The 10 most promising business consulting companies 2018

www.insightssuccess.in FEBRUARY 2018

The way of business solutions

THE

10

MOST

PROMISING

BUSINESS CONSULTING

COMPANIES

BUSINESS INSIGHTS Top Trends Disrupting the Business Consulting Industry

CHALK TALK Must know Tools & Techniques in a Business Consulting World

Pramod Bapna MD & Head of Strategy & Operations Practice

SmartHead Consulting: Delivering Outstanding Strategies that Makes Complex Business Problems Appear Simple

Editorial

W

e live in rapidly changing times, especially for businesses.

Given these swiftly occurring changes, businesses have had to adapt to entirely new marketing channels (web and social), decide how to invest in and utilize new technologies, and compete on a global stage.

One side effect of these rapid changes and growth is that no single CEO or any employee can be an expert in everything. This was, perhaps, always true, but it has never been more apparent. That is why, some of the biggest challenges businesses face today, are best met and addressed with qualified consultants. Bringing on a consultant helps CEOs add the expertise and skills they need to address particular problems at particular times, and can provide the best possible outcome.

Revitalizing your Business

Consultants Industries today have played an important role in the development of the Indian business sector. In the past several years, the Consultants Industry has not only grown in size, stature and global reach, but it has also gone through several cycles of professionalization, making it one of the most developed fields within the professional services industry. Consultants are more than giving advice; it’s such a highly extensive, multi-sourcing growing field with experts having wide knowledge of a particular subject, which play a crucial role in helping organizations embark on the path towards success.

Hiring a consultant allows companies the ability to pay only for the services they need, rather than investing in pricey technologies or paying to keep staff on hand that may not always be needed. In addition, hiring a consultant enables cost benefits associated with a lack of taxes, the need to pay benefits, or human resource issues that are associated with hiring a new full-time employee. Consultants also provide a significant amount of value for an organization. They can help to develop strategies for growth or manage projects. Since consultants are not committed to a single firm, they bring experience from a variety of companies and industries, which allows them to offer creative solutions and enables “out of the box” thinking.

As in many other sectors, low cost was the first major initial advantage of Indian consulting companies and consultants. But their major clients and their partners abroad have found that Indian consultants have other advantages too, such as professionalism, industriousness, willingness to learn, and adaptability to technology.

Nikita Doiphode

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Shraddha Deshpande Managing Editor Nikita Doiphode Co-Editors Sachin Bhandare Abhinav Chandrayan Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Mayur Koli Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Shweta Ambilwade Visualiser Aparna Vanzul Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte Business Development Executives Ashwini, Meera, Tarun, Divya Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Vivek Database Management Prashant Technology Consultant Swapnil Patil sales@insightssuccess.com

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Cover Story

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SmartHead Consulting Delivering Outstanding Strategies that Makes Complex Business Problems Appear Simple

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CONSULTING STRATEGIES Concerns of the Consultancy Industry and Solutions that Keeps it Aoat

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EXPERT’S VIEW POINT Tips for the start-ups in the Consulting Industry

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INSIDER’S OPINION Future of Consulting Industry in India

Articles

20 AGIVETTA CONSULTING: Guiding Lanterns for the Ever-changing Business Demands

22 EDITORIAL PIC Management Consulting Industry: An Overview

28 AURELIUS CORPORATE SOLUTIONS: A Leading Insourcing Multiplier

30 TECH & TRENDS The criss-crossing of Artiď€ cial Intelligence and consulting

38 36 CHROME DATA ANALYTICS & MEDIA: A Leading IT-based Market Research and Brand Consultation Firm

CHALK TALK Must know Tools & Techniques in a Business Consulting World

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42 PINEAPPLE CONSULTING: Designing Immaculate Brands for the Future

BUSINESS INSIGHTS Top Trends Disrupting the Business Consulting Industry

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Providing more than just Advice

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n the current economic environment, it is important that businesses find ways to stand out, tighten their operations, and increase their revenues while keeping expenses low. As many businesses struggle to remain profitable over longer times, the day-to-day operations of the business are more than enough to keep management busy, especially in smaller businesses where owners or managers wear many hats.

Choosing to use an experienced consultant may allow businesses the ability to grow, rather than simply attempting to maintain their current levels of profits.

Given the potential benefits of consulting companies, we are introducing some of the most prominent organizations in the industry who are capable of leading their clients towards excellence by supporting them beyond the advisory level. “The 10 Most Promising Business Consulting Companies” issue aspires to assist organizations to find the right consulting partner who has the resources and skills to deliver smart business solutions with scalability and inventiveness.

The Cover Story features SmartHead Consulting, one of the leading firms in the industry that has been focused on providing thought leadership for Business Growth, Profitability, Market Development, Product/Service Portfolio etc. in various industries and sectors. The team at SmartHead strongly believe that mere intellectual play would mean nothing if it fails to deliver the desired results. Thus their collaborative approach helps in creating a bond of trust and faith between them and their client.

Apart from this, we have featured Chrome Data Analytics & Media, a technology-driven market research firm which is the largest and the only Distribution Audit specialist in India. Aurelius Corporate Solutions, which provide Consultative Insourcing Solutions to 40 plus domains for multiple industries. Pineapple Consulting, a strategic branding and design consulting company. Frost & Sullivan, a growth partnership company focused on helping their clients achieve transformational growth. Brandscapes Worldwide, a global marketing strategy consulting company, which is focused on delivering profitable growth for brands and companies they work with. AgiVetta Consulting, a corporate problem solving firm. GDA Consulting, who offers a wide range of services such as Valuations, Business Setup Services, Techno-Economic Viability Studies, Fund Tie-ups, Business Restructuring, M&A Services, Due Diligence and other services. Step2Strategy, who builds executive panels in select industries for members to learn what’s working and what isn’t for people in similar roles in the same and different industries. Intellecap is a pioneer in providing innovative business solutions that help build and scale profitable and sustainable enterprises dedicated to social and environmental change.

Additionally, to give meaningful insights and expand your knowledge base about the industry, we have included articles written by industry experts along with some remarkable articles scripted by our in-house editors.

So flip through the pages and explore interesting insights into the world of consulting!

Pramod Bapna MD & Head of Strategy & Operations Practice

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Cover Story

SmartHead Consulting: Delivering Outstanding Strategies that Makes Complex Business Problems Appear Simple

‘Saral Samadhan’ methodology can be used in every complex business situation to deliver easy results

tions a z i n a g r O active o r p e b t s mu the and have gies ate right str keep o in place t es employe engaged

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anagement consulting is a big billion industry.

It’s big. It’s growing. It’s highly profitable. And it’s about to be disrupted. Whether the focus is strategy, operations, tax, finance, HR, or IT, business consultants are a staple of corporate life. Today, many consulting firms provide services across virtually and globally in all the aspects of business. From defining strategic direction to simply serving as an additional pair of hands for outsourced work, consultants have become intimately linked to the success of most organizations.

As over the years, business consulting firms have mushroomed, SmartHead Consulting, with its passion for excellence, has also emerged as one of the leading firms in the industry. Since its inception in 2011, the company’s portfolio has been focused on providing thought leadership

for Business Growth, Profitability, Market Development, Product / Service Portfolio, People Management, Working Capital Management, Supply Chain, Business Processes, Authorization Structures etc. in various industries such as Healthcare, Textiles, Education, Real Estate, Oil & Gas, Energy, Water Infrastructure, Telecom Equipment, Cables, Polyester Fiber, Pollution Control Equipment, Printing Inks & Packaging Films & Chemicals, Dairy etc.

The founding members of the organization, who do not come from the proverbial consulting domain, believe in simplifying the solutions to various business issues, rather than complicating them. This approach has helped SmartHead to create a niche for them. There is also a huge value proposition for the clients since SmartHead’s solutions are easy to comprehend and implement, thereby more efficient.

