Monday, August 27, 2012

My Love for Consulting...


It has been more than 6 years when I had my first tryst with Consulting. Pursuing the second half of my MBA program in London from European School of Business (ESCP-EAP), I was eagerly looking for an internship.  I was pursuing the dual degree PGPIM course from MDI. Having done the first three trimesters at MDI, it gives you a golden chance to choose your campus either in London, Paris or Torino to complete the remaining 2 trimesters followed by a 3 month internship.  After weeks of writing applications, preparing for my screening process and doing multiple rounds of interviews, I was ecstatic to have my internship offer letter in my hand. After the final round of interaction with the partners at Cognosis Consulting, they had decided to give me a chance. This was my chance. Cognosis is a premier boutique strategy consulting firm headquartered in London focused on the Drinks and Beverage Industry. During my brief stint of 3 months in the company, I was lucky enough to be put on a live project from day 1.  A chance to work in a team of 5 people of different European nationalities, background, tenures and expertise was invaluable. Rubbing shoulders with one of the top of the league entrepreneurs who was the owner of a £100 mn beer business and a chance to understand his perspective to grow and diversify his business was unparalleled. What happened in the next 3 months will stay with me for life and has been instrumental in transforming my interest in consulting to my passion to be a part of it. To be passionate about something is simple, to follow it, is difficult. I realized it very soon as I found myself competing with my fellow mates at MDI on batch day. Avalon was on campus for laterals. Everything that I had picked up over the years was to be put to test. What started at 8 a.m in the morning ended with ecstasy in the evening. Yes I had made it to the company. . 4 years later, my love for consulting has just got stronger; and it grows by every passing day. It is not one but several aspects which I love about my work, which motivate me every day. My company is a boutique strategy and management consulting firm working across sectors for the last 20 years. It has provided me my best learning ground and provided me whatever it takes to understand Consulting better.


So what is that one thing which makes Consulting different from all other roles? For me it is simple…Novelty. It is at the heart of Consulting. Be it new geographies, new sectors, new team members or simply new industries! 14 different sectors, travel to more than 30 cities across countries, sensitizing yourself to work with clients of more than 10 different nationalities and collaborating with more than 40 different team members coming from diverse backgrounds, locations, experience and outlooks makes it simply stunning. From screening a Jordanian guy for my local implementation team in Doha, understanding the culture of Arabic and Japanese people to gauge client behavior and expectations, helping a US client to establish business for a cutting new technology in India to coordinating and collaborating with a fellow team member in remote location in Southern India, it all adds up to the immense challenges and subsequent joy of Consulting.


For those who can’t experience this joy, there are many fundamental questions. For them it comes across as a fun job where you should just know how to talk and what else to talk! It revolves around swanky lounges, good pay packages, client dinners and business class travel. As many of my friends would ask me repeatedly, having being in the business for decades, what and why would somebody ask a consultant??? My answer is simple, many a times it is not about what you want to do, it is about how you do. Do you have the skills to do? Do you have the people to do? Or simply do you have the time to do! That brings me to yet another beautiful part of my job. Irrespective of my age, Consulting has given me a chance to enter corporate boardrooms, share the space with business leaders, a chance to hear their vision and aspirations, understand their perspectives on handling multimillion dollar businesses, many a times followed by their limitations and issues in driving and implementing changes to execute their ideas. Having worked as a software developer for a couple of years at Infosys before my MBA, I always knew how to perfect my piece of module to make the Software work, but Consulting takes me to a position from where I can understand and appreciate in detail, the minute role which that software will play to add value to every share of the company which I hold today.

Till some time back, I always saw the hour glass as an ancient form of a time tracking device. Thanks to my job, it has added a totally new dimension to my understanding. Having started from the bottom, over the last 4 years, I have somehow climbed up a little. Having started with a clean slate in the beginning, I have always been eager to work across as many sectors as possible. From helping a Japanese client to take a decision regarding entering the Power sector in India to devising the Export Strategy for one of the biggest banks in Qatar, the learning curve trying to absorb the intricacies of different sectors, industries and practices has been steep and challenging. Working across sectors like Energy, Power, Healthcare, Steel, Telecom, Pharmaceuticals and many more with companies leading the industries has truly been a delight. As I move forward, I have started identifying my interests, follow them eagerly and accordingly align my work.

As somebody said correctly “An idea not coupled with action will never get bigger than the brain cell it occupied”. Being part of a team where we have brainstormed together to synthesize conclusions into recommendations has been a pleasure. The real joy however has been to see those ideas deliver tangible results for our clients. What started as a thought to enter the Indian market for a US based Energy Storage Device Company to rolling out its first product having set up manufacturing in India is the manifestation of innumerable hours of ground research, intensive analysis, asking and answering the right and relevant questions and finally implementing the end to end solution. Being part of an idea which transforms into reality is one of the best takeaways of Consulting. The best part is that it doesn’t stop ever.


The icing on the cake and the best of it all is the chance that Consulting has given me to join a distinct network of individuals which will be with me for my entire life. Be it my peer group in the office or the people I meet outside, each and every individual adds another cog to the wheel which I intend to roll forever. Irrespective of where it takes me in the future, this is one path at which I would always look back and relish.


 Varun Gupta, Consultant, Avalon Consulting

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