After nine years of successful growth in the Netherlands, CPI Governance (CPI), a consulting firm specialising in risk management, finance and governance, is pleased to announce its expansion into Asia with a new branch office in Singapore.
ASIA TODAY editor sat down with Simone Heidema, Managing Partner of CPI Governance to hear about the latest developments and the roadmap for 2013.
Q: What is the roadmap for 2013 and beyond for CPI Asia?
As the finance sector in Asia is poised for growth, the need for seasoned governance, risk and finance professionals continues to boom. These staff are in hot demand and CPI Asia is able to provide professionals with 10-15-year track records geared towards delivering lasting results.
The recent opening of our Singapore-based office reflects the importance of our growing partnership with clients across Southeast Asia. With a robust team in place, CPI Asia is currently rolling out its services, focusing on clients in the financial services industry and corporations with headquarters in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and other cities in China.
Q: What are CPI Asia’s main strengths and what is its vision?
Over the past decade, CPI has become a trusted advisor and partner to its local and international clients with its 9 partners, 50 professionals and 300 associates. An independent networking organisation, CPI has evolved to its current leadership position, challenging larger service firms, such as the Big Four.
Our clients advise they work with us for the following reasons:
• CPI has highly skilled, experienced professionals in multiple disciplines
• CPI serves as both a boardroom advisor and an implementation partner
• CPI offers hands-on expertise and independent thought leadership
• CPI provides cost-efficient, tailor-made staffing solutions
Q: What is the most popular service in your portfolio?
This differs slightly between the financial services industry and our other corporate clients. Within the financial services industry, many requests relate to regulatory, risk and compliance management. With the many regulatory changes in Asia, we receive many requests to perform gap analyses between the companies’ current situations and the future landscape desired by the regulator. These requests are often combined with the objective of setting higher internal standards for governance and risk management. The gap analysis clearly identifies the difference between as-is and the desired future state and is often followed by a request to assist in the implementation of the necessary changes.
On the other hand, our corporate clients often request our expertise and experience for system/process integration and improvement in M&A situations. Also, we receive many requests to assist in improving internal controls and financial reporting.
Another popular service we offer is satisfying the high demand for interim solutions in the areas of risk, finance and governance, when companies are short staffed.
Q: Could you give an outline of the competitive environment for risk management, finance and corporate governance consulting firms in Asia? Who are your main competitors in the region?
There is no real competition in terms of specialist firms that focus solely on risk management, finance and governance, serviced by high levels of experienced consultants. In the past decade, CPI has become a trusted advisor and partner for its clients and has evolved into a thought-leadership position where we are perceived to be a critical challenger to the larger service organisations, such as the Big Four.
CPI consultants are carefully selected and highly experienced professionals with over 10-15 years’ relevant work experience in both consulting and line management. They all hold university degrees, with many also having pursued post-graduate education. This high level of expertise, combined with charge-out rates 30 per cent below the Big Four, makes CPI a very compelling partner.
Q: Have you encountered challenges following your expansion into Asia with a new branch office in Singapore?
On the front end of the business, we have not encountered big challenges, so far. In fact, we have discovered mostly opportunities. We have been overwhelmed by our clients’ positive response to CPI expanding its business model into Asia. I guess if there have been any challenges, these have been related to having to figure out the different employment and tax regulations since they are unique in every country.
Q: What are the barriers to cope with in terms of Asia’s language and cultural diversity?
We have found that language and culture barriers differ not by country, but by individuals. We are very interested in new cultures and languages, and therefore welcome the difference, rather than see this as an obstacle. A lot of our Western consultants have been in Asia for a long time and understand the culture. Therefore, in Singapore and Hong Kong we do not encounter real barriers. In China, there are more language barriers so that if you do not show the address of your destination written in Chinese characters to the taxi driver, you might end up being taken to an isolated building on the other side of the city from where you want to go. But apart from these challenges, we are very happy with our progress in Asia!
Q: Do you have any plans for expansion into other parts of Asia? If yes, what would likely be the next country?
As mentioned earlier, CPI Asia is currently focusing on clients in the financial services industry and corporations with headquarters in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and other cities in China. Obviously, this involves working with these clients at their local operations. In addition, we see many opportunities in Indonesia and Malaysia, which we are excited to pursue.
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After 8 years of successful growth in the Netherlands, CPI Governance ("CPI"), a consultancy firm specialising in risk management, finance and governance, is pleased to announce its new branch opening in Singapore.
Why CPI Asia?
With markets in Asia growing rapidly and increased regulatory scrutiny, there is an increasing demand for implementation of profound risk management, finance and governance processes. The available capacity and knowledge in these areas is growing in Asia, however expertise remains insufficient. CPI, with its successful track record and extensive resources, is very well equipped to assist corporations and financial institutions alike in fulfilling their needs for additional capacity and knowledge transfer in these areas.
Who is CPI?
CPI was founded in 2004, and advises and supports management and their organisations in risk management, finance and implementation of good governance. In the past eight years CPI has become a trusted advisor and partner for its clients and has developed a thought-leadership position perceived to be a critical challenger to the larger service organisations, such as the Big Four.
CPI consultants are carefully selected and highly experienced professionals with over 10-15 years’ relevant work experience in both consulting and line management. They all hold university degrees, with many also having pursued post-graduate education. This high level of expertise, combined with charge-out rates 30 per cent below the Big Four, makes CPI a very compelling partner. CPI currently consists of 11 partners, 50 professionals and 300 associates. The company has served, and continues to serve, a very large number of blue-chip companies in the corporate and financial sector. Examples include KPN (the largest Dutch telecom company), Aegon (financial services), Fortune 500 companies such as Henry Schein (medical, dental and veterinary supplies distributor) and Hewitt Associates (HR consulting and BPO), as well as and private-equity owned companies like Maxeda (retail).
Founder
Simone Heidema is the founder and Managing Partner of CPI. She is a qualified auditor and has worked globally both as an advisor and in CFO positions. Simone chairs the Corporate Platform for Good Governance (CPG²) and is a guest lecturer in risk management at Amsterdam’s university VU. In addition, Simone is a regular guest speaker at seminars on governance and risk management and has published a variety of articles on this topic in Het Financieele Dagblad and Banking Review, amongst others. Simone received both her Dutch accountant's degree and her masters' degree in Business Economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.
For more information please contact:
CPI Asia, Managing Partner Simone Heidema, sheidema@cpiasia.com