Consulting: Where are the consulting opportunities in financial services?

Gronwall: There are a number of areas, but one general area is in technology. New platforms are providing greater transparency that can improve risk management and provide the analysis and reporting needed to achieve regulatory compliance. Increased automation is also promising to achieve some of the operating cost reductions being sought. Consultants are also helping businesses improve their customer service with improved CRM tools, portable banking technologies, and the use of social media. Of course, fundamental corporate strategy is another area that has been hot.

Consulting: What's the most surprising aspect of the data? Was there something you didn't expect?

Gronwall: The resilience of the financial services industry and its arguably successful efforts to thrive so soon after the financial crisis were somewhat surprising. One would of course expect the world's largest banks and insurance companies to recover—particularly with the assistance of government bailouts—but the damage to their reputations and the problems they faced might have been expected to make financial services a less attractive market to enter. Instead, new entrants are scrambling to set up shop and get a piece of the now rapidly re-expanding pie. This is keeping consultants—generally the smaller and mid-size firms—busy helping to build and launch these new businesses. Meanwhile, the larger well established institutions are turning to their trusted advisors—generally the larger global firms—to help them succeed in this new competitive environment.

One on One with KCRA's Paul Gronwall

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