Research Analyst

Overview & Scope

• Market Research expertise driving decisions to support Business plans, analyzing data for business ideation and enhancement recommendations in line with the company’s Business Plan.
• Assimilation and analysis of data to develop commercially viable Products (schools / ancillary value-add), which cater to GEMS’ target markets.
• Developing demand models to test projects’ viability in new markets based on market research.
• Primary and secondary research to validate assumptions to enable data-driven financial models and Investment Committee propositions.
• Driving the market research and data analytics component for the financial models.
• Preparing opportunity proposals for the Investment committee.
• Preparing correspondence and infographics for thought leadership and feedback to regulators.

Key Accountabilities

Market Research & Data Analytics

  Data Analytics (Internal)

• Harnessing data from Company Wide Phoenix, Salesforce & PowerBI interfaces to conduct analysis such as Student Demographic Analysis, Residential Location and Drive Time Analysis, Enquiry-Enrolment Conversion Analysis, Joiners-Leavers Analysis, Sibling Analysis, Academic Outcome Analysis, Customer Satisfaction & NPS Commentary Analysis.

  Market Research (External)

• Secondary research using a variety of sources (e.g. analyst reports, market research reports, news articles, real estate and education publication and periodicals).
• Customer segmentation, market sizing, demand and competitor analysis, macroeconomic forecasting and make recommendations to support the company’s Business plan.
• Designing and executing in-depth interview guides to solve the problem statement with key organizational stakeholders, industry experts, customers, Education Business Group & Reporting with recommendations.

Competitor Intelligence:

• Participate in mystery visits (i.e. attending School and Nursery events, meet the principal events for competitor schools), Site visits and detailed study of non-GEMS schools that are prospective targets for management services.
• Conducting desk research, mystery calls and tracking Competitor Social Media content to gather intelligence about non-GEMS schools.

Investment Committee (IC)/SMC Deck preparation:

• Preparing data driven, insightful and visually captivating notes and reports for the Investment Committee /SMC.

Ed-Vantage (Management Contract Business) Process:

• Adhering a formal Decision to bid process for Management Contract opportunities.
• Developing a roadmap for the Opportunity, preparing, and pitching a ‘Scope of services’ to the client.
• Drafting Heads of Terms, identifying appropriate contractual risks and having them mitigated with the help of in-house legal team.

Regulatory Lobbying:

• Drafting reports and letters backed by external and internal data driven infographics to UAE Education regulators; lobbying to justify and corroborate industry feedback and narrative.

Third Party Research Engagements:

• Preparing scope of work for 3rd party research engagements.
• Aligning and curating survey designs of 3rd party research companies to help answer the problem statement.

Qualifications:

• University degree in business, finance or related discipline
• 2 years’ post-qualification experience in Research & Analytics, Advisory & Consulting.

Skills:

• MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, Power BI, Salesforce, Analysis, Research, Drafting Presentations for Senior Management / Board / subcommittee of the Board.

Soft Skills:

• Well-spoken/articulate, proficient in English (Arabic is a plus), thinking & reasoning, ability to make inference from Market Data and publicly available information & make recommendations relevant to the business unit lead.

KPIs:

• ‘Go to’ person for in-house research and analysis resulting in reduction of 3rd party research cost that would have been incurred by the company (primarily for markets where GEMS has a strong presence).
• Investment Committee Packs/ Strategic Management Committee Packs.
  ➢Opportunity Identification (Interim desk research & Reporting: 1 day)
  ➢Site Visit & Reporting (2-3 days)
  ➢Ensure that all assumptions on enrolment, pricing, costing in the feasibility models are scientifically derived and corroborated by reliable data (Collating Data and analyzing: 2 days)
  ➢IC/SMC note deck preparation (3-4 days)
• Support with Regulatory lobbying.
  ➢Collating data (internal/external): 1 day
  ➢Slide creation: 1-2 days