MARCHING SHEEP

The world has changed dramatically in the last few months. We are at a state of war with anenemy we don’t fully understand. The covid pandemic has changed the world in so many ways. Way of working required to meet the need of this rapidly evolving marketplace and socio-economic ecosystemhas to be addressed nimbly and with agility. Business models need to be looked at. Companies that can manage their processes, policies and practices and more importantly their people will succeed, where as companies that refuse to evolve or are slow to evolve will struggle.

Thus managing Human resources—both as a function, and the people who are your team, becomes all the more critical in today’s times, especially when there is a steep rise in the number of companies falling over due to an absence of streamlined HR strategy and implementation capabilities that include empathy, balancing between business recovery and employee wellbeing. It is very critical to adopt an open mindset to revamp company policies and practices. HR Advisory services help you take off the extra work that has been gathering on your table, be

MARCHING SHEEP Helping businesses march forward by developing people management and sustainable capabilities

Ashwathy Nair | Business Connect

Speaking on the same front Sonica says “We are seen as trusted advisors by our clients. We do not push Off-the-shelf programs. Instead, we understand their problem statements and requirements and provide consultative solutions. Once the client is aligned to the solution we curate and contextualize. That results in a high level of trust and engagement between us and our clients. And that is why they come back to us for repeated assignments.”

Sonica Arora | Founder & Managing Partner

it employee management or policy and practice formulation so that you can focus on other critical business activities like product portfolio streamlining, redefining route to market, marketing to target audience etc.

For any leader, whether you own your own business, or run a large organization- Indian or international MNC, there’s a high degree of possibility that you are overwhelmed with business recovery priorities and have no time to manage the day-to-day HR tasks. A professional HR Consultancy can ease things up. The right partner can help can refine and upgrade all people management policies and practices- from performance reviews, help in process tracking, assist in setting the goals, and help in people management so that you have an aligned and motivated team.

Business Connect in its new edition brings forward the story of ‘Marching Sheep.’ The company offers a range of customized, qualitative, and research-based HR consulting services to address the evolving needs of businesses across the nation.

Stories that Inspire:A bootstrapped company that started as a single woman army. Ms. Sonica Aron is an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur. She has worked with companies like Pepsico, Roche Diagnostics, Vodafone, and AkzoNobel, Shewas heading HR for Philips Consumer Lifestyle business in India in 2012. She took a sabbatical for a year and then started Marching Sheep in 2013, with a vision of adding value to clients in building inclusive cultures and driving diversity, building behavioral competencies, strategic HR advisory, and building an emotionally resilient and healthy workforce

From a completely bootstrapped company based out of Delhi, which started as a single woman army, it has become an established HR advisory firm. In 5 years, the firm has encompassed major industry players and innovative startups as its partners and clients.

The founder believes, “Integrity is the core value of our organization. We only take assignments that lie within the ambit of our expertise and work closely with the client team to arrive at the scope of the project, deliverables, and milestones. We as a team also keep upgrading ourselves on new technology and concepts to be able to deliver high impact interventions for our clients. Every assignment has multiple consultants engaged so that balls don’t get dropped, and collective expertise is utilized.”

The firm works with clients across sectors like FMCG, infrastructure, manufacturing, financial sector, law firms, healthcare sector, etc. Some of the long-standing clients include Sterlite Power, JCB India, Continental tires, Clifford Chance, SBI cards, IIFL, Lupin, Takeda, Reckitt Benckiser to name a few.

Want to know more about this promising company? We had a conversation with the founder to bring you some exclusive insights on who they are, how they work, and what they believe in. Here’s a quick glimpse.

How are you ensuring better outcomes from your business in the time of the COVID-19 crisis? Marching Sheep has evolved rapidly in the last two months and are delivering all their interventions and consulting virtually, without any dilution of deliverables and their impact This required extensive client engagement and research to arrive at areas where clients needed most support during these times and evolving interventions to address those needs. During this time, the team has worked relentlessly to develop new content and offerings, and have focused on developmental activities. We have also focused on keeping our clients and other audiences updated with emerging trends, focus areas, areas to watch out for with our articles on various publications.

Is your business model strong enough to recover from the aftermath induced by the global pandemic? People are the most important asset of any organization, and possibly the only asset that appreciates in time with experience, capability building, and engagement. Our work enables the organization to build an experienced, capable, and engaged workforce through the range of our offerings. Even during these times, clients have kept in touch with us for different advisory consultations. So yes, our business model is strong enough to not just recover but emerge stronger from this crisis.

What gives you an edge over your peers? Our biggest USP is the fact that we have industry experience. We are not just trainers, but HR professionals who have recognized their passion for contributing to client organization in tangible ways, and are realizing this passion through our work at Marching Sheep. Our second USP is solution orientation. We help clients find solutions. Our third USP is that we do not just consult, we also help in the implementation and all our assignments are KPI linked. We truly help clients move the needle.

What are the future endeavors of the Company? We are a Delhi based firm but deliver pan India. Before COVID, we have delivered assignments in the NCR region, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Pata (Near Kanpur), Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata. We have a physical presence in Delhi and Mumbai. We intend to open more offices In India in 2021, once the COVID issue dies down, and also explore international markets.

Share some words of wisdom for the aspiring entrepreneurs and the readers of our Magazine. Being an Entrepreneur is a double-edged sword. While it gives you a blank canvas for you to paint your masterpiece, it comes with a lot of responsibility and administrative tasks. As a business owner, I am responsible for the well being, learning, growth, and satisfaction of my team. At the same time, there are a large number of administrative tasks like GST payment and filing, TDS payment and filing, invoice generation and follow-ups, documentation, etc. I started as a one-woman army and soon realized that I could not do all of this alone. So having trusted team members and partners are key to success.

