What you will work on

Recently, I concluded a project with an infrastructure fund that was looking to expand into China’s data centre market through M&A. We performed a commercial due diligence on a potential investment target, which included a market review and a business plan review.

As an Associate Consultant, my primary responsibility was desktop research, with a specific emphasis on the regulatory landscape governing the data center market and power usage in the country, a competitive assessment of peer operators in the market, a regional analysis of key markets, pricing and potential customers for target. I accomplished the tasks by cross-validating data with expert legal advisers, conducting expert interviews and integrating data from disparate sources to form an independent view on the target in question.

The project was particularly memorable for me because it was the first time that I took on full responsibility for a sub-workstream. Thanks to the depth of research conducted, I was able to contribute to project discussions with both the project director and the project manager. I also appreciated having greater exposure to the client through multiple client calls, which were invaluable for my consulting career.

I recently completed a project for a government department in the UK that was looking into 5G use cases. I was the most junior member of staff and was working remotely from Cambridge with a Consultant and a Partner in the London office and a Principal based in Edinburgh. My role was to conduct the initial desk research into what 5G use cases existed and what the benefits and barriers of them were. I then developed categories of use cases (such as transport, smart cities and manufacturing), determined the key technical requirements for each category (such as VR/AR, robotics and autonomous vehicles) and produced a list of key barriers (such as the business case, cultural resistance and cost).

We conducted a range of interviews with key stakeholders and I helped to develop an analysis of the likely adoption of use cases in each category based on an assessment of the impact of each barrier on each technical feature’s initial delay to adoption and initial rate of adoption.

What I really liked about this project was how the categories I developed within the first few weeks became a central part of the analysis and report. I also enjoyed being involved in a range of activities: from the initial desk research (which involved reading through all the articles and papers I could find about 5G and its use cases, documenting my findings and presenting that to senior team members) to participating in stakeholder interviews (for which I had to put together a numerical analysis in Excel and a visual representation in PowerPoint) and finally drafting key sections of the report. As a recent joiner it was thrilling to see my work within the final deliverable, and it was exciting to be exposed to such a wide range of techniques and skills, all within one project.

I thoroughly enjoyed being part of a postal study that Analysys Mason conducted on behalf of a regulator in South East Asia. The postal market around the world is rapidly changing due to digitalisation. As such, the regulator wanted an analysis on how it could best support the national postal operator to maintain distribution quality and control rising operational costs.

I was part of an international team that included Associate Consultants and Consultants in Singapore, a project manager in Stockholm and a Principal in London. As an Associate Consultant, I supported the team by researching European countries that were included as benchmarks in the study. My work included:

• qualitative research (scanning and compiling briefs, reports and various other documents from regulators, industry news outlets and international postal organisations)
• quantitative research (gathering, structuring and analysing data for Analysys Mason’s benchmark model)
• supporting the team on various other research tasks related to the project.

“The project gave me an opportunity to work with highly skilled colleagues in several offices, while also providing me with an exciting insight into the type of international projects that one can expect to work on after having joined Analysys Mason.

In my first project, I worked with the IT department of a German telecoms company. The company wanted to develop integrated IT capacity management for projects to ensure effective resource allocation. It also needed accurate capacity forecasts for projects to avoid overloading the workforce.

As a consultant, I had direct contact with the client almost every day in order to present results, gather feedback and further develop the project in workshops. One of my main tasks was to develop a pilot tool for IT capacity management. This tool collected basic information such as capacity and project requirements. I was also in regular contact with the IT department to collect and validate resource information.

For the project, I received internal support from one of our experienced Managers.