REVISE

Introduction

The spread of COVID-19 has sent shockwaves across the globe, each of us has paid close attention to it and been acutely aware of its impact on all aspects of our lives. Those unusual and stinging keywords, such as lockdown, quarantine, social distancing, etc., have begun to emerge around us. To ensure the continuity of education despite the lockdown, Cranfield University have sought a substitute for in-class time by using technology and offering online classes and learning experiences.

Beside the high education institutions, there are increasing firms promptly adopt corresponding measures by allowing employees to work remotely to ensure the normal operation of the firms. Through a friend's recommendation and a phone interview, I was offered a remote internship in the consulting department of PwC. After the module of Management Consulting, this internship is valuable opportunity for me to apply theories into practice.

Internship Description

In the internship program, our client is a wealth management institution whose consulting goal is to improve the market competitiveness of their financial products. The project was set up because of a change in the macroeconomic environment.

At the beginning of 2020, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has cast a cloud over the wealth management industry which has just entered a new era. In 2018, a series of policies, including the new rules on capital management and the new regulations on bank wealth management, were introduced, which forced investors to give up seeking capital-guaranteed and high-yield financial products (PwC, 2020a). To some extent, those actions promoted the healthy development of the wealth management industry. In 2019, the wealth management industry has entered a new stage of development under the influence of the market environment and the increasing awareness of customer asset allocation. In the past, under the background of rapid economic development in China, people generally blindly pursued high investment returns. The risks posed by economic pressures in recent years have driven some people to change their investment habits, and the outbreak has heightened the sense of urgency to protect life and property. This will further drive Chinese investors to re-examine the investment philosophy, thinking about how to better achieve wealth appreciation, preservation and inheritance. In particular, in addition to the pursuit of high returns, investors will pay more attention to the risk management of personal and family wealth. Therefore, although the outbreak has brought a lot of uncertainty to the wealth management industry, we should also see that the increased demand for specialized wealth management services will encourage wealth management institutions to continue to improve their professional services. We provide customized solutions from the perspective of distribution organizations, products, sales channels and other aspects.

The tasks assigned to me was to do Desk Research among products and companies. The supervisor of project recommended kind of authentic source to me, such as Wind, Bloomberg, Capital IQ and etc., that enhance the reliability of data and improve the efficiency of work.

To do the product research, I was mainly responsible for four tasks. The first one was to summarise the characteristics of various wealth management products. There are four types of wealth management products in China, which correspond to different issuing companies. According to analyse the advantage and disadvantage of their issuing companies and distribution channels, and combining the characteristics of the products themselves, we can roughly identify the preferences of target customers. To get better understanding of the features of products, the second task aimed to recognize what product concepts would appeal customers. I first picked out some representative products, then summarized the characteristics of each product and their marketing keywords, and finally put them together in the table. In that way, we could figure out different wealth management product would have different marketing labels. Because of the disorder of client’s product names, the third task was to identify the naming rules of products. For instance, one bank utilises the colours of rainbow, each colour represents one type of products. The impressive naming rules not only assist to improve the efficiency of internal management, but also make them memorable for customers. The final task related to product was about pension products. The characteristics of excellent pension products were expounded from 7 dimensions (investment field, risk, investment cost, allocation strategy, profitability, product time limit, multiple portfolios) and corresponding measurement standards were illustrated. Through investigation, most of the pension products on the market are mainly concentrated in the stable investment style, and the investment term can be extended. Based on those product research above, I find that the types of wealth management products are classified according to the three factors of profitability, risk and liquidity. Regarding to the preferences of customers, they can estimate themselves in these three aspects and choose the wealth management products that are suitable for them.

Apart from some wealth management products researches, there were also several tasks for investigating the general situation of asset management industry. The first task was to research 10-20 typical fund companies with marketing competitiveness in China and further to export the indicators that could represent the profitability and risk of those companies’ various products. Then the second focused on researching the scale of wealth management companies established by banks. By comparing the product scale changes before and after the establishment of the companies, the growth rate was calculated. In the context of financial digitalization, the third task was to research the differentiation competition among the six types of banks. The differentiation was classified into six aspects for strategy, product/service, distribution channel, operation, organization and risk management. Through the news, financial report and other authentic sources, most of banks attempt to increase the percentage of non-interest income, customise the loan, develop toward to universal banks and international banks. The last task was about the marketing methods of asset management companies. This task needs to have knowledge of marketing and evaluate the feature of each method, and then use cases to analyse.

