Driving the change

French multinational vehicle manufacturer Renault appoints KPMG as its auditor

They’re listed on the CAC 40 index company, represented by 12,900 dealerships in 128 countries around the world and have revenues exceeding €41 billion. And now Renault-Nissan Alliance – the third largest car manufacturer in the world – is working with KPMG, having chosen us as their statutory auditors together with Ernst & Young.

The achievement was driven by our global team, led by Jean-Paul Vellutini, Laurent des Places and Valéry Foussé, who worked with a one-firm mindset to forge relationships with Renault management and governance well before the tender process.

Backed by our global network and Global Head Automotive, Mathieu Meyer, the KPMG team’s expertise of the automotive sector came to the fore during the presentation. Renault also recognised our commitment throughout the proposal process, which clearly reflected KPMG’s capacity and readiness to handle the transition from Deloitte. 

Provincial government in Canada chooses KPMG

We secure an important advisory contract with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Global co-operation over 15 months between KPMG in Canada, the United States and India, together with colleagues from KGS in India, has earned a significant advisory win in Atlantic Canada. 

Colleagues from the three countries will work with the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador to support a substantial upgrade of its financial system.

The project aims to better support changing business requirements, improve efficiency across operations and reduce the high level of customization of its financial management systems to reduce the complexity of its application environment. 

Rob Brouwer, Head of Clients and Markets for Canada, said: “This is a great example of where our strategic acquisitions have made a real difference – neither organization had the necessary relationships and competences to have won or delivered this work on its own, but together we were able to offer the best solution to the client and win this important engagement.” 

Key drivers for the win

• A multi-year relationship with the client through KPMG’s acquisition of Plato
   Consulting, a boutique consulting firm in Newfoundland

• The high degree of dedication by the pursuit team led by Michael Klubal
   and Kevin Fleming over a five-month period, and supported by KPMG’s
   proposal and presentation support team

• Creation of a comprehensive 439-page Request For Proposal (RFP)
   response with very strong win themes, a highly polished two-day on-site
   presentation to the client evaluation panel, several weeks of extensive Q&A
   with the provincial government and a successful Best and Final Offer phase;

• Careful consideration of the client’s requirements, a clear strategy
   that addressed each condition completely and strong partnerships with
   external vendors to create a highly competitive proposal and team.

BBVA banks on us

The Spanish banking group chooses KPMG as its leading advisor on financial regulation.

In a win that opens the door to other engagements on forthcoming regulatory developments, KPMG in Spain has won the project to assist BBVA, one of Europe’s largest banks, in implementing the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).

The EMIR regulations were developed to improve the transparency and stability of the derivatives markets and although competition for this engagement was considerable, BBVA chose KPMG because of its:

• Position in Spain as a leading provider of financial regulation
   advisory services.

• Multidisciplinary and specialised team. This included professionals with
   wide-ranging credentials and experience relating to derivatives markets and
   regulatory changes including Dodd Frank, EMIR, MiFID 2, Basel III and
   FATCA.

• Diversity of expertise. Together with the support provided by the
   FS Regulatory Center of Excellence, this greatly differentiated our offering
   in the eyes of the client.

• Deep and broad knowledge of BBVA and strong existing relationship
   with the client. KPMG knows the BBVA Group and its international operations
   through working on previous engagements – including assisting with the
   financial consolidation process, RWAs and FATCA. KPMG’s partners,
   directors, managers and team members all maintain strong relationships with
   the different departments of the bank.

• Long-standing track record of collaboration with BBVA and reputation as a
   key advisor in the implementation of regulatory changes.

New GMSA framework

A new initiative enables GLPs to contract with our global non-audit clients

Global non-audit clients are increasingly contracting with their professional services providers through centralized and professionalized procurement departments. As a result, they seek from us global arrangements that ensure consistent terms and conditions for engagements – no matter where they are signed and including uniform liability caps.

Many of you have indicated that our inability to come to the table with such a set of global agreements between our member firms hinders our effectiveness in the market. We risk total exclusion from certain engagements or hindrance from developing other accounts further.

You’ve also highlighted that when you have attempted to negotiate on a regional or global level, local procurement departments can be hard negotiators and client relationships can become strained as a result. Internally, protracted negotiation around an acceptable level of liability cap on a member firm by member firm basis may cause delay in responding to client requests and their sign-up to a Global Master Services Agreement (GMSA).

