B-school graduates must embrace medium-term goals: KPMG India CEO

Nagporewalla also said that the company has been consistently supporting talent to upgrade their technical skills while on the job through different IIM courses.

Management freshers entering the consulting business and in KPMG should think of the medium term, said Yezdi Nagporewalla, CEO of KPMG in India.

“If there is one thing that I would ask from the fresh talent which comes out straight from the college, that request would be to think medium term. In my view, what the fresh graduates have is that they think too short term and go about life in different ways,” Nagporewalla said during the 11th convocation of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kashipur.

The chief executive's comments come amidst the reports of a talent war between big four consulting firms, KPMG, EY, PwC, and Deloitte.

In fact, Deloitte is focusing on ramping up hiring in India, Romal Shetty, Deloitte’s south Asia chief executive officer told Moneycontrol, in an interview in January 2024.  He said Deloitte India, will increase its headcount to around 2.6 lakh from the current 1.2 lakh employees in the next three to four years.

Despite the challenging campus placements in India, Nagporewalla asserted that the hiring strategy of KPMG in India did not change from the past two years.

“In the past two years, the hiring strategy hasn’t changed dramatically. We grow 20 percent upwards year-on-year (y-o-y) and there remains a requirement for talent. Except it's there for the right talent and the right resources. We look for young talent and make sure that they grow in the organisation into managers,” he added.

Nagporewalla also said that the company has been consistently supporting talent to upgrade their technical skills while on the job through different IIM courses.