But, it is easier said than done. As they say “Simplicity is the ultimate Sophistication.” Saral Samadhan is not easy to achieve. It needs a drill down approach to get to the core of the problem in order to differentiate between the symptoms and the disease.

SmartHead’s partners come from a strong executive operations background and with extensive hands-on experience of widespread implementation of business solutions, allowing them to decipher the real issues. They believe that mere intellectual play would mean nothing if it fails to deliver the desired results. Their collaborative approach helps in creating a bond of trust and faith between them and their client.

Driving Force of the Smart Solution Provider With the perfect approach of an entrepreneur, the CEO of SmartHead, Pramod Bapna, Managing Director and Head of Strategy & Operations Practice advices to the budding young-entrepreneurs, that the youth must be aware that Entrepreneurship is not short term; it’s a long haul process which takes time and patience to build up. He emphasizes on the fact that

there are no short cuts to success. He also advised that one should be honest, straight forward and humble to one’s customers, employees, partners and other stake holders. He said one should be ready to accept challenges, feedbacks and criticism, and make course corrections as they go ahead. “One must learn to put down their ego if they want to succeed,” asserts Pramod.

Pramod comes with a rich industry experience of over two decades in managing businesses, developing potential markets, drafting policy initiatives, and accelerating profitable growth through strategic initiatives. Prior to SmartHead, he served as the President & Managing Director at Degremont Ltd. (an EPC business of the Suez group of France). Previously he has held key positions of General Manager & CEO of Schlumberger RMS India and then Actaris which was a MBO from Schlumberger. He was also Managing Director at Cooper Industries.

effectiveness, organization design, culture transformation, and large-scale people-related change implementation.

Prior to SmartHead, Reena was the head of human resources at Hughes Communication India Ltd. She has also served as the Country Personnel Manager for all business lines of Schlumberger, the only HR manager across that company’s global organization to have held this prestigious position. She has also worked with Citibank Credit Services and NIIT.

Reena Ahuja

Ashok Chordia

Reena Ahuja, a Partner and a key member of the firm’s leadership team has over two decades of experience across a range of industries such as telecommunications, oil & gas, banking and education. Reena leads SmartHead’s People Management Practice. She has been an advisor to organizations’ chief executive officers, senior executives and boards on issues of executive leadership, team

Ashok Chordia, who heads the Financial Services Practice, has over three decades of industry experience in corporate finance, including financial advisory services, IPOs, funding, treasury and taxation. Ashok has proven expertise in re-structuring and re-organizing the financial reporting and balance sheet— exercises that focus on leveraging and unlocking the latent potential through finance best practices, helping to overcome organizational

We believe that if these women are given an opportunity, they can prove to be better contributors than that of a permanent oversized workforce Shubh Mangal

challenges. His vast experience spans a range of industries and functional areas.

Sanjiv Nanda

successfully implemented various information technology solutions for global fortune 500 companies for over 15 years. Shubh is armed with master’s degree in MIS from Case Western Reserve University, USA, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Delhi University. He nurtured his leadership skills at Kellogg School of Management.

The CFO and Partner of SmartHead, Sanjiv Nanda has a rich industry experience of more than three decades across various Industries. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Sanjiv is also a Chartered Accountant. His strength lies in crafting impactful legal structures, developing efficient business, finance and tax management practices, tax planning & strategic restructuring, financial & legal due diligence, merger & acquisition advisory, risk management and Legal & Corporate documentation are also a part of his forte.

The Business Intelligence Reporting & Analytics Practice at SmartHead Consulting is headed by Shubh Mangal. He is one of the leading Business Analytics Consultants in India. He brings strategic and creative flavour to technology consulting experience. Shubh has

Working with a Smarter Approach Considering the background of most of their consultants who themselves come from various corporate backgrounds SmartHead Consulting have faced these issues themselves and understands the pain areas. During the conceptualization stage of SmartHead, the partners made sure to offer a unique model different from those offered in the consulting space. SmartHead assists companies in finding solutions to their complex problems using its model of “Diagnose”, “Engage” & “Deliver”. Its proprietary “Saral Samadhan” methodology has been used for turning around various inefficient businesses by improving their working capital management, supporting vendor management for improving the supply chain, handling change management to grow / multiply their business’s top line, creating appropriate organizational structure, implementing effective performance management systems

One should be honest, straight forward and humble to one’s customers, employees, partners and other stake holders & generating various business intelligence Dash Boards etc.

SmartHead believes in sharing their best practices with its clients. They strongly advocate that applying and enhancing best practices are more important than keeping them under a “Lock & Key”. In fact, SmartHead offers flexible revenue models to its clients to suit their needs. SmartHead’s experience across various industry segments has translated into a differentiated value proposition and powerful solutions that meet present as well as future demands.

In a short span of seven years since its inception, SmartHead Consulting has touched many triumphant milestones. Within the first year of its inception, they managed to win a contract with a Large Blue Chip company. In 2015, they set up their first overseas office in Dubai to serve Middle East clients. They also had an opportunity to lead the India-UK SME business summit in London thereby successfully signing multiple cross border JV’s and technology licensing agreements for Indian clients. SmartHead has also mentored many startups.

Strong Beliefs to be the Change SmartHead’s team has got a good mix of vibrancy and maturity which brings a lot of operational know-hows with it. SmartHead believes in gainfully engaging women with celebrated backgrounds having worked at key positions

with well-known organizations, however were on sabbatical for some reason. Most of these women are looking for independent work schedules to achieve work-life balance and SmartHead is happy to provide them that platform. It believes that if these women are given the opportunity they can prove to be better contributors than that of a permanent oversized workforce.

Under the aegis of such distinguished individuals, SmartHead Consulting is bound to grow and attain new heights. Nurtured by all the right values such as passion, dedication, and ethics, SmartHead clients are in the right hands!

Future Footsteps of SmartHead Talking about the future plans with Pramod Bapna, he said that SmartHead has developed solutions around diverse GOI initiatives including ZED, Smart Cities and is now in research phase on developing solutions relating to Women & Elderly people’s safety due to increased exposure with e-services work force (Cab Drivers, Delivery Boys, Home service technicians etc.). When asked about how he has approached change, Pramod said, “Change dawns on us gradually. It should be handled step by step with a cool and stable thought process. It has to be a well thought out process involving communication with the stake holders and clear time lines with realistic goals.”

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Company Name

Management

Brief

AgiVetta Consulting agivetta.com

Madhur Kathuria CEO

AgiVetta Consulting is a pioneer in providing collaborative solutions to business and IT challenges with innovative ideas.

Aurelius Corporate Solutions Pvt. Ltd aurelius.in

Sumit Peer CEO & Founder

Aurelius Corporate Solutions provide Consultative Insourcing Solutions to 40 plus domains for multiple industries.

Brandscapes Worldwide brandscapesworldwide.com

Pranesh Misra Chairman & MD

Brandscapes Worldwide is a global marketing strategy consulting company that is focused on delivering profitable growth for brands and companies they work with.

Chrome Data Analytics & Media chromedm.com

Pankaj Krishna CEO & Founder

Chrome Data Analytics & Media is a technology-driven market research firm which is the largest and only Distribution Audit specialist in India.

Frost & Sullivan frost.com

V. Balasundaram Senior Director Finance

Frost & Sullivan is a growth partnership company focused on helping their clients achieve transformational growth as they are impacted by an economic environment dominated by accelerating change, driven by disruptive technologies, mega trends, and new business models.

GDA Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd gdaconsulting.in

Suhas Kunte Director

GDA Consulting offers a wide range of services such as Valuations, Business Setup Services, Techno-Economic Viability Studies, Fund Tie-ups, Business Restructuring, M&A Services, Due Diligence and other services.

Intellecap Advisory Services Private Limited intellecap.com

Nisha Dutt CEO

Intellecap is a pioneer in providing innovative business solutions that help build and scale profitable and sustainable enterprises dedicated to social and environmental change.

