We offer consultancy services aimed at improving the efficiency of enterprises and fostering their stable development. We support our clients in solving their current management problems at the strategic and operational levels, assist them with transactions and restructuring, and help them work out the right development path, including finding investors and financing. We provide advice to both transnational organisations, multinational corporations and local entrepreneurs, start-ups, and public administration.
What does Business Advisory do? Which teams are part of the department?
Business Advisory is dedicated to helping companies make decisions about their operations in a complex, dynamic business environment. To best advise our clients, we monitor current trends and consider how companies will operate in the near and distant future. This is a very general description, as the scope of activities of the entire department is extremely broad. We are mainly divided into Management Consulting and Risk Consulting. Within MC we deal with, among others, Financial Management Consulting, HR Consulting, IT Consulting, Procurement Consulting, Regulatory Consulting. Risk Consulting, as the name suggests, is the consulting in the area of enterprise risk management. I am part of the MC team, my specialisation are the financial departments of companies, and above all their functioning within shared service centres.
How did you get to where you are now?
I specialise in consultancy services for Shared Services Centres. Before joining the KPMG team, I worked in Shared Services Centres, where I started my career from a junior accountant position, progressing up to a process expert. I had a chance to experience work with transferring financial and accounting processes to these newly established centres, centralization of processes, implementation of improvements, innovations, and systems to work in financial departments. I joined KPMG when the team was growing and as someone with experience, I was able to contribute my knowledge and new ideas.
What is working in your team like?
Our work is strictly project-based, dynamic. We have more intensive periods in which we have to deliver specific results to the client, and periods when there is less work to do and then we can focus on training and self-development while waiting for the next project to start. Every project is different because every client is different. Even though it may appear that we are doing something for the umpteenth time, it is never exactly the same. Day-to-day work requires us to be creative, open to the client's suggestions, but it is very important to use our knowledge, because the client relies on our expertise.
Which projects give you the most satisfaction?
Every project is interesting in its own way. Each time you can gain a lot of valuable experience from the project. Personally, I like those large projects where the spectrum of our activities is wide, e.g., helping the client set up a Shared Service Centre. It is always a huge undertaking, lasting several months, involving many resources and skills, where there are a lot of decisions to be made. We are happy with every small and big success. But working on such a large task is not only a string of successes, it is above all a difficult challenge, which is why mutual support and openness to discussion are very important in order to work out the best possible solution.
What development opportunities are there in your department? Is having a mentor useful in your career?
The department I have the pleasure to work in on a daily basis deals with so many aspects of business consultancy that there are a variety of career options. We do not always have to work only on projects within our areas of expertise. If we wish, we can be assigned to other projects, thus acquiring new competences. Having a mentor is, in my opinion, very important. Working with a more experienced person, thanks to observation, we have an excellent chance to develop our skills and acquire new ones. A mentor shares his or her experience and helps to point us in the right direction. It is worth consulting your ideas or doubts with such a person.
What qualifications are worth developing?
There are a lot of development opportunities in my team. From the already mentioned possibility of working on various projects to participation in all sorts of training courses. Apart from hard skills, strictly connected with the specialisation, when working directly with a client, soft skills are also important, e.g., sales skills, presentation skills or communication with the client.
What are the relationships within the team?
The atmosphere in my team is amazing. I have never had the opportunity to work in such a close-knit team before, and I already have several years of experience. It is something absolutely special and unique, which is why we work so well together. We often go out for lunch or coffee together to talk about what has happened recently.
