Sakal Times
16-Nov-2018

KPMG India is all set to celebrate its 25th year, how have things changed over time?
– Last 25 years have been a remarkable journey for us. We have opened 25 offices across the country and we work with 20,000 people. We are very proud that we have been part of India’s growth story. We have been successful in catering to global and Indian clients and Indian clients who have gone global. We are also proud that we have participated in important nation building programmes.

– So how has the business changed and what are the recent offerings of KPMG to their clients?
Everything in our business keeps changing. Service offerings have become technology intensive. Clients are demanding more of analytics, artificial intelligence to get more competitive. While new offerings are a continuous journey to address the current situation of non performing assets in the finance industry, what we have done is that we have formed a special situations group to help our clients in areas of stressed assets, bankruptcy and insolvency resolution. Associate financing is one area we are strong at. Another area we are active in is cyber security, which is of great concern for our clients. We also assist our clients in global trade. Many global clients want to expand in India while many Indian clients want to go global. So we work in establishing US-India growth corridor, and likewise.

– You mentioned about cyber security service, can you please elaborate?
Cyber security is one important area for our growth, as it is a big issue which needs to be tackled. Clients are more cautious and want to protect themselves. They want to know their vulnerabilities and a defensive wall to save themselves from intruders. We feel as we go more and more digital, there will be need to protect our systems.

– How do you see India’s economic growth?
I feel India’s growth story is the best growth story in the world. India’s economy is on the rise. We are seeing business and demand of services. In terms of sector wise growth, there is a lot of consumer spending and once consumer spending increases, there is growth in the finance industry. Infrastructure is one area which is expanding. The finance sector has issue of stressed assets but it will improve over the period of time.

– Do you foresee any challenge for growth in India?
Oil prices is one of the challenges for India but our economy seems strong to withstand the challenge.

– Do you find any difference in catering to global and Indian clients?
Indian clients are equally demanding compared to global clients. Sometimes, it does happen that the client is dealing with us only in terms of cost but the time has come when we need to move from lowest cost to best value approach. It is like constructing a building, you can build cheap or you can build an expensive one with more value. We do this in our real life and we take a decision based on cost and perceived value. We have to add value to our clients’ business and we do it with increased integrity and vigour.

– Is there a need for strong ethics in the industry?
When it comes to ethics, for us, it is a very simple issue. We have no compromise on ethics and our clients are aware of this. When we start engaging with our clients, we both know our standards and that is the reason they approach us.

– One thing you would like to focus on in coming future?
Yes, we would like to focus on team work. We work with diverse people with different skillsets and we need to showcase our clients that we are one team. So we came up with this saying ‘Teamwork makes a Dreamwork.

(Source)