Pineapple Consulting pineappleconsulting.biz

Ameet Mehta Co-founder & Principal Design

Pineapple is a strategic branding and design consulting company.

SmartHead Consulting smartheadconsulting.com

Pramod Bapna MD

SmartHead Consulting is one of the leading firms in the industry and has been focused on providing thought leadership for Business Growth, Profitability, Market Development, Product/Service Portfolio etc. in various industries and sectors.

Step2 Strategy step2strategy.com

Ashutosh Prasad CEO & Founder

Step2Strategy builds executive panels in select industries for members to learn what’s working and what isn’t for people in similar roles in the same and different industries.

Consulting Strategies

Rajesh Shethia Managing Director

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Concerns of the Consultancy Industry and Solutions that Keeps it Afloat

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ABOUT AUTHOR The Company:

Rajesh Shethia Consultants is a company backed by decades of experience in the field of recruitment. ey boast of a higher number of contacts, than most recruitment companies, which enables them to recruit the best and most appropriate candidates for any profile, in the shortest time.

Leadership:

1. “Rajesh Shethia Consultants Pvt. Ltd. “is the result of the passion and e orts of Rajesh Shethia, Managing Director.

Rajesh has an impressive career spanning 17 years with companies such as Tata Interactive Systems, Educomp, HDFC Bank, Coca-Cola and Airtel.

2. e Co-founder and Chief Success O cer of Rajesh Shethia Consultants Pvt. Ltd. is Punita Shethia, who has a degree in Management Programme for Women Entrepreneurs from IIM Bangalore. She specializes in executive placements. Within the company, Punita exerts e ort to generate outstanding customer experiences through her experience as an HR recruiter.

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he robust economy that we take pride in is the outcome of some path-breaking strategies coupled with technological developments, that worked. The arena of business is one of the most dynamic sectors, playing a key role in reshaping of the economy. Consecutive successes are encouraging new players in the market. With start-ups and business expansions, the gamut of trade and commerce has taken a seriously interesting turn and all these have made consultancy services more important than ever before.

Why You At All Need To Consult A Consultancy?

A successful business is the outcome of some well-measured steps taken at the right time. This calls for an expert review, analysis, correct conclusion, right strategies, and perfect implementation. Consultancy services excellently meet the requirements.

Now let’s take a detailed look at some of the most important reasons to opt for professional consultancy services.

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Unbiased perspective: Your business could be best to you so often we miss to notice the smaller scopes of improvement which later becomes significant issues. So you need to talk to experts and obtain their perspective on your business. It’s the best practice to obtain unbiased opinion and improve your business.

Incorporate updated skills: One of the most important of consultants is to keep a track of the latest market developments, skills that can benefit your business the best way, strategies and market trends. When such knowledge is brought to the board it nurtures your business with some great ingredients strengthening your scopes of success.

Focus on short-term goals: Often we tend to ignore the importance of short-term goals in order to achieve bigger targets. However, achieving short-term goals are proven to be very effective in meeting higher goals.

Relevant diverse knowledge: When it comes to running a business, you need to think out of the box.

When you work in a particular field for a longer period of time, you tend to get surrounded by that. In the long term, this can sabotage your business prospects. So you must hire consultancy services to have some effective out-of-the-box ideas.

Efficient planning: Busy schedule and piled up work often leaves with hardly any time for planning.

However, that’s one of the most important steps to form a great business. So you must hire good consultancy services. Their expert team responsibly plans your business.

consultancy services are walking an extra mile to suggest changes in business strategy to tap the potential of mobile customers.

Secondly, technology is invading. Business entities are increasingly depending on tools and technology to gauge market trend. Dependence on one-to-one consulting has reduced. Most of the online consultations are free and this further pulls back businesses from taking paid help from consultancy services. You cannot ignore the influence of technology so as a measure to tackle this, consultancy firms need to extend their services through the online medium to registered entities. This will ensure a balance where businesses can conveniently consult and the firms can even get paid for the services.

Thirdly, there is less scope for manual control and monitoring of information or advice to business entities.

Online medium has eased communication. But at the same time, it has removed the points of check. This can be a serious problem because you cannot confidently trust on a source of advice. This is why it is all the more important to refer to identified sources and secure the communication between business entities and consultancy firms by authorized registration.

Fourthly, due to pressing market competition, the prices of commodities are substantially marginalised. It is quite a tricky situation for consultancy services to offer strategies that do not compromise on a company’s profit margin.

Efforts to overcome challenges have always paved the way to evolution. The challenges faced by the consultancy industry too have been a driving force that has developed it.

Consultancy firms adopt suitable strategies to overcome the challenges and make optimum use of technology to meet the requirements. The consultancy industry has evolved into one of its best phases, in the recent times.

Consultancy services, in fact, acts as a catalyst for the rapid growth of a business. However, time and changing business scenario has had its impact on this also. There several factors which are posing a challenge for the consultancy industry. Interestingly, the industry is evolving to one of its finest stages by successfully responding to these challenges.

Factors Challenging the Consultancy Industry and Solutions to Tackle The Situation The fast evolving market scenario has raised a few factors which are influencing the consultancy services, challenging it in different ways. Firstly, customers are changing. People have become highly mobile. Increased mobility is a boon for the markets at the same time it poses a challenge for business to retain customers. So as a solution to this issue,

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“AGIVETTA CONSULTING” Guiding Lanterns for the Ever-changing Business Demands

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finding a solution that works best for you and your organization rather than imitating notions and forcefully implementing them. Their solutions envisage in Risk Management, Operations Strategy, Design and Business Engineering, Product Management and Sales Process Restructuring and Support. For AgiVetta Consulting, an organization is not just a group of individuals working together; it is a family with common values and principles, which celebrates success and shares joy; helping and building foundation hand in hand.

he definition of “consulting” is changing along with client expectations and business preferences. In this ever changing world, consulting organizations must adapt quickly in terms of services, structure, and people management.

Rising to this challenge, AgiVetta Consulting is providing a gamut of Business Consulting Solutions required in today’s fast-paced and evolving business arrangement.

Incorporated in 2015 with a motto to promote and value enlightenment, AgiVetta Consulting is a pioneer in providing Business Consulting Solutions in India, South East Asia, Middle East, and Europe. They work with the world’s leading organizations to provide collaborative solutions to business and IT challenges with innovative ideas that are readily embraced by their customers.

An Exceptional Leader Madhur Kathuria, CEO of AgiVetta Consulting, started his career as a Technologist. He traversed through various roles in his journey including that of Programmer, Test Engineer, Business Analyst, Scrum Master, Process Consultant, CMMI Appraiser and Lead Consultant.

Their core philosophy roots in rigorous critical and analytical thinking, with a swift and continuous feed-forward process, which enhances delivery value validating quality to all probable products and processes.

The Business Consulting Team at AgiVetta Consulting brings new ideas and solutions, inspiration, and passion to help their customers to apply these approaches in the continuous changing business environment.

As India’s First CEC (Certified Enterprise Coach) and one of the only 30 experts in the world, with the triple certification of CEC, CST (Certified Scrum Trainer) and CAL1 (Certified Agile Leader) from Scrum Alliance, Madhur has been training and coaching Scrum teams across India, Europe and USA for past 14 years. Madhur is one of the top 12 Certified OpenSpace Agility Trainers & Coaches in the world and the one in India.

With vast involvement in serving organizations and business units to transmute into successful entities, the company is providing transforming and customized business consulting solutions in the fields of Leadership Consulting, Business Consulting, Strategy Consulting, Process Consulting, New Age Leadership Consulting, Organizational Change Management and Technical Excellence to help businesses in developing new and effective corporate strategies, modernize organizational culture and align with exceptional effective performance.

Having worked with 300+ teams across 60+ organizations as a transformation consultant, he has trained and coached approximately 12000+ associates. Madhur brings these experiences as a transformation consultant, trainer, and a coach to ensure that learning is not just theory based but has a pragmatic insight into the real world. He is also the founder of “Battlefield Agility” framework that has been successfully adopted across multiple areas of Product Development and IT Services in India.

