WHERE WILL ACQUISITIONS LEAD US TO?

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT (IIM), ROHTAK

Anirudh Tara, Director & Partner, BCG India had mentioned “Just the disproportionate amount of impact that you’re able to create, things that you’re able to influence and companies that you’re able to move forward, makes Consultancy engrossing”

But before diving into the recent happenings in consultancy firms, let’s understand what actually a consultancy firm does. First, it provides functional expertise, say McKinsey bringing its marketing knowledge on table for its clients Second, it provides third party analysis or credible opinions and rational recommendations, for example giving advice on whether a company should go for mergers or not. Third, they bring smart people to analyse a problem and provide solutions when the clients don’t have the resources

Recently, on 4th of November 2022, Autus Advisors got united with YCP Solidiance On one hand Autus Advisors started in 2010, it is renowned in India, from Mumbai to Bangalore, to New Delhi whereas, on the other hand we have YCP Solidiance which provides services to 18 nations world-wide “The fast-growing Indian market is an important market for us and our international clients,” said Yuki Ishida, Group CEO of YCP

This year only, Protiviti strengthened its presence in India by acqui-hiring a Noida based digital transformation firm, Loumus. Protiviti, which has been in existence for the last 40 years, has headquarters in the US adds eighth office in Noida through Loumus data system.

“We look forward to the next phase of augmenting our solution offerings to clients, catering to their digital and tech-based requirements The addition of Loumus expands our delivery capacity and knowledge base as we bring leading thinking and capabilities to our clients,” said Sandeep Gupta, Managing Director and leader of Protiviti’s Technology Consulting practice While Loumus will expand their product deliverability and knowledge base, Protiviti will allow them to work on great projects and enhance their capabilities

Also, EY has acquired Christensen Advisory India to strengthen its position in India While Christensen Advisory has companies in China and the US, EY was established in 1989 is one of the world’s largest professional consultancy firms It has around 60,000 employees in India Amit Khandelwal, Managing Partner of EY’s Strategy & Transactions division in India, said: “We are delighted to significantly expand our Investor Relations practice by welcoming the India team of Christensen Advisory.”

The future of consultancy depends on resilience and start-ups. As the economy is growing and flourishing, the factors affecting our VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world are increasing at an increasing pace Due to this reason, companies want to distribute their knowledge throughout the company, enabling even more inquisitive minds to provide solutions Currently, many companies are merging together to create a network that can fulfil the ever increasing demand of the clients The consultancy firms have shifted from providing advice to implementation, sharing more risks with the clients

The acquisitions which we are recently experiencing are beneficial as they reduce competition in the marketplace, allow companies to grow stronger by increasing their customer base and create more value in the market as more firms can provide better services than individual firms

But on the other hand, such acquisitions have somewhat negative impacts on employees, they get stressed due to change in working conditions and environment, which if not taken care of at time, would lead to reduction in efficiency and effectiveness One of the main fears they have is the fear of losing jobs, companies usually have different working environments, this makes employees quite apprehensive and it becomes even more problematic when they can’t adapt themselves to the culture or companies’ altered goals Technological changes are also very common during such periods, to cover greater parameters, they take up different and improved technologies ,so they prefer employees who are technically inclined. That’s the reason lay-offs are very common in any acquisition.

So, we can conclude that although acquisition of consultancy firms may not be that beneficial for existing or potential investors and employees but it will be highly favourable for their clients and economy as a whole, providing better and wider solutions.