It’s imperative that we enable you to drive growth on your account. And, after approval by the global board, a framework is now available for new GMSA for non-audit clients signed after 1 January 2014.

This solution is designed to protect member firms from the potential one-off impact of a high, centrally agreed liability cap imposed by our global clients and to counter the reluctance for those member firms to sign-up to the global agreement.

To take advantage of this new initiative and fully understand its applicability for any new global contract, contact Markus Fabel, Head of the GMSA team, early on in the process. His team will provide guidance, assistance and outline in detail the eligibility requirements, which will be based on the growth potential of the global accounts.

Contact Markus Fabel.

The Hub – stay connected with your fellow GLPs

Share your stories, ideas and solutions

Please remember to stay connected and informed through the GLP section of the Hub – which keeps the GLP community engaged in relevant conversations and up to date on issues and topics facing both our clients and account teams.

We aim to use and foster the Hub as the channel for open and inclusive discussion amongst the GLP group. We need you to make that happen.

Visit the Hub or type 'Hub' into your browser.

The CFO Room

The latest materials to inform your client conversations and help build relationships.

In order to remain timely and current with the issues affecting our clients, the Global Sales & Markets team continues to update and refresh the content of its CFO Room.

They’ve recently added new, highly relevant and topical chapters on:

• Sustainability
• Data and analytics
• Managing the investor community
• The intelligent finance function.

For ease, we’ve included a few of the items for download here. But you can also download them directly from the CFO Room site.

For those of you based in or soon to be visiting the UK, please note that a dedicated CFO Room project office has now been set up in room 10.6 of the Canada Square office in London. You’re very welcome to drop in to see this important initiative for yourself or to find out more about the concept.

There has been a surge in interest in recent months from local member firms wanting to set up their own local CFO Room and from lead partners running sessions with upcoming, new or existing CFOs.

For anyone considering running their own CFO Room, a number of drop-in clinics are being planned from April onwards. We’ll keep you updated on these, plus other CFO Room news in subsequent issues of Pulse.

Please contact Dina Modha if you have any questions or are interested in offering this to your own clients.

Leading the way

Providing better business insights with the new KPMG Thought Leadership portal.

Our clients’ needs are changing and their operations are becoming ever more global. That’s why we’re launching a new Global KPMG Thought Leadership portal this month.

Containing more than 500 pieces of current thought leadership from the majority of Board countries as well as KPMG International, it will provide access to knowledge, insight and resources that can help you win in the marketplace.

As well as current thought leadership from across our network, this tool will contain:

• All future KPMG International thought leadership across functions and sectors;
• Future thought leadership from member firms as they adopt the tool;
• Better search functionality, ensuring you get the information you need, quickly and easily.

The new portal launches on 12 March.

Tackling the data challenge

KPMG Capital study helps our clients to gain actionable insights from their data

Late last year, KPMG International announced the formation of KPMG Capital, an investment fund created to accelerate innovation in data and analytics services and solutions. The launch generated significant interest in the media and among industry commentators.

In January, we provided further insight around the challenges clients face regarding data with the release of our global study: Going beyond the data: Achieving actionable insights from data and analytics. 

The research revealed a stark disconnection between C-suite executives who realize the value of big data, but are unsure of how to effectively implement and manage their existing resources. 

With the vast majority of executives (85 percent) struggling to accurately analyze and interpret their existing data, it’s time for business executives to consider new approaches to data and analytics (D&A).

Survey findings included:

• 80 per cent of executives say that speed is a key benefit of using D&A

• 69 per cent consider D&A to be crucial or very important to their current
   growth plans

• While most respondents (56 per cent) changed their business strategy to meet
  the challenges of big data, 42 per cent of executives admit integrating data
  technology into existing systems and/or business models is their greatest
  challenge

• More than half of all respondents (54 per cent) identified their greatest
  barrier to implementing a successful D&A strategy was an inability to identify
  what data to collect

• 85 per cent consider their biggest challenge with analytics to be implementing
  the right solution to analyze and interpret data.

“We live in an increasingly data-driven world where D&A has the potential to revolutionize the way we conduct and manage business operations across the entire enterprise,” said Mark Toon, CEO of KPMG Capital and Global Leader of D&A. 

