This month, Dan Doherty took over as head of U.S. Market Development for KPMG's advisory practice. Tasked to design and execute a growth strategy aimed at enhancing the firm's competitive position in the marketplace, Doherty will lead a team of partners in charge of KPMG's Advisory regional business units around the country. Doherty, a licensed CPA and 26-year veteran of the life sciences, consumer products, retail and manufacturing sectors, served as the firm's Advisory Partner in Charge for the Midwest for the last six years. He says the firm's commitment to its clients, and what he calls a virtuous cycle of good clients and good people, have helped build a client list that he called " the envy of the market." Consulting One on One sat down recently with Doherty.
Consulting: How would you describe the state of the advisory services market right now and what is the growth potential for the practice?
Doherty: There's probably not been a more exciting time to come into this role. While everyone can look to a number of market factors and point to things that put an air of caution, we've clearly found our case with clients as they move forward in what is a constantly and rapidly changing environment. Whether shifting political and economic climates, the situation in Europe obviously, the opportunities to work with these organizations to help them develop a level of agility to deal with these ever changing conditions really helps us position our business in a very exciting way. We're working with a fabulous group of clients, continuing to build new relationships and helping them create and sustain value of their business and execute the strategies they've developed.
Consulting: What are some of the biggest challenges facing clients these days?
Doherty: In addition to the uncertainty that seems somewhat systemic as we move from one situation to the next, both on the domestic and global economy, and trying to anticipate where some of these outcomes may land. They're obviously looking at growth, whether that growth is organic growth and the whole area of increasing their marketshare, being more effective at improving customer relationships, the adoption of emerging technologies (cloud, digital, mobility), they're continuing to focus on efficiency and cost management, and recognizing they need to manage their costs because of the uncertainty and at times difficulty of the pricing and competitive environment that they face. Obviously they're continuing to focus on talented human capital management, facing up against regulatory change which has always been a real strength of KPMG to help our clients interpret regulations and embed compliance into their organizations in a more efficient manner that makes them more competitive than being bound by the burden of regulation.
Consulting: Is part of your job to make the advisory services practice a larger more prominent part of KPMG's business?
Doherty: You don't start with that objective- what you start with is an intensity of listening to our clients.. what do our clients want? What do they expect from us? I don't think you start with financial growth, what you do is start with the intensity of client centricity, what do the clients value and how do you position with them. Should that outcome drive revenue in one part of our business or another I think that's being market responsive and it's positioning us in a way that adds the greatest value to that audience.
Consulting: What are you finding clients are demanding these days?
Doherty: I don't know that we've seen a shift change, but clients are expecting us to bring forward our experts, they really want to see results. They clearly have expectations of their advisors, they want to see us do it faster, with a clear, specific outcome, the opportunities they see are fast moving and they want to work with an advisor and that's why KPMG's business is growing, they want someone that gets things done. Not only for the outcome on a piece of paper but they want to see it in their business and more importantly sustain it. They want to see it stick and they want to drive their business forward, working with seasoned advisors who can give them the confidence to move forward with things that are really transformational in their organization. I know that word is often overused, but clearly this isn't an environment that is terribly accommodating to small, incremental steps. Organizations are having to step forward and do things in a fundamentally different way.
Consulting: What do you see as the future of the advisory service practice for KPMG?
Doherty: We're very bullish. We're very proud of things we have accomplished over the last decade. It's been an incredible story in terms of our progress as we continue to evolve advisory and growing our business in a consistent and global basis. I don't know that there would be a more exciting time to take over these responsibilities on the forefront of our growth agenda and our client satisfaction agenda because we're doing incredible things in the marketplace and that's the forward light that shines on what the opportunity is for us.
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