At AgiVetta Consulting, they do not believe in providing fit-for-fit solutions for their organizations. They trust in

He looks forward to life as a vault full of opportunities and strongly believes that every person has the right key to

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We trust in finding a solution that works best for you and your organization rather than imitating notions and forcefully implementing them

Madhur Kathuria

customers in business environment analysis of organizational values and guiding principles.

CST, CTC, CEC, CAL1, Certied OSA Trainer & Coach

unlock his potential. His firm belief in Agile Philosophy and Principles brought him to the world of Agile Coaching and transformation. His endeavor is to spread the benefits of Agile by helping others adopt the essence of Agile methods outside Information Technology.

Unique Solutions and Services AgiVetta Consulting’s principles revolve around the elementary and the most important guidelines for success, i.e. nurturing people for improved outcome. “Our motto is to combine the strategy like that of human intelligence with artificial intelligence for all our clients and partners,” says Madhur. Understanding the importance of efficient individuals in making a business successful, AgiVetta Consulting ensures that they cover not just the process aspect of customer engagement, but also keep the human values intact for the long-lasting and self-sustaining organization.

At AgiVetta consulting, they serve their clients with an interactive, practical experience in the concerned industry with the right mix of spices for the transformation of their organization. They are experienced and involved in serving organizations and business units to transmute into a successful self-sustained people-centric entity. They don’t just preach about a standard model of working, but focus on devising methods, tools, and practices which suit the

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As a focused professional with creative and innovative ideas in providing training and coaching in the field of Business consulting, AgiVetta Consulting has placed itself as an experienced group of passionate consultants. Their experienced trainers focus on devising methods, tools, and practices which are best suited to guide the patrons to prosper their growth. “Irrespective of the challenges, our coaches have accomplished change in precision and transformed into the most complex business environment,” says Madhur.

Upcoming Endeavors “Future to everything is unpredictable and full of challenges,” says Madhur. Today’s business demands and nuances are rapidly changing and require faster deliveries for continuous improvement and success. Adhering to these rapid changes, AgiVetta Consulting values the newer ways of working such as Agile philosophy, and people centric dynamics for success. They believe in creating a difference in business consulting by not only providing customized solutions, but also respecting human values. Unlike other business consulting standards, they deeply imbibe in the newer philosophies of people’s ability to transmute businesses all around the world.

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Management Consulting

Industry: An Overview C

onsultants as a breed came into existence to be able to provide advice, ideas and even implement them under ambiguous situations or under circumstances that the company may not have seen or been through. The consulting industry in today’s age needs to be a lot more agile and lot more well-informed given the business needs.

Imagine that you are driving a car, you are controlling the steering wheel and you do not have the directions. You would obviously need someone to help you navigate. Quite similar is the scenario in most of the organizations and most people face such difficult situations. People tend to develop a tunnel vision of whatever jobs they work in. That is why management consulting exists; it provides an opportunity to step back and think afresh.

The role of consulting has evolved over time. Early management consulting started way back in 1925.

Since then the business has improved from offering plain vanilla analytics to work hand-in-hand with clients and offering them solutions. Previously, the added value that a consultant used to bring was with

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their ability to churn huge amounts of data and make logical sense out of it. But things have changed over the last two decades. While problem identification is very well known, Consulting nowadays is about working with the client and implementing solutions. The revenues lie in implementing whatever strategies are planned in the board rooms.

Expectations from Consultants There are huge expectations of clients from consultants.

Out of which there are three to four important ones, and that is what most of the clients usually look for. The first is a better understanding of consumers and customers, which goes far beyond the standard market research of perceptions and the churning numbers. In today’s age of the social media, clients are looking for insight into how the customers are going to behave in near future. The second zone is innovation. In the Indian context of the growing economy you need to innovate on products and processes.

The next phase of growth and development for most Indian consumer goods companies is coming from the rural areas.

Companies are focused on stepping into rural (and other) markets faster, cheaper and healthier and they want management consultants to help them get there.

There should be a robust system based on which management consultants could structure themselves to make up to the expectations of clients. Broadly, it could be done through strategy, operations, and technology practices.

Simply put, strategy practices are concerned with the “faster” aspect- growth, new product initiatives, top line, launching new lines of businesses, and so on. The operations practices are mainly concerned with cost reduction, while technology enables “better”, which is about fashioning a USP for the brand. Today, technology is enabling and reforming businesses and a case in point is the banking and financial industry where these technological changes have played a disruptive role. For instance, there was a time when banks kept opening new branches to serve customers. Then banks diverted customers to ATMs to save on the expenses of manpower, logistics and efficiency. Then they realized that ATMs need to be serviced regularly, and there were a lot of cash management, transportation and logistics issues involved with it, so they diverted them to the Internet. So clients are watching out for technology as an enabler in driving serious transformation of their businesses.

Considerations for a Consultant The chief principal of consulting is that it is about respect and trust. As a consultant you might receive an invitation by the client on account of your credentials, that's when you have to start working on to win the trust of your client so

that he could invest in your firm undoubtedly. How you do that is by showing respect for what they have done and why they have faced the query. If you do not understand the question that they are facing, you will never be able to answer them; and don't ever believe that the question that you hear verbally from them is exactly the question that’s on their mind-that’s the very first fallacy of consulting.

Their problem description might be totally wrong! You have to first investigate, to understand what’s going on beneath the surface, the job that they have done so far, and the likelihoods that will take them to the next level.

Sometimes what seems to be most beneficial for your consulting organization may not be in client's favor. But giving the client the advice that will benefit his business is what makes him a repeat customer.

Second, learning is the soul of consulting-it smears across all levels of a consulting organization. Learning, but particularly learning under pressure. It is not easy but if you succeed to thrive under pressure, you will learn a variety of things. For instance, you will learn how different automotive engineering is in a Mahindra in comparison with Tata Motors or Toyota.

The third aspect of consulting is uncertainty. To best understand this aspect, have a look onto the US and European markets over the last five years. The depths of recession will then be very well defined to you. So every year you would find something unexpected and new; you just cannot predict the kind of work you will be doing in future, the kind of client you might be working with or the geography you will be in. There is a lot of dynamic churn in the market and it is getting faster.

Insights on Indian Industry In the last three years the Indian environment has started responding to the dynamics; there has been a regulatory churn, people have started to adapt and they constantly try to find the new normal and this process is probably just about to reach the equilibrium. Consider the Indian financial services sector, there is a lot of churn in the banking and insurance companies while they try to define who is in the industry, and whether they are going to succeed and make money. Several insurance companies have stepped in and out of the insurance business. Under such circumstances, the success for the banking and insurance industry is achievable only if they understand that their customers can reach out to them with the most effective channel. In this context, consultants in the financial services sector have a lot of opportunities to flourish by counseling the clients about available business opportunities and how to exploit them, the best way to

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structure market offerings and help clients succeed in their markets.

The financial service industry was the first industry to accept and adopt computers and mainframes when they were invented and financial services businesses have been exploiting IT for a long time. Since the 1960s and 70s, there has been a dramatic decline in the cost of transactions. The focus on cost is persistent and it continues to be for financial services companies worldwide, but they are more evenly balanced between top line and bottom line. In India the focus is more on top line, although numerous companies are investing in various projects for bottom line performance.

India has been a prodigious manufacturing hub and some form of technology has always been there in the core manufacturing business. For a technology consultant, the most significant thing to be considered when you engage with a client is to ensure that you walk the talk. Today’s smart consumers won’t pay a huge fee just for the delivery of a strategy paper. You will also have to make your strategy work in the favor of customer’s organization. That is the reason we observe that the pure play consulting organizations, which were predominantly doing top level strategy, are coming down two notches and considering to work with the client to make things happen, whether it is around operations, strategy, or pure play technology.