“From CEOs, to CFOs, CIOs and CMOs, the challenge for today’s executive is understanding how to draw actionable insights from data and turn them into tangible, genuine results. This report demonstrates not only the hunger to harness new D&A capabilities, but also the greater level of support that’s needed to operationalize these insights.” 

Click here for a copy of the full report.

The KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2013

A snapshot of current global trends in CR reporting

Covering 4,100 companies in 41 countries, the KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2013 assesses the quality of corporate responsibility (CR) reporting among the world’s top 250 companies.

The survey provides a useful reflection on the current state of CR reporting for a wide variety of audiences, including investors, asset managers and ratings agencies – many of which are increasingly factoring environmental, social and governance information into their assessments of corporate performance.

Corporate stakeholders, including NGOs, customers, academics, students and policy makers should also find useful information and food for thought in these pages.

The 2013 report marks 20 years since KPMG’s first survey on CR reporting, which covered just ten countries.

Together with the report PDF (right) there is the CCR online tool that allows you to compare:

• The rate of CR reporting by country, region and sector;
• The rate of assurance of CR reports by country and region;
• The average quality score of the CR reports of the world’s largest
   250 companies by sector.

The value of audit

New report and video reveal leadership views on the changing perceptions of audit

Value of Audit is a global campaign to articulate our views on the value of audit and to outline what we can do to make audit more valuable and relevant in the future. Completed in a number of phases, this first phase sets out to illustrate the views of KPMG audit leadership and what they think about today’s audit issues.

Click here to read the report.

Click here to visit the Value of Audit microsite.

In our video (below), members of our audit leadership were asked to share their opinions on the value and changing perception of audit – in particular, to consider the impact of change, innovation and what they would change in their own audit reports. 

Though their responses were clearly defined by their personal ideas and experience, a number of common messages emerged.  

Diversity award

KPMG Canada named a Best Diversity Employer for 2014

For the seventh year in a row, our Canadian firm has been chosen as one of the country’s best diversity employers.

The annual competition, presented by Mediacorp Canada Inc., recognizes the nation’s leading organizations when it comes to creating inclusive workplaces for employees from diverse groups.

“We are committed to creating and supporting an inclusive workplace that respects and values the differences in all of our people,” said Mary Lou Maher, Partner and Chief Diversity Officer. “We’re thrilled to receive this award acknowledging our commitment.”

“This year’s competition was the strongest by far since the project’s inception,” said Richard Yerema, author of Mediacorp’s Canada’s Top 100 Employers.

He added: “Creating an inclusive workplace isn’t just about ‘doing the right thing’ or even regulatory compliance anymore – the leaders who manage the nation’s most successful organizations now realize that you can’t lead your industry without it.”

Santiago Superbrand

Success for our Chilean firm

KPMG in Chile has been awarded the coveted Business Superbrands Award 2013-2014.

The Business Superbrands status is awarded to some of the world’s strongest examples of business-to-business brands.

To win this national award, KPMG was seen to distinguish itself through collaborative enterprise, creative marketing and superior products in the marketplace.

Participation in Business Superbrands is by invitation only, and offered to the most outstanding brands in their field.

Attaining this status will strengthen the firm’s position in the marketplace, add prestige and reassure clients and suppliers that they are buying from one of the best brands in our category.

For more information visit www.superbrands.com.

Reader recognition

Success for KPMG in the 2014 Finance Monthly Global Awards

The Finance Monthly Global Awards, to be announced in April, recognise companies and individuals who have delivered the highest quality results within the corporate, financial and legal sectors.

In April 2014, it will be announced that KPMG has been awarded the Anti-Money Laundering Firm of the Year 2014 for the United Kingdom in the annual Finance Monthly Global Awards.

Winners were chosen by the subscribers of Finance Monthly. The awards recognise and celebrate companies and individuals who have delivered the highest quality results within the corporate, financial and legal sectors; have exceeded client expectations and demonstrated measurable achievements over the last 12 months.

To win, a variety of criteria were considered, including:

• Supporting material, covering statements and evidence supplied when voting
• Amount of documented activity within the last 12 months in comparison
   to industry peers
• Involvement in significant deals, cases or notable work
• Expertise
• Innovation in client care
• Size (value) of involvement within transactions, deals and cases
• Previous accolades and entries within recognised guides

As part of the winning circle, KPMG will benefit from promoting its achievement through various channels to 103,000 Finance Monthly readers around the world.