RCL - Consumer Manufacturing - Senior Manager - Delivering Deal value

About the team

Delivering Deal Value (DDV) is a market leading team sitting within PwC’s Consulting business, assisting both Corporate and Private Equity (PE) clients in a wide range of high impact business situations. Most of our work is in the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) space, both pre and post deal, and we regularly go to market with our colleagues in Transaction Services, however we can also deliver non-deal transformation projects. The M&A Deals we work on range in size from £50m to over £5bn and our clients include several of the most well-known brands and businesses in the world.

Our team contains approximately 150 dynamic and friendly people from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines. We recruit proactively from industry, consulting, private equity and audit to create a great blend of experience on each project. This blend of backgrounds helps us learn from each other and stay at the top of the market delivering fantastic results for our clients on landmark Deals.

About the role

DDV focuses on providing support for potential/actual transactions and assists clients in all operational aspects of the transaction, pre and post completion, including

• Pre-deal value creation advisory – i.e. where can we see value for our client in this deal?

• Buy and sell side operational due diligence – i.e. has the business been performing well? What could be improved to unlock further value for our client?

• Synergy development and review – i.e. where are the synergies between two businesses and how well has the plan for capturing these synergies been compiled?

• Carve out and divestment support – i.e. what does the business look like standalone, what support and transition services will it need to function? How can we help our clients execute the separation and ensure a smooth Day 1?

• Taking control and 100 day planning – i.e. how can our clients safely take control of the business and manage risk whilst delivering quick wins through the first 100 days?

• Mergers & Acquisitions Integration – i.e. how can our clients protect and grow value in an acquisition, what is the right level of integration to achieve this and what does an effectively run integration programme look like?

• Post-acquisition performance improvement using our Rapid Value Creation methodology – i.e. where might value lie in the business and how can we generate sustainable cost savings?

A career in the DDV team is a unique and rewarding challenge. The work is difficult, often quite complex and done under tight deadlines. As a result, the opportunity for personal and career development is extraordinary with great opportunities for progression, however this career path can be challenging at times.

Whilst the team is London based, deal activity is global, therefore projects can involve travel which can be at short notice. Occasionally projects may also involve being based overseas for multiple weeks with trips home weekly or bi weekly and candidates should be prepared for this.

The team is structured by sector, with specialist cross-sector teams in Finance, Technology and Integration; we also work closely with our colleagues in ‘People in Deals’ who focus on the HR aspects of a deal. Although you will be aligned to a sector or specialist team, the type of client projects you work on will vary based on the demand and the current deal market, therefore a degree of flexibility is expected.

There are plenty of opportunities to get to know your new colleagues. Consulting is a relationship industry after all. We have weekly team newsletters, monthly team meetings and monthly socials, together with an annual away day. The team is a collaborative and supportive environment with lots of chances to socialise across our team and the wider business.

Responsibilities

As a Senior Manager, you’ll work as part of a team of problem solvers with extensive consulting and industry experience, helping our clients solve their complex business issues from strategy to execution. Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to

• Proactively assist in the management of a portfolio of clients, while reporting to Directors and above

• Be involved in the financial management of clients

• Be actively involved in business development activities to help identify and research opportunities on new/existing clients

• Develop project strategies to solve complex technical challenges for our clients

• Manage and deliver large projects by developing the project team, assessing engagement risks throughout, driving conclusions, and reviewing/ challenging the output produced by the team

• Shape and deliver projects to meet and exceed the expectations of our clients and our own quality criteria

• Train, coach, and supervise team members

• Continue to develop internal relationships and develop your PwC brand

What we are looking for

Essential skills

• Operational leadership or line management role in manufacturing for a large FMCG company

• Strong understanding of supply chain across Plan, Source, Make and Deliver

• M&A or divestiture experience and direct operational or process improvement experience

• Excellent interpersonal and leadership skills

• Experience of developing internal/ external networks with an ability to quickly develop effective working relationships

• Excellent verbal and written communications skill

• Deep operating experience gained within a corporate environment

• Comfort around high level financial analysis and understanding of the key operational drivers

• Ability to manage ‘change’ projects

• An ability to ‘read’ a business/ process

• A demonstrated ability to operate on your own initiative

• Comfort and ability around report writing

Desirable skills

• MBA or Accounting qualification

• Commercial exposure in negotiation and consultation

• Experience working as part of the new product development (NPD) function in a manufacturing context

• Experience managing large capex spend projects

• Good communication skills (oral and written)

• Consulting experience (internal or external)

• Foreign language skills (oral and written)

Personality characteristics

Our highest performers are usually:

• Nice people! We work hard together, so we hire people who treat their colleagues well, who aren’t hierarchical and enjoy creating a happy culture even when under pressure

• Extremely comfortable around C suite or senior stakeholders, as most of our work is done at this level; you don’t need to be an extrovert, but confidence definitely helps

• Comfortable with uncertainty and excited by the idea that you may not know what country you’ll be in next week

• Handy with Excel and PowerPoint; much of our work involves detailed analysis and report writing, so it’s critical you can work with these tools

• Naturally curious; we love people who can apply logic and problem solving to difficult business problems