There are some unambiguous differences between the mature markets and markets like India. The first key difference is that in a mature market, going to a consultant for an advice on a problem is an obvious choice. In India, while the consulting market has been functioning for the past 25 years, it is still not an obvious port of call.

Secondly, overseas clients know what they are getting into and they treat the consultant as an additional resource to help them solve the problem. In India, the expectations from consultants in some cases are very high-it is as if the consultant will come in and work some magic-but this might be evident since the organizations and the consulting businesses are still maturing. Third important aspect is the value for money-most clients will negotiate and research before they decide which consultant they want to go with. So it is not about partnership, but about getting the best solution for that particular problem.

Concluding Consultants There is a lot of merit in cross-industry learning, it is probably some kind of basic instinct. In most cases, if you are in a particular business, your knowledge would be confined to that business. The consulting team brings a lot more understanding of what is trending across industries.

Also, when you set up teams to solve a clients’ problem, you need to be able to exhibit a certain level of understanding of that particular industry or a business. So you would then deploy people who have already worked across multiple clients within that industry, and therefore, are able to think afresh. Another interlinked aspect is the customer’s insight. Consultants must essentially understand customer preferences and how they are gradually evolving and then figure out what product or process innovations need to be made in order to fulfill their requirements.

As technology has evolved, the role of a technology consultant has also evolved, as has the buying pattern of the clients. A mature customer is probably looking for opportunities to extend the value of what they have spent and assure if they can give them the return on investment (ROI) before they go for another spend. So, one has to make sure of the integration of technology with their business, which is where the ROI is.

Compendiously, a good consultant is one who enables the

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customer to achieve things by applying the solution, the technology suggested by the consultant. If you are able to make your customer achieve his objectives by implementation of a specific technology, you would have then played your role as an efficient technology consultant.

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Expert’s View Point

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usiness people have vision with some skills and expertise to run a business but with the broader change of growth in the economic conditions or with an unforeseen circumstances; those skills, expertise and vision can’t meet the goals of an organization. In those circumstances getting help from outside consultants can be helpful or may even prove to be a necessary step to save a business. However, the purpose behind getting a help from those consulting firms can be different, for example some may want to hire for a temporary assistance, others may want to hire for specific project or can even be for Government regulatory assistance or with respect to any socio-economic or political change.

Once you decide to start a consultancy firm, it is always good to know why companies now a days might want to hire your consultancy services; what the latest trend is and relate your skills to that. Having knowledge of a particular subject and having specialized skills, thrive and passion for that subject is the difference between a bad and a good consultant.

What could these consulting firm do when they have a task to perform? Or a problem to solve? Well, that depends upon the task at hand and based on that the consultancy firms can recommend, implement, provide information and facilitate client learning, lay out a strategy for solving a problem/issue/challenges or opportunities. You can choose to start a consulting firm in the field of career counselling, communications, auditing, advertising, accounting, marketing, human resources, insurance, taxes and writing services(in any field) or any other field which might interests you.

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So, if you now are sure of opening a consultancy firm, here are some tips: 1. Certificates, licenses and other qualifications requirements: It is better to be sure beforehand about the licenses and any other required certificates. Those licenses and certificates depend upon the profession you choose to practice in. You also want to make sure you have required qualifications to get the job done. You should possess knowledge and latest information pertaining to your field. Companies hire you for your expertise, make sure you have that. You don’t want to fall in trouble once your client is at from door of your company.

2. Make it to a contract specific: Businesses don’t want to make a longtime or a lifetime commitments to consultancy firms as the companies also need to change the working scenario according to the changes in the economic climate. Make sure to adopt a contract structure where you don’t bind yourself to a particular company. You don’t want the same old traditional consultancy model and you might want to change or start with a freelancing work.

3. Have a specific task(project) based revenue model and deliver results rather than recommendation: You want to achieve the result by focusing on specific project rather than getting payment on hourly bases. Focus more on the strategy and giving outputs in the form of solutions rather than merely giving an advice. To survive in this competitive world, you need to deliver results in accordance with the problems given to you. Google and social media has transformed the social world. Any person

can put a little effort and find recommendations/ advice and solutions as the Consultant, what all is required is the skill and passion to put all things together and deliver the final product.

4. Treat clients as consumers and be ready to work with any level organization: When you treat companies as clients, you tend to have more control over the situation, but when you treat the companies as a consumer, they are in power which is the backbone of any success. When you start a startup, don’t restrict your area with a particular level of organization. Small company problems make you confident for big challenges.

Aurobinda Panda Founder & Managing Partner Lex Protector

5.Be flexible to change: You need to adopt a flexible business model to keep up with this changing society. You might need to change according to the projects you have or change might be required due to unavoidable circumstances. Do not follow a rigid business methodology.

About the Author Aurobinda Panda, Founder & Managing Partner of Lex Protector has worked hard to provide a platform to the rm to develop upon. Before the incorporation of the Firm, Aurobinda had been working individually and felt the necessity of a corporate organization in order to provide services more professionally.

This is how Lex Protector started to get its shape. He has been continuously stratigizing and planning the growth model of the rm.

6. Be available for your consumers anytime, anywhere: It is time to bring a change and this can be the most important one. Be responsive to consumers anytime they want help and give answers to each and every communication. Be ready to answer questions by phone, email or any other available media.

7. Differentiate your services: To coup up with the ever growing market, know the services your competitor provides and differentiate them with your services. Bring some unique and innovative, new ideas and see your firm in the top of the list!

For what need the business company may consult you is unknown. But you are deemed a persons with skills and you may be called to teach employee, to bring a new life to a business/ organization, to identify problems, to provide a helping hand to the staff or may be called to do the “dirty work”. Whatever the work is make sure to give your best!

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AURELIUS CORPORATE SOLUTIONS: A Leading Insourcing Multiplier

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on multi-million dollar projects, Sumit brings to the table a global business model and perspective for the organization.

He holds a post graduate degree in sales, marketing & advertising management and general management from Cornell University, which makes him the driving force in the organization.

n this ever-changing world, business challenges require better products, customized services, and complex solutions. As organizations strive to address their clients’ critical business issues, technical professionals play an important role in creating and implementing solutions for external and internal clients. While they are experts in their areas, many technical professionals are not equipped to handle the business side of a project. They need consultative problem-solving skills to create value for clients, and integrate their technical skills into a consultative process.

Through Aurelius, Sumit is focusing mostly on emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, Work Fusion and many more. Currently, there are more than 20 latest technologies, which are trending globally. With the expertise in designing learner-centric solutions, Aurelius truly understands how to cultivate an effective, engaging, and result-driven learning environment.

It is 100 % independent and non-affiliate Insourcing multiplier and also a technology agonistic.

Aurelius Corporate Solutions has strived to carve a niche domain of operations termed as Insourcing Multiplier for themselves wherein they have been instrumental in providing not trainings but consultative insourcing solutions which directly solve business problems in more than 40 domains ranging from IT, Pharmaceutical industry, Automobile, BFSI, Aviation, Healthcare, Telecom, Manufacturing, Engineering to functional organizational development.

Diligently Focusing On Tangible Results Aurelius has been able to gain certain accolades in the industry owing to level3 technology solutions and the impeccable track record of the services provided. It is empowering individuals and organizations to achieve their goals through intelligent, effective and enjoyable learning experiences. As a global provider of Insourcing solutions, Aurelius has been awarded by Enterprise Excellence of the Year in Training & Consulting in the year 2016 and L&T Business Excellence award for the impeccable growth in the consultation domain and for creating immense value in the industry. Aurelius has also been portrayed in large number of media platforms on a regular basis such as The Tribune, Economic Times, Orlando news, Canada news, The Hindu, Republic TV, Business World, Business Standard, The Times of India, The Huffington Post, Kenya Star and many more.