Secondly, never compromise on the quality of your product or service. That is a key differentiator. Being passionate about your business will help you overcome hurdles and help you find that strength in you that you never imagined.

Lastly, don’t get consumed by your business. It would be tempting to work long hours, work on weekends, keep the laptop on all the time…but it will lead to fatigue. So pace yourself out.

And lastly, build your team with care. I might have started Marching Sheep, but today, it is the team that that is helping us all grow. Their commitment, passion, and perseverance in the last few months has been a great support to me.

PHOENIX BUSINESS ADVISORY

Reshaping client’s vision of business Expansion & Family Business PR to Australia

Dr. Amit Mishra | Business Connect Currently, a large section of the Indian population is the thirdlargest group of migrants in Australia. In the last few years, Indians have preferred Australia over the countries like the U.K and the USA mainly due to its simplified visa process. Another reason contributing to the fact is the low-pollution level in Australia that adds a few years to the average life span of a human being. With providing ample career prospects to the youth , Australia has become the home for 600,000 Indians. Australian Bureau of Statistics(ABS) has revealed that the Australian population will witness exponential growth of the Indian Community in the near future.

The Australian PR is the most favoured choice among the Indians due to the migration of a large number of adept personnel from India to Australia. In this context, Phoenix Business Advisory has intervened the arena by rendering hassle-free business migration services to pursue one’s dream PR in Australia.

As per the CEO of the Firm, Mr M.P Singh, “We are determined to provide stage-wise documentation and payment process paired with Dos and Don’ts that has been proven as a blessing in disguise for the aspiring migrants. Rather than focusing on the quantity of the migrants, we have ensured to provide personalized services to each person who seeks our assistance.”

PHOENIX BUSINESS ADVISORY offers business advisory solutions to entrepreneurs, SMEs, MSMEs and other business owners to diversify, expand or start a new business in Australia. Phoenix specializes in offering comprehensive business solutions pertaining to business acquisition, joint ventures or setting up a new business from scratch. The business advisory solutions at Phoenix ensure the transformation of the client’s vision of ‘business expansion to Australia’ into reality. Their forte lies in our in-house team of experts and an extensive partner network of marquee brands such as chartered accountants, financial planners, legal services, banks, real estate developers, businesses and many more.

One of the most valued clients of the Organization, Mr Gaurang Patel says, “Phoenix has been capable of delivering whatever

MP Singh | CEO

it had promised me with. My nomination was made possible within the short time of 3 months. I will suggest the services rendered by them to each person in the know as they are 100% reliable advisory firm.”

Many other clients like Mr Gaurang have been benefitted by the exclusive services provided by the Company and are satisfied by considering Phoenix’s Business Consulting services.

INCEPTION STORY Phoenix started in 2016 in Sydney as Business and Real Estate Advisory. But due to the high demand of Enquiries from India asking about the possibility of getting Family Business PR in Australia through Business and Real Estate Investments, the Key Official decided to establish its first office at Ahmedabad in May 2018. The first Investment and Migration seminar took place on 28-29 Sep 2018; along with the Government of Queensland and since then, the Company is scaling heights in continuity.

The adept team closely researches on the latest market trends and develop a strategy to benefit the customers at any cost. They imply strict policy of not disappointing the clients and to ensure this the Management of the Company willingly attempts all the measures even if such measures are long-hauling ones.

IMPLICATION OF MARKET RESEARCH Market research for business acquisition is the most important aspect of the business module that had been proposed by a company. Recognizing the need of Research and Development in the growth of the Company, the CEO says, “If we don’t research into what we are about to perform and receive in return, then the chances of failures are very high.”

Correct R&D strategy followed by evolution according to the market trends bestow a company with immense advantage of capturing a bigger market share.

UPHILL WORK TALE Nothing in the world comes easy. As we all know the saying, it takes very long-struggling years to become an overnight success. My struggle was to combat the lack of knowledge in the business world. Colleges and Universities have performed a fantastic job in teaching but this is aimed at the theory only that prevents us from acquiring practical knowledge. However, in today’s world that makes life very challenging one must expand their intellectual horizons as much as possible.

“What one learns in a University will not be of much help in the business world. One can take an insight from an example into what I wants to convey -I did my masters in 2007 and back then, Facebook marketing was probably 2% of what it is today and other digital social media platforms like Instagram, Whatsapp, Pinterest, Shopify, Snapchat didn’t even exist. Evolving in business is a must or the market space will consume you no matter how much excellence you hold in the theoretical world.” says the CEO.

“If you easily satisfy yourself in little achievements then you should not be in the business world, as it leads to disaster. I believe the hunger of growing and evolving to make your start-up better can help excel in the growth prospects.” Conveys M.P Singh to the budding entrepreneurs.

The Management of the Firm has ensured to invest heavily in new technology followed by the training modules. It keeps a close eye on the day to day trends of technological advancements that can help enhance the working standards of the Firm and evolve the efficiency level for its betterment.

The Government of India has supported this start-up by far. Any government in the world favours budding businesses with the aspiration of their growth as the business creates a lot of employment and taxes. Business migrations program generates a good amount of revenue and jobs for locals.

SHINING THE LIGHT ON FUTURE PROSPECTS Phoenix commenced its First Branch in May 2018 at Ahmedabad with 3 staff members only and by February 2020, it expanded its horizons by establishing 4 offices with more than 30 employees.

By the end of July 2021, they have expected to inaugurate their branch operations in Surat, Dubai, Delhi, Ludhiana and Hyderabad as per the demand of the clients.

And by the end of 2024, the Company aspires to expand its presence around the globe with the expectations of the asset management holders to be between 1.5-2.5 billion USD.