Learning Process

In my perspective, how I do is more important than what I do. When I review that internship period, each task broadened my knowledge and made me better understand the asset management market. However, for me, it is more important to learn how to solve problems. Desk research and MECE analysis are very common and efficient methods in management consulting, which have benefited me a lot.

Desk Research

Desk research sounds unfamiliar. In fact, looking back at one's high school or college days, this is a common way of learning. When you were assigned to write a paper, you most likely turned to many articles on Google or textbooks as helpful resources. That action was a type of desk research. However, I have brand new understanding of desk research after this internship.

First, desk research can provide background information for primary research. Before the primary research, the purpose of the research should be clearly defined and the research plan should be formulated. A written plan can help desk research, whether it is using a library or online resources. Before starting, to specify the required information in detail, although flexibility and ingenuity are also required (for example, searching for relevant data in a broader or narrower category and creating links). Desk research is the basis of primary research and makes it achieve more ideal results. Secondly, desk research can obtain some information that primary research cannot get. Under the condition of market economy, it is generally difficult to get access to the original information of competitors through primary investigation, but some readily available information can be obtained through desk investigation, such as product information, business data, financial status and other information in the industry association for indirect inference. At the same time, these readily available information in some cases can also replace the primary research data. Finally, desk research can identify and prove the credibility of primary research data, and even can carry out trend analysis and overall projections. Due to the influence of many factors, the information obtained from primary research is liable to make some mistakes in the process of collection. Therefore, the researchers can compare and identify the data through the desk investigation, prove the reliability of the primary data, and correct the obvious mistakes in time. At the same time, based on the available information combined with the appropriate analysis method, the future trend can be predicted. But it is necessary to pay attention to the consistency of the specific content of the available data with the calculation method and measurement unit, and adjust them if necessary, to meet the requirements of the research project.

The advantages of desk research are time and cost savings. However, as a researcher, it is important to note that the second-hand information obtained from many sources has serious flaws. Combined with the consideration of the problems encountered in the work, the following items that need special attention:

(1) Availability. In some companies, the statistics are very complete in their official website, and researchers can easily get the information they need, but in other companies (especially in small and micro companies), the statistical methods are backward, and it is difficult for researchers to get the information they need.

(2) Timeliness. The data obtained from certain sources in some companies are often out of date for several years and cannot be used as a basis for corporate decision-making.

(3) Reliability. The data provided by some companies is processed and classified using scientific methods, and the accuracy is high, while the data provided by other companies is only an estimate and the accuracy is not high.

(4) Comparability. Sometimes data from different companies cannot be compared with each other because of different backgrounds, data collection procedures and statistical methods. Therefore, before comparing the data, we should confirm whether the data is comparable.

Desk Research is not as simple as I thought at the beginning. Only through continuous work did I gradually get familiar with how to do it well. As mentioned above, in addition to evaluating the availability, timeliness, reliability and comparability of data sources, I have also developed some good working habits that help improve my work efficiency. For example, all the data needs downloading into files once found. The source of data should always be recorded so that its accuracy can both be assessed. In that way, when special circumstances occur, all the date can be retraced. When we're in the middle of a long project and repetitive work, this can be a useful shortcut to get really valuable information and ensure that the same problem does not happen again. In practice, it is impossible and unnecessary to verify all the data thoroughly -- in most cases, we only need to work within a certain range of accuracy. In addition to confirming the information, it is more important to integrate the information into a meaningful whole. Building a complete logical framework and then looking for links between data should be an integral part of the desktop-research process. While desk research requires planning, it should be flexible. When collecting data, keep records and organize files reasonably, which are conducive to subsequent data analysis and integration.

MECE

In most cases, the consultant team to analyse and solve the problem is no ready answers, even if the consulting firm or consultant may have a similar case or experience, but the solution of the proposed obviously not just based on this, so the consultants will have to complete without missing the analysis of the problems, to fully understand the problems on the customer what is the reason, should with what method to solve, make something really valuable.

MECE is a fundamental, problem structuring framework that stands for Mutually Exclusive, Completely Exhaustive (Kivestu, 2019). That is a popular approach in management consulting. It is a huge part of management consultants’ job to essentially spend all day solving problems. As a result, to get at quickly decomposing problems and bucketing them into key issues is a kind of qualification that the professional consultants should have.

