BUILDING WORLD CLASS INDIAN CONSULTANCY FIRM

BUILDING WORLD CLASS INDIAN CONSULTANCY FIRM

What do consultants do?  Tell truth, its different dimensions, perspectives, degrees and they pursue it to be as close as possible. Ultimate truth always evades the mortals, but those who have succeeded are the one who see it as perception not as absolute truth.  For us in india we should know this better, we have chased it long enough to understand its reality and the mirage of it. What will take india to tell the world about the truth of ARTHA.  It has been some centuries since we last wrote about how to create wealth with certain panache and deriving from ethos blended in the native soil.  Such treatise is not just an intellectual/creative exercise. It has to come from a society which has created wealth, and men who knew how to create wealth. So for us to be the preachers/consultants, (us means india and indianess not indians who can give gyan) we need to create wealth and wealthy men here.  Now what it takes to build world class management consultants firm from India.

Strategist not Strategy: In the age of open thoughts and idea, fee for ideas is an anachronism. For country like india, where the bulk of the business is still a family affair, more than idea is required to convince. The key challenge for many is in implementation, many don’t have second line leadership. Consulting is both providing ideas and also interim managers who can implement and also develop second line leadership. It requires different revenue model project cost should be seen as a investment. Charging for time on a concurrent basis should change to time series basis.

Share the risk: Key is can firm stick to the plan we purported and ready to take risk if it fails.

Truth delivers: though cliched it is the foundation on which the entire organisation strategy rest not just as a value but as an offering/solution. Consultants tell truth and prove it with empirical evidence period. But too much reliance on data may not work as well.

a.      Data entrophy: In a country where rocket launchers and matrimony are decided by  astrologers, we can easily fatigued by data. Our distrust for data is accentuated by meteralogical departments, which use tons of data (complex) to arrive at tom’s whether which has 80% probability. The essence of data is lost the moment you use the data, and that we miss in the entrophy can create complexity (some clever guy calls it butterfly effect). More than data scientist, perhaps data god might work. Simple truth we might learn from them is they never say how they arrive at a solution, they give and let the statistics decide on the success.

Arbitration/Counselors: When we grow and when the pie is small, scrambling for it can create tension, in such era agitation, protests and cynicism consultants should become credible arbitrator. Act as bridge between business (families) and communities.

Sustainable not just for clients but for economy and communities. Good consultant loot at the growth of the organization, by anchoring the value and the cost. Great organization, looks at creating social capital which is inclusive and sustainable. World class organization should look a client as one of the value chains of the economy. Merely serving the need of a client is myopic. Each assignment is a chance to create wealth and knowledge for the society.

Multi discipline:, with strong humanities support.

Who understands the people and their lives better than writers, social workers, activists, anthropologists. They are the harbingers of future, they predict the problems. What market research can’t predict they do. There are many new sciences which can help us  getting closer to truth. So have writers, poets in your team.