Associate Director - Deal Strategy & Commercial Due Diligence - Media (Strategy Consulting)

Our client, a leading strategy consultancy is seeking a Senior Manager / Associate Director to join and play a leading role, focusing on deal strategy within the media industry as a part of the wider TMT sector, with scope to work on the wider range of services including growth strategy, cost and operational strategy (including economic profitability analysis) and enterprise-wide transformation. You will be the second hire of a newly established team that has plans to grow to fifteen staff in the next 2-3 years, and you will play an instrumental part in helping to shape the growth of this team.

The hiring partner has a family and stressed to agencies that a good work life balance would be accommodated, despite this being a deals environment. He really does want to hire good people who want to be part of a journey and help create the story of this team.

Responsibilities:

• Take a leadership role with the team and to hold a high quality, credible reputation with clients and in the broader market – experience of a range of M&A related projects will be critical, e.g. Commercial DD, M&A Strategy, Value creation, etc.
• Design and run mid-sized to large projects and / or very large, complex workstreams.
• Act as primary client liaison on Firm engagements and act as an 'ambassador' for the firm.
• Produce client-ready deliverables that exceed expectations and require minimal review.
• Develop solutions to complex problems and challenge the thinking of more senior colleagues and clients.
• Help design – and guide junior staff to – execute detailed financial / business models performing complex scenario and sensitivity analysis.
• Provide timely feedback and coaching to other team members.
• Identify go-to-market and marketing opportunities and assume day-to-day responsibility for taking these to clients.
• Maintain active contact with mid-level clients outside of engagement situations.
• Actively seek out leadership opportunities, take responsibility for a selection of internal processes and generally act as a leader in the S&PT and an inspiration to more junior team members.
• Show initiative to identify and drive thought leadership and knowledge management activities.
• Lead on practice development activities to ensure successful delivery of initiatives.
• Take day-to-day responsibility that the firm's risk management frameworks are adhered to.

Work experience required:

• Experience working in a leading strategy consulting business, Big 4 firm or strategy / corporate development team in industry.
• Strong foundational understanding of the value drivers across the Media sector and views on the outlook for this sector.
• Experience of leading mid-sized and large projects: designing work plans, team structures and then managing these to (i) excellent client output and (ii) strong project economics.
• This should include an extensive coverage of recent M&A transactions, eg CDD, VDD, M&A Strategy or Value Creation projects in the Media sector.
• Evidence of taking responsibility for designing proposals, scopes and pricing for mid-sized and large consulting assignments.
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively with team members and broader (internal and external) stakeholders.
• Strong track record of building followership among more junior staff members.
• Pro-active role in business development activity, designing client ready pitches, generating differentiated insights and holding personal client relationships.
• Non-client facing roles in driving practice forward in areas such as team management, training, technical tool development, liaison with service suppliers etc.

Technical skills required:

• Strong academic track record.
• Evidence of strong problem-solving & analytical capabilities.
• Structured thinking skills combined with creativity.
• Ability to evaluate complex challenges and deliver insightful recommendations that can be practically executed.
• Ability review and assess large volumes of technical data and distil the key strategic insights.
• Strong numerical capabilities combined with sound commercial acumen.
• Ability to build complex financial models that support our recommendations to clients.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Other language skills would be a strong bonus.

Successful applicants will be contacted within 24 hours to discuss further.

Cambridge Credentials: adding people….adding value