Consultants often need to size the market for a product or service as part of deciding whether entering the market will be a worthwhile investment for a client. If they break the market into groups with overlap, they will double-count customers and therefore overestimate the size of the market. But if they break the market into MECE groups, they will come up with a relatively accurate estimate of its size.

Consultants fundamentally help clients with structured problem analysis and systematic problem solving, not with industry or functional experience, but with a consultant who is unable or unable to solve a problem after years of experience in the industry. Consultant in thinking about the same question with the customer is one of the biggest difference between consultants will follow MECE, equally look at all the possibilities, and customer experience will help his conscious or unconscious to skip the "empirical" show without too much possibility of options, one will focus on a few has long been considered the factor of "important", or some preconceived constraints limit (for example, we can't change suppliers).In many cases, it is precisely this jump based on experience that makes the possibilities that should be carefully analysed ignored. However, the possibilities that are not reliable in the past experience may be the most reliable in the changing internal and external environment. In the way of MECE, logically speaking, the best way to help customers analyse and solve problems.

When an enterprise encounters a problem, it will try to solve it by itself first, and find a third party only when it is finally out of options. As a result, when the consultant enters the room, many potential clients have already considered the proposal. Logically, consultants either find scenarios or perspectives that the client has not considered, or they cut in different ways or delve deeper into aspects that have already been thought about. At this time, MECE is extremely important, because only in the way of MECE can a complex problem be completely and comprehensively decomposed without omission, and at the same time, in-depth analysis can be carried out by advancing the problem decomposition to more levels. Moreover, this is a good way to build a common ground with customers: all the branches of the problem are there, and you just have to solve them one by one.

For Future Managerial Careers

At PwC, the culture is all about people. The development of people is key, and PwC prides itself on making sure that people continuously give and get, constructive, focused feedback. PwC has a framework that to use to describe the capabilities they need their people to demonstrate to meet the needs of the clients, colleagues and communities. Under that framework, PwC develop, support and encourage the people realise their potential and optimise their strengths (PwC, 2020b). This framework calls the PwC Professional attributes which include Whole Leadership, Business Acumen, Technical and Digital, Global and Inclusive and Relationships. Therefore, this is a satisfactory approach for me to examine and analyse the career implication of the in-company learning.

1. Whole Leadership—this means that we lead ourself and others to make a difference and deliver create a positive impact in responsible, authentic, resilient, inclusive and passionate manner. As we continually learn to improve our abilities, we also need to enhance the confidence in our abilities. Under the pressure of work, we need to adapt promptly and take ownership for tasks and drive results forward proactively and responsibly. Moreover, whole leadership should include positively and critically respond to feedback from others, so that we can shape a comprehensive learning circle.

2. Business Acumen is about how we bring business knowledge, innovation and insight to create distinctive value for clients and firms. In my opinion, this is how we process information and apply learning to manage risks. In the complicated business environment, to apply innovation to solve problems and make decisions are the significant measurement for Business Acumen.

3. Technical and Digital relates to how we apply a range of technical, digital, and other professional capabilities to deliver quality and value. Our work is undergoing rapid change. Many jobs are disappearing altogether, and new ones are springing up. One of today's greatest challenges is that people's existing skills do not match the needs of the digital age. Hence, in order to engage productively in the digital world, we need to plan and organise our time to improve the digital skills.

4. Global and Inclusive is a mind-set that operate and collaborate effectively by using transnational and diverse perspectives. From the internal perspective, as we learned from Organisational Behaviour Application, we need to recognise our emotions and those of others, then to manage these in our interactions with others, that would help us overcome barriers and collaborate effectively. From the external perspective, when the situation changed, we should adjust our behaviour to enable effective outcomes.

5. Relationships refer to how you establish relationships of high value which are genuine and meaningful. As I mentioned above, emotion recognition is an inclusive thinking that helps us guide our behaviours when we interact with others, so as to build meaningful and authentic relationships.

Conclusion

“Learning comes about not from doing, but from thinking about what we do.” Especially, when we embark on new experiences outside of our comfort zone, there is often a lot of learning that can take place. This internship reflection is a kind of experiential-learning, switch from work to thinking has provided me with more insight for my future career development.

Reference

Kivestu, K. (2019) What is the MECE principle? A deep dive into the problem structuring framework. Available at: https://www.rocketblocks.me/blog/the-mece-principle.php (Accessed: 31 October 2020).

PwC (2020a) Wealth Management Business Transformation.

PwC (2020b) PwC Professional. Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/careers/pwc-professional.html (Accessed: 2 November 2020).