India still a priority market for Kantar after Bain Capital association
Having sold nearly two-thirds of its operations to Bain Capital, insights and consulting agency Kantar has indicated its intentions to continue its investment drive in the Indian market. According to CEO of the firm Eric Salama, the new ties with Bain are unlikely to change the firm’s strategy.
Salama spoke to journalists from across the globe on a conference call, declaring that Kantar continues to prioritise India as a key market. The firm has been gradually consolidating its operations in India and across the globe, having unified its suite of brands into one single entity.
“India is important for us not only because it is a big market but also because we have got a lot of data centres there, which are playing a big role in the rest of the world. We also run our largest delivery systems out of Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Pune. We will continue to invest in the Indian market,” explained Salama.
Following its unification earlier this year, the firm has made a number of senior additions to its personnel in India, which includes the appointment of a new Group Head of Human Resources and a Head of its Analytics practice. Bain Capital took over a 60% stake in the group last year, leading many to expect further changes to its profile.
Salama has now elucidated the new priorities at the firm. Having formed ties with Bain, the firm will now use the additional resources to focus on inorganic growth and make strategic acquisitions in the Indian market. Predictably, these acquisitions are likely to come in the domains of technology and data.
The consulting market as a whole in India is expanding in tandem with the overall economy, while the IT consulting domain has been among the fastest growing segments within consulting. Businesses in India are looking to digitally transform their operations, turning to consultants for advice on the right strategy to do so.
Firms that offer this advice – and in some cases digital support – must have in-depth tech expertise and a talent pool that is familiar with the state-of-the-art in the digital sphere. In this new chapter, Kantar is looking to become a firm of this nature.
“We are becoming a much more tech-centric company and adding more data scientists. We have around 1,500 of them around the worlds and we are going to scale that quite considerably. We are also going to add lots of consultants to deliver a greater client impact,” said Salama.
