Gurdeep, a knowledge specialist and Team leader for the Asia Pacific FIG research Team, shares his typical day at McKC.
Morning
I reach the office by 9 a.m. After going through my mail and grabbing a quick cup of tea, I do a status check on the work lined up for the Asia Pacific Financial Institutions Group (FIG) team. On an average we get about 6-7 FIG requests from the Asian CSTs ranging from wholesale banking, retail banking, asset management, to insurance. We problem solve as a team on how best to approach these questions and ensure we leverage the knowledge and work done within the team already.
Given my specialization in wholesale banking, I mostly handle questions in this domain. I have a call with the consulting team to discuss the deliverables for the day. By 7:00 p.m., I need to prepare a few pages on the recent trends in wholesale banking in India.
Afternoon
I have already scanned the existing knowledge in the firm on the subject which eases a lot of my work. I also need to go through the analyst reports and conduct interviews with the experts in the industry on some specific trends. To gather global trends, I have leveraged my colleagues in the North America and European banking groups.
Upon returning from lunch, I sit with one of my team members to discuss the progress on a knowledge document we are working on. We have a call with a FIG partner tomorrow on the initial findings and if they are interesting, we will test them further. My colleague has built a complex model which sizes the revenue opportunity from key banking products along with the cost metrics. After giving him inputs, I get back to my document.
Evening
The Visual Aids team has been helpful to produce the PowerPoint pages on time. I send the pages along with the back-up material to the Engagement Manager (EM). On the call, the EM suggests some changes to be made and some more research to be done on a couple of areas. Before I start, I take an hour out for the gym as that helps me refresh.
By 10:00 p.m. I send the modified version of the document and head home. I get a call from the EM on my mobile that the document looks good and the piece will be very valuable for the discussion tomorrow. Though it has been a long tiring day, I feel a strong sense of achievement, which is the best thing about McKinsey Knowledge Center.