Focused Frontrunner of the Organization All the consultative insourcing solutions that Aurelius offers are not vanilla-off-the-shelf and are tailor-made end-to-end for clients to exactly fit their requirements. It strives to provide learning solution which are truly suited to the needs of the client so that the end-goals of the client are met.

Sumit Peer is the Founder and CEO of Aurelius Corporate Solutions. He has been instrumental in building the organization from ground up owing to his extensive domain expertise in system sales of Satellite/Telecom products, infrastructure projects and P&L handling across continents and industrial cultures. His current role entitles him with the strategic responsibility to direct & manage overall business of Aurelius. Having been in technology sales for over 19 years with almost 10 years across continents in United States, Singapore and Europe working

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Developing Through its Service Delivery Engine Aurelius runs its service delivery engine, through which it brings world-class skills and capabilities, develops

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Providing Best Consultative Technology Insourcing Solutions Sumit Peer Founder & CEO

knowledge capital, and sources, enhances and develops the key assets central to the development of any organization.

Considering the pace at which technology grows and updates, Aurelius acts as the one stop shop for all the clients to gain access to all the technology updates happening across the globe. It has a number of very satisfactory experiences with a number of clients. Some of the most notable have been Tata Consultancy Services, DXC, Sun Pharma, Cadilla Pharma, World Bank, EY, KPMG, Indian Army, Renault Nissan, Daimler, Government of Canada and many more. All of these have long standing relations with the company which is extremely symbiotic in nature.

Aurelius has been able to stand out in the industry owing to the novel and hybrid model of technology application based consultative insourcing solutions that it provides. With more than 50 thousand working professionals connected with them globally, Aurelius takes pride in having a power house of knowledge resources when it comes to technology driven insourcing solutions to solve business needs and challenges and help them grow and scale up revenues and proďŹ tability by best use of technology. Aurelius believes to enable the people of organization to handle its business better as increased operations budgets are a major challenge in any business today. It provides a highly transparent business

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model with a direct return on the investment (ROI) of the clients with an impeccable “internal rate of return� (IRR).

Promising Future in the Consultancy Industry The future of Business Consulting Industry is believed to be coupled with technology growth. The pace at which technology is growing and changing will witness a paradigm change in how business is done and consultation for the said business is to be provided. Aurelius Corporate Solutions has a strong background in technology and business integrated consultation services and is fortifying this base with every passing day to ensure that it has the best possible resources and knowledge power house to provide services to the clients while creating values at a global scale.

Aurelius is implementing the insourcing solutions globally solving complexities through technology across demographics, cultures and geographies.

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Tech & Trends

The Criss-Crossing of

Artificial Intelligence &

Consulting T

he diligent invention and innovation by research teams in companies around the world have helped to keep-up with the pace of technological expansion in computer processing power for several decades. This led to the ability of technology companies to put more computing power than the whole Apollo space program into the bags of more than a billion people worldwide.

Everything around us including music, books and even movies have taken a digital physiognomy. There is a considerable amount of threat to both people and their enterprises due to these increasingly intelligent digital technologies and unpredictable customer expectations.

The last few decades have been an amazing time for consultancies with full of revenue and opportunities provided by these technological advancements. Clients were desperate for solutions to help them match these changing times. This has led to the growth of management consulting in size and scale, expanding multiple technologies and even marketing specialties. The increase in the divergence of the large international consultancies into other specialisms is the ďŹ rst step to what fallouts in an

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inevitable shrinkage forced upon the industry.

The same forces that are causing a feeling of disequilibrium for the firms that consultancies serve are also causing the same challenges, trepidation and uneasiness for the consulting firms. One of all the major game-changers of the consulting industry is the inception of Artificial Intelligence.

Intervention of Artificial Intelligence Mechanical muscles made human labor less in demand, so are mechanical minds making human brain less in demand.

You might misinterpret this as an economic revolution which is more appropriately a robotic evolution. When you think of automation, you think of giant, efficient and precise but really dumb robots blind to the world doing their own work. They were a scary kind of automation, but they were cost effective in narrow situations. These are the old kind of robots (just mechanical muscles), and the real threat is by the new kinds with Artificial Intelligence.

Chatbots, roboadvisors, and other implementations of artificial intelligence have taken over people’s imaginations and led to the practical implementations of artificial intelligence. People are becoming increasingly comfortable with artificial intelligence.

But what does the consulting industry has to do with artificial intelligence?

In the short run, maybe consultants don’t have as much to fear from artificial intelligence as compared to the workers in transportation, retail, or manufacturing. But, in the wider bandwidth of things, over time innovative technology vendors will inexorably build upon openly available artificial intelligence frameworks made publicly accessible by companies like Microsoft and Google (which are looking for an increase in the sale of cloud services) to automate some of the tasks that lately cast undergraduate analysts or Indians do now for the large consulting firms.

Today, we comprehend our business and our interactions with our customers well enough, what was once a mystery, and then we try to identify patterns inside it which then eventually allows us to create algorithms and procedures that can be captured in Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) and then ultimately in code. This process is similar to the heuristic technique. The power of artificial intelligence is the ability to move the role of machine to the left in The Knowledge Funnel, far away from pure manual

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coding by a human, to the computer programs that write themselves and eventually to heuristic identification and algorithm creation at some point in the near future. This is ultimately made possible by crowd computing, machine learning and deep learning.

The fact remains that as computer programmers and the artificial minds their creation becomes more adept at watching the work that consultants do and recognizing the patterns in their recommendations.

Is the Threat Even Real?

These are challenging times for large consultancies and small independent consultants as consultancies are forced to respond to these attacks from three sides: Increasingly Available Intellectual Property, Internal Consultants and Artificial Intelligence. A huge part of that three-pronged attack will come from an ever-growing multitude of automation engineers taking over the cubicles around the world to design people out of jobs. In the same way that mechanical engineers build robots to substitute our human muscles with machine muscles, automation engineers and computer programmers are creating inexpensive machine minds with sufficient artificial intelligence to replace our more expensive human brains. Professions like that of the automation engineer will attract workforces from around the world in increasing numbers, but not nearly enough to counterbalance the losses in job opportunities that these engineers are tasked with eliminating. Only time will tell how quickly and how broadly artificial intelligence (AI) threatens the core business of consultancies.

Think, if you are in the consulting industry, what is your strategy for responding to this threat?

Because, make no mistake, the threat is real. The only question is how quickly it will substantially impact the bottom line. Sooner or later Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for better solutions will rule. With the contributions of these two technologies, time invested in primary research and data analytics can be substantially reduced. Now decision making can be quicker and more fine-tuned based on the client's desires and behavior. Behavior patterns can be well drawn out, and quick actions can be implemented.

However, for your comfort, let’s make a dulcet statement; say consultants are a balance of EQ and IQ so AI and robotics can't replace the EQ and sensibility part.

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Insiter’s Opinion

Faisal Amin The co-founder of Fruitbowl Digital. Faisal was recognised as 50 Best Digital Marketing Professionals in the country. Faisal is also responsible for strategic direction and business development strategy of Fruitbowl Digital. He strongly believes that the future of marketing lies in integrating of�ine and online for an enriched user experience.

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of

Future

Consulting Industry in India T

he consulting space is massive.

Even if it were to shrink by 50%, there would still be money for the people who know how to do it. That remark, though not particularly insightful, will always be correct and evergreen. India has been globally recognised for its speedy development, leading to an extensive expansion in the consulting sector. The future of consulting is all about resilience and start up. The future of consultancies in India based on the current and future prospects of the various sectors; will have critical success factors.

Increased demand for consulting services by domestic and foreign firms sector in India is consistently growing.

Today, nearly all industries are undergoing massive change. Rising opportunities due to booming economy and growing demand for consultancy services are key factor for growth. The total market growth might slow down a

bit, but there will be considerable shifts amongst the market segments.

Traditional management consulting will stagnate and nearly merge with IT consulting. In general, there will be a shift from traditional advice to implementation. This implies that clients will express the wish that their consultants share more risks of the projects.

