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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