both at the group headquarters level and globally, highlighting specific areas of expertise (e.g. Operational Excellence, Customer Experience, CRM, Strategy, Digital Transformation, Operating Model Design, Digital Marketing and Analytics).
- Become an integral part of the leadership team, both in the US and globally.
- Direct and manage the analysis, project design, proposal, implementation and ongoing delivery of advisory and implementation projects in the business and technology domain, ensuring profitability, revenue performance, customer satisfaction and customer results.
- Establish credibility within client organizations and also internally to gain respect as a trusted advisor to the Asset Management sector on all Business and Technology Transformation topics.
- Rapidly gain acceptance within the company, with clients as a strong, professional manager who can provide clear advisory leadership to senior client stakeholders.
Functional Expertise Required:
- Understanding of the Asset Management investment manufacturing and client lifecycles.
- First-hand experience of working within the Investment Management industry would be preferable as many of the team have worked for and with their clients and understand their challenges first hand either within Operations, Technology, Performance, Data, Compliance or Marketing functions.
- Experience of one or more Asset Management applications and understanding of overall product or service development lifecycle would be advantageous
- Operational transformation experience, spanning some / all of the following areas:
- Operating Model Design - Target Operating Model, Business Operating Model, Organizational Design, Functional Architecture, Locational Model, Application Architecture, Sourcing Models, Onshoring / Offshoring, Insourcing / Outsourcing
- Process Improvement - Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), Business Process Transformation, Workflow, Exception Processing, Process Control Review and Design, Six Sigma, Lean, Process Modelling, Process Mapping, Process Flow Definition & Design,
- Business Case Design Cost / Benefit Analysis, Numeric Analysis, Scenario Analysis
- Roadmap Design Project / Programme Planning, Estimation, Prioritization
- System Search & Selection - preparation of vendor shortlist, vendor positives/cons, RFP, demo scripts, demo scorecards, reference interview questions
- Implementation - preparation of program/project plans, resource plans, communication plans, change management plans, and agile and waterfall methodologies.
Industry Expertise:
- Successful track record in Asset Management gained through a top-tier consultancy (Big 4, IBM, Accenture etc..), a specialist Asset Management consultancy, a top tier Asset Manager or a combination of the above.
- Good understanding of one or more Asset management product or service areas (including customer segments/strategy, advisory capabilities, distribution channels, portfolio management, relationship management, product and service design)
- Appreciation of major industry issues and current market trends in mass affluent and/or Asset management markets
- Good understanding of Asset market segmentation, end-to-end sales, service and/or performance management processes
- Whilst a Global perspective is important, experience of the US market in particular is critical.
Personal Characteristics:
- Excellent communication skills able to structure a good story and write/present effectively.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills able to pick up new issues quickly and make sense of and see patterns in diverse sources of information; can marshal an argument and develop recommendations that get senior client stakeholder buy-in.
- Highly commercial in orientation, with a strong focus on the customer and a clear result-driven commitment to generating top-line growth.
- Entrepreneurial the team is small and fast-growing, so the candidate must have the ability to spot and seize opportunities to grow the business.
- Possesses the personal qualities required to create and build upon new and existing relationships with a wider variety of clients, including very senior executive-level individuals within major blue-chip businesses.
- High business ethics: honesty, respect for the individual, culturally unbiased.
- Highly ambitious and hungry to succeed.
Compensation:
Total expected earnings: $400,000 - $600,000 + Benefits (dependent on experience)