Background

I'm a consultant based in Yangon, one of the Roland Berger offices in the Southeast Asia region. Back in September – November 2019, we had our first ever rotator program between Southeast Asia and Nordics. Under this program, I was temporarily transferred to work out of the Stockholm office, and in exchange, a consultant from the Stockholm office was sent to one of our Southeast Asian offices for the same period. Personally, this was a great opportunity to experience a different part of Roland Berger, work in new project environments and collaborate with new colleagues. Below are some key highlights from the invaluable experience.

Project highlight

A main project highlight during the program was having to lead a short market study on the German access control installation market. The client was a European PE fund, considering a consolidation play through acquisitions in a highly fragmented market. We ran two modules parallel for market attractiveness assessment and industry mapping & identification of potential acquisition targets. A key complexity to overcome was scarcity of market information, especially in English/Swedish, given the high levels of market fragmentation. There were tens of thousands of small access control installers across Germany. Both quantitative data and other qualitative insights were derived through triangulation of information from limited public reports, past Roland Berger projects, expert interviews and cold calling. There was a strong reliance on interviews and cold calls, with 20 – 30 of them conducted within a very tight timeline.

City highlight

Outside of my home base of Stockholm, Copenhagen was my favorite city. I went there once for a client meeting, and again for a second time for a short weekend trip. Copenhagen has beautiful harbor areas and attractive castles from 16th – 17th century and scenic parks.

Food highlight

During the Nordics Rotator program, I tried a Swedish-Turkish delicacy, called Kebab pizza. It was highly recommended by several colleagues in Stockholm. As you see below, the pizza has a thin crust and is topped with thin slices of meat, peppers, tomatoes and Tzatziki sauce.