In a world of growing complexities, it is critical to ensure sufficient distribution of the existing knowledge throughout the company. Large consultants will face structural problems. This would limit their ability to raise capital and slow down decisions and changes. Some might even consider going public due to enormous management incapacities.

This would be an opportunity for other players to enter some poorly serviced fields. Also, small firms are consistently thriving by becoming exquisitely specialized. They could

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network to fulfil complex needs which would enable them to become medium sized consultancy on project basis.

Other changes will occur through new entrants. Attracted by the impressive market growth, many non-consultancies will establish consultancy-divisions. An entry of sole practitioners and small consultancies is expected. This wave of new entries will have dual effects. An increase in the competition would be evident, leading to mergers and acquisitions or breakdowns. And, since there are no legal regulations as to who can call himself a consultant; there will be quality problems in some cases which could damage the reputation of the whole industry.

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Chalk Talk

Must know Tools

& TECHNIQUES in a Business Consulting World

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oday, we are living in a world which is changing very rapidly. A revolution is taking place in almost every business sector. IT, infrastructure, healthcare, telecommunication, education, FMCG, Media & PR are going through massive transformation. With ever growing startups and existing old players, competitions in every business is going a notch higher with each passing year. To

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be relevant in this tough competition and earn higher profit margins, various businesses hire “Business Consultant”.

Due to a tough and highly competitive environment, the role of a business consultant becomes very important for a company’s growth. A consultant’s advice can make or break an organization. Here are some of the tools and techniques which are crucial in a business consulting job.

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GE McKinsey Matrix

Benchmarking

Investment is an important aspect for the growth of any business. The fight for investments takes place at every level of a company; between teams, functional departments, R&D departments, marketing and sales departments etc.

The question of where and how much to invest is an ever going headache for business leaders. GE McKinsey is a strategic tool which helps consultants to prioritize investment for its client. GE Mckinsey is a strategic tool that offers a systematic approach for a multi-business corporation to prioritize its investments among its business units. Ever increased competition, low profit margins, shortage of skilled and experienced persons etc. making business vulnerable in today’s fast moving world, GE McKinsey Matrix is a solution, which has the potential to help organization in better planning of their investments, in order to gain higher profitability.

Benchmarking is the process of comparing one’s business process and performance metrics with its competitors. It helps an organization to improve its performance. Metrics on which benchmarking typically done are production costs, employee turnover, process cycle time.

Core Competencies You can find multiple companies who are offering the same product and services at different prices across the domains.

These companies may be varied in size, employee’s strength, profit, market share, growth rate etc., but still they fight and remain in competition for long. The factor which makes many small and medium size companies even big MNC’s to fight and survive in an ever increased, tough and highly competitive market is some unique characteristics.

Each organization has its unique strength; we can call this unique strength as a core competency. A core competency is an expertise in an area that is not easily replicated by competitors. It allows your organization to deliver unique value to customers, thus giving the company a “leg up” on the competition.

Porter 5 forces To be relevant in a competition, it is very necessary to have knowledge about our own and competitors strengths and weaknesses. Porter’s five forces is a simple but powerful tool for evaluating the competitiveness of your business environment and for identifying a qualitative strategy for potential profitability. Porter model is used to analyze on ground real competition among rivals of same domains. It helps a company to make policy framework and corporate strategy. Business consultants use Porter five forces to evaluate a firm’s strategic policy.

Identifying core competencies and putting extra effort to refine and develop it further can make an organization relevant in the long run. It also helps in achieving better results in terms of marketing and profits.

As the economy and GDP are growing in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries, the demand of business consultant is also increasing across the domains.

Not only private companies are utilizing the service of a business consultant but many government organizations as well. With having good knowledge of these tools and techniques, a business consultant can give much better advice to its clients and helps an organization to grow and compete in these challenging business environments.

There are five parameters on which Porter’s principle is based. Understanding these parameters help consultants to derive a meaningful strategic policy for their client. These parameters are competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitution and threat of new entrants.

Balanced scoreboard Balanced scoreboard is a tool which connects the dots between big pictures. This tool helps an organization to keep track of a company’s mission (our purpose), vision (what we aspire to do), core values, strategic focus area’s and day to day operational activities. There are different metrics on which this tool produces necessary outcomes.

These metrics are revenue, earnings, and market share, quality of product or services, employee morale, customer satisfaction.

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CHROME DATA ANALYTICS & MEDIA: A Leading IT-based Market Research and Brand Consultation Firm

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Mr. Krishna’s innate ability to spot the right talent for the right job has made Chrome DM, an organization where the team (of professionals) has proved to be as good as the captain. Leading from the front, Mr. Krishna is a hands-on CEO who likes to be directly involved in most projects. Wherever relevant, he also keeps himself informed of the minutest details of a project before a discussion with a colleague or a client. With an eye on the long-term prospects of the company in mind, he also assiduously nurtures and grooms the younger promising leaders for a lot bigger roles and responsibilities.

Fostering a work culture where process is given the same due as product and where the end not quite justifies the means, Chrome DM under Mr. Krishna’s expert guidance observes the best standards of corporate governance.

ike most businesses, consulting too is in the throes of churning and change. In an increasingly knowledge-driven economy where automation, artificial intelligence, and big data have already made their presence felt, data consulting as a business is becoming more and more challenging and open-ended by the day. With digitization of television distribution and the shift from analog to digital and DTH, Chrome Data Analytics & Media with its advanced tracking technologies has managed to map the complete on-the-ground audience migration.

A data consulting company, Chrome DM is unique and one-of-its-kind corporation that not only is the sole provider of possibly the most granular and precise broadcasting and associated data in the country, but also a leading technology driven market research and brand consultation firm that has worked with some of the biggest brands in business today.

Building a Camaraderie with the Client Recognizing that it is the human element that essentially operates even in the context of a vendor-client relationship, Chrome DM professionals have been adequately trained to deal with their clients always taking a long-term view. While the end-goal of any business must be business at the end of the day, extending the vendor-client dynamics into a somewhat more informal and personalized zone of comfort makes the process more easy, trustful and long-lasting for both sides. Also by keeping the client up to speed on the latest product and service trends especially the newer products and services that the client may require and that Chrome DM could offer competitively, Chrome DM effectively becomes the custodian of its clients’ interests. Placing great emphasis on client servicing, Chrome DM ensures that the company has repeat clients, a feat difficult to achieve in an intensely competitive market space nowadays.

An Astute and Fascinating Leader Knowing that technology completely redefines businesses and disrupts business models; change has been underway in data consulting space too. Chrome DM has promptly kept pace with the advancement in data collection as well as television tracking technologies. The Founder and CEO, Mr. Pankaj Krishna, an alumnus of Harvard University, is an industry veteran who has been in media and analytics space for around 20 years now. Running Chrome DM for about a decade now, with his tireless efforts and razor-sharp and intuitive business acumen, he has transformed Chrome DM from a 5-member team to a company with over 1200 staff with offices in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore.

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Positioning itself as a unique and e ective solution provider for both broadcasters and brands Pankaj Krishna CEO & Founder

Futuristic Approach and Market Expansion

Development of Innovative Tools and Products Chrome DM has promptly kept pace with the advancement in data collection as well as television tracking technologies. Chrome DM’s marquee product by the name of Chrome Connect has made it possible for auditing of channel distribution without any human intervention whatsoever. Since the technology is time and platform-agnostic, the client can access the relevant information literally ‘anytime anywhere’. Chrome DM’s primary survey tool named Chrome Real Time Insights takes the customary quantitative analysis to the next level by introducing a qualitative component. This qualitative component is made possible through a content analysis that informs the channel not only whether a programme or content is popular, but also why a particular content is popular on a channel vis-à-vis any other content on a competitor channel or channels. For the advertisers, the company’s product named Chrome Optimal turns out to be a great monitoring tool as to whether a particular campaign that was supposed to be played on contracted channels was played, and for the full duration that it was supposed to.

