Times Network - Associate - M&A/Corporate Strategy

Job Description:

- This position will require the individual to support the Group's higher education, professional education and upskilling establishments in corporate development initiatives. The candidate will play a key role in collaborating with both internal and external stakeholders in the development of business wide operational strategies.\

- The primary responsibility will be to work on all higher education matters for the Group and this candidate/ role will be working out of the University Campus office to collaborate and drive all initiatives (internal and external) working closely with the team there alongside Mumbai office.

The key functions that the M&A and corporate strategy team performs are:

Strategic Decision Support:

- Group has over 30+ businesses across media, digital & education segments. Our team works with shareholders directly and assist in strategic and capital allocation decisions for all group businesses

- Focus and work with management teams to evaluate new business opportunities, capital investments and M&A activities

- Study the market opportunity, map competition, analyze white spaces, evaluate product & go to market strategy and recommend organic/ inorganic investments to shareholders

Operating & Corporate Finance activities:

- Review long-term strategic and financial plans (including financial modelling)

- Annual Budgeting & Quarterly Business performance reviews for the group businesses

- Help build and gather market intelligence to support decisions on product and marketing strategies

- Corporate restructuring activities

- Assist management team with research related to operating activities

- Establishing KPIs for relevant segments, functions and driving efficiencies. Including infrastructure utilization mapping

- Need to understand the required compliance, regulatory landscape, and its implications. Also, work on making policy level suggestions, as applicable.

- Drive digital transformation initiatives including supporting planning and implementation on critical ERP++ , student engagement solutions needed towards driving better tracking, reporting for better outcomes management

New Business Initiatives:

- To be responsible for initiating discussions on new market segments that the group should enter. These are generally greenfield ventures

- Scan the market and stay up to date on new trends, products and new market opportunities.

- Study new and interesting segments and recommend market entry options and strategy for the group

- Support and guide the management team on the new businesses that Group does not have prior presence in. Hence, develop initial strategy and assists shareholders with recruitment and setup of the management team to deliver on these new businesses

- To be focused on building digital products and revenue models for our existing primarily offline businesses

Strategic & Financial Investments:

- Actively seek minority investments in strategic business segments, esp. tech enabled business models

- Run the M&A/ fund raise process, as required for any of the group companies

The candidate would have the opportunity to lead corporate strategy and decision support for Higher education, professional and upskilling establishments of the group over a five to seven year horizon.

Qualifications and skills:

- 2-3 years' experience with experience in financial modelling, company analysis, industry research and competitive benchmarking

- Graduate degree (Engineering) / CA / MBA from premier institutes

- Strong analytical skills and knowledge of business finance