A Growth Market – Joseph Kornik

A Growth Market
With business booming and massive regulation on the horizon, financial services is fertile ground once again. Who would’ve thought?

By Joseph Kornik 

For an industry that was rattled to its core a mere 18 months ago, financial services—and banking in particular—has apparently weathered the storm and come out just fine on the other side. Actually, even better than fine, at least for most of the biggest players. Many of the largest banks are back to their 2007 valuations long before even the most optimistic forecasters had imagined.

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Consider this: During the second half of 2009, Capgemini’s Banking Consulting practice in North America was running at utilization rates north of 90 percent. Unbelievable, and “unsustainable,” says Jim Washburn, Banking Consulting practice leader for North America. “We couldn’t go on like that. We staffed up, shifted resources around to meet the demand and have gotten more selective about the types of engagements we pursue.”

Capco, a New York-based financial services firm, couldn’t bring people on board fast enough to meet consulting demand. The firm’s average number of days between hiring and deployment was .8. Tom McKelvey, Capco’s chief operating officer, says the firm will grow about 300 percent in North America and will double the overall business by the end of the year. Capco will have 600 North American consultants by the end of 2010. It had 200 in October.
“We’ve accomplished this quarter something we thought would take us four years to do,” he says. Not bad for a firm that just launched its expansion plan less than six months ago. 

Read Joseph’s article here:

http://www.consultingmag.com/article/ART647832?C=VnW7fXGk2OpkeL