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Known for employing advanced data collection methodologies as well as unconventional scientific tools for the television industry, Chrome DM has redefined the science of measurement for analyzing television distribution and ratings data in India. By making an expansion into market research and brand space, Chrome DM has emphatically gone ahead of the curve. Chrome DM addresses the perpetual need for ‘speed to market’ for brands through its flagship 10k that covers 10,000 respondents in flat 4 days and has been a real blockbuster among brands.

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Business Insights

Top Trends

DISRUPTING Business Consulting Industry

C

onsulting is one of the fastest-growing industries in India. It contributes to the rapid growth of sectors such as telecommunications, e-commerce, software designs, hardware systems design & implementation, intranet & the internet, and website development & operation. The consulting industry is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 30 percent and as per the reports of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, it is expected to emerge into INR 27,000 crores industry by 2020.

Currently, there are about 6000 consultancy firms in metropolitan cities. The Consulting Industry is growing at a fast pace and soaring to new heights all across the world. It is vital now to make an action plan to exploit the tremendous potential available for growth of the consulting market. Also, there is a need to reinforce the framework of Indian consulting industry by including innovation, nurturing talent, improving the quality of consulting services, and enhancing consulting skills. The adoption of best practices data warehousing, knowledge management tools, and the internet ensures the faster growth of this industry in the near future.

Let us look at some of the trends promising to disrupt the Business consulting industry in the near future: Merging of Digital Agencies and Consulting Firms As the definition of Consulting continues to evolve, digital agencies are increasingly offering consulting services, and established consulting firms are adding digital expertise to their offerings. The consulting world is undergoing a shift. Since

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marketplaces or partner with small or large consulting firms.

A recent independent survey found that most freelancers had no intention of leaving the independent world in order to transition to full-time work for a consulting firm. The freelance consultants are in high demand due to such issues as cost pressures by clients.

Freelance experts often can customize their prices and billing, whereas larger consultancies may not have that flexibility.

Growing demand for Performance-Based Billing Models

the last few years, consulting firms have been rapidly launching new digital consulting divisions. What started off as a fascination with product design and more engaging web interfaces has become a full blown movement towards digitalization.

Commodification of Knowledge and Expertise Today, increasing amounts of Internet-based content is available to the public. Similar to best practices, guidelines and case studies, consulting “knowledge” and “expertise” are more commoditized. Even the concept of “micro consulting” has entered into the language of the consulting industry. This concept involves an expert engaging in short, targeted projects for clients as opposed to months-long work by a team of consultants.

Freelancers Retain Independent Role Similar to other professions, the freelance model of work continues its influence within the consulting field. Some freelance consultants work independently while some consultants join online consulting

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As the repercussions of the 2008 recession still permeate the thinking of many clients, the pay structures of some consultancies are being affected. Since many clients now have the technological capability to analyze every expense, they are analyzing spending on consulting and examining the return on its investment. Accordingly, many clients are requesting customized prices for targeted projects. Additionally, performance-based billing is also trending among consultants.

Such pricing styles can prevent client concerns regarding unexpected fees, as well as provide a real attainable benchmark for consultancies to prove their value.

Consulting Firms and Individual Experts Crowd Source Together Similar to the freelance trend, the consulting industry is also availing itself of talent from external sources. The crowdsourcing trend is becoming very common among consultancies.

It is difficult to have every required expertise that a client desires, so firms are often working with specialty companies and experts outside of the consultancy. With this expanded network of knowledge, a client can gain their desired insights. The consultants are working with digital agencies or tech startups and even independent freelance professionals in order to gain the expertise that is needed. The relationships among the different firms are mutually beneficial.

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PROMISING BUSINESS

CONSULTING COMPANIES

PINEAPPLE CONSULTING: Designing Immaculate Brands for the Future

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e are living in a Screen-Age. While the individual’s quest of self-discovery is gaining center-stage, new ideas are creating disruptive businesses each day. In this fast changing world driven by digital technologies, brands have become a living entity, embracing, thriving and driving change.

Tina is the Principal Branding & Strategy Expert at Pineapple Consulting. With an inherited business acumen, Tina brings with herself an eye for immaculate detailing, and persistence to see through the difficulties. Ameet, on the other hand is the Principal Design Expert. A graduate in fashion and lifestyle accessories design from India’s premier design institute – NIFT, New Delhi. Ameet brings with him a passion for creating new ideas, and care to execute it to its final details. A designer who understands the importance of keeping things business focused is what makes him a person who delivers!

In this connected world, from a consumer’s perspective, there are only a few things that separate a big conglomerate from a neighborhood startup. Entire business and societal ecosystem the world over has already woken up to the importance of branding, and the role that brand perception plays in making a dent in the crowded market-space.

Over a period of time, both Tina and Ameet have been successfully able to create and refine processes which help merge the lines of Science & Art - to understand the business scenario, competition and needs of the consumer- both functional & psychological and then use the knowledge to create stunning designs.

Understanding what drives emerging India & the Indian consumers, Pineapple Consulting, a strategic branding and design consulting company, is creating designs that are not just aesthetic, but also translate into measurable business growth and offer real value to their clients.

Out-of-the-box Services and Strategies Pineapple Consulting is an International Award winning Branding & Strategic Design Firm with a credo – Designs for Business! Their offerings include solutions that can go a long way in building up a perception. They leverage the edge that each specific media offers to create a space in the hearts of a potential consumer.

Pineapple Consulting prefers staying ‘in-the-box’ and delivering results which reflect in business success. “If one is in any kind of non-monopolistic business, there is always a bigger box available,” says Tina. The key for a brand is to first find that sweet spot and then go about nurturing it, which over a period of time, reaches to consumer’s hearts and they start relating & believing in the brand promise.

“We do this with our proprietary 3W+1H process, which is all about applying a combination of common + aesthetic sense together,” asserts Tina.

The Dynamic Duo Pineapple’s founding duo, Tina Jain Mehta and Ameet Mehta, quit their well-paying corporate jobs to start Pineapple Consulting. One of their key beliefs was and still remain is that Branding is a means to an end- the end being better value to all stakeholders. So, both of them work closely with the clients to first understand their aspirations, and then together with their strong, closely knit team deliver value, both tangible & intangible.

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The core areas of expertise offered by Pineapple Consulting are split into two broad categories; · Strategy, which includes Brand Audit and Analytics, Articulation of Brand Positioning, Go to market

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Tina Jain Mehta Co-founder & Principal, Branding & Strategy

At Pineapple Consulting, they believe in going out of the way to bring emotional well-being to all stakeholders, be it clients or employees

Ameet Mehta Co-founder & Principal, Design

Design of American Center, US Embassy to being felicitated as IWLF Young Innovative Entrepreneur in 2013, to Kyoorius Design Award for Marimbula Packaging. strategies, Identification of target audience, Competition analysis & Creating medium to long term design strategy in line with companies vision and marketing philosophy. · Design, which includes Brand Naming & Logo, Brand Identity Eco-Systems, Communication - Online / Offline / Experiential, Packaging Design

At Pineapple Consulting, they believe in going out of the way to bring emotional well-being to all stakeholders, be it clients or employees. They have been steadily increasing their understanding of how AI will change the way humans make decisions and use that knowledge to help the clients across industries.

At Pineapple Consulting, they have a proprietary tool for coming up with branding strategy and Brand Purpose. It may sound slightly philosophical, but just like humans, it is imperative for brands to articulate the purpose that they have for their existence. That has to be genuine. Pineapple Consulting aid their clients in arriving at answers to these deeper aspects, and almost every time, the clients become their ‘co-designers’ in creating an emotionally connecting brand communication invoking a sense of genuineness. This then, leads to mutual respect and a long term relationship with clients who are spread across industries.

What’s Next?

Apart from industry recognition, Pineapple Consulting has won diverse awards. From being the winner of Brand Logo

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