Insights Success Business Consultant India by Insights Success Media

Last Mile’s journey towards success in the Consultancy world Diwakar Menon Last Mile Consultants

Evolving from CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) to CSV (Creating Shared Value) Meena Vaidyanathan niiti consulting Pvt. Ltd.

www.insightssuccess.in

Emerging Technologies and where do we stand as a Start-up Nation in Global Market…

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

Suneet B Sabale Brainiac IP Solutions

April 2016

The way of business solutions

Business Spotlight N o Tu n n e l , O n l y L i g h t : I n d i a n G ov e r n m e n t P l a n For Startups Ecosystem Tra n s f o r m a t i o n Rakesh Sinha VP & Business Leader

Highlights Becoming A Business Consultant

Editor’s Opine Consultants Growth Aspects In The ‘Life Sciences & Healthcare’ World Ravi S Ramakrishnan Founder & CEO

RvaluE: The Game Changers in Business Process Transformation

Multi-Award Winning Delivering Excillince to Clients Across Asia Since 1994

www.tangspac.com

Since 1984

www.fossil.com

Consultants Putting Businesses into High Gears

Editor-in-Chief Pooja Mittal Managing Editor Sugandha Sharma Co-Editors Sonal Burghate Ariana Lawrence Prasad Wadodkar Archana Ghule Art & Design Director Vaibhav Singh Picture Editor Rashmi Borkar Art Editor Amol Kamble Business Development Manager Abhijeet Marketing Manager Manisha Priya Business Development Executive Savitri, Pooja, Ketan, Karishma, Vishlesha, Mary Database Management Vikram Mehta Technology Consultant Vishal More Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Swapnil sales@insightssuccess.com Copyright © 2016 Insights Success Media & Technology Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photography or illustrations without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations. Views and opinions expressed in this publications are not necessarily those of the magazine and accordingly, no liability is assumed by the publisher there of.

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oday, businesses are diversifying, and people are in dire need of professional consulting services for commercial intelligence and strategic advice. Consulting involves providing professional knowledge, skills and specialist advice to management or the individual clients who aim at improving organizational performance which makes consulting more than just giving advice. Consultants work best for organizations or individuals who know what they are seeking and have clearly dened projects or objectives. Consultants offer extensive insights for organizations, across the world in the global market. Working as a consultant, has a vast scope with the top of the earnings proportionally and occupies a range of projects, and gives sense of diversity on the job involving the deal of multitasking variety. Name any industry in India; whether it is health care to semiconductor, or products to services, HR to strategic planning, these consultants play a distinct role in shaping modern businesses as they are today. It’s clear that consultancy services are gradually becoming the backbone of ourishing Indian business sector. The major muscles of Indian consulting companies include professional competence, low-cost structure, diverse capabilities, high adaptability and quick learning ability of Indian consultants. In the coming future, with the growth of consulting businesses in India, the competition amongst consultancies will bring in a challenge for authenticating the veracity of the advice provided by such consultancies. There will be a need for advisers to bring clear differentiators in their specialization and effectiveness. Customers are looking for more than just complete consulting engagements. They are looking for help with organization-wide change, which clearly states that consultants have to take the skills, techniques and means that they’ve honed in one division and apply them to other sectors.

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Sugandha Sharma

CONTENT PAGE

COVER STORY

22 Entrepreneur Speak Diwakar Menon Last Mile Consultants

Last Mile’s journey towards success in the Consultancy world

29 Thought Leader Evolving from CSR (Corporate Ravi S Ramakrishnan Founder & CEO

View Points

38 Executive Talk

Effective Talent Management Building Tomorrow’s Winning Organizations

Highlights Becoming A Business Consultant

Meena Vaidyanathan niiti consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Editor’s Opine Consultants Growth Aspects In The ‘Life Sciences & Healthcare’ World

Tech N Trends Trends In Consultants Industry

Social Responsibility) to CSV (Creating Shared Value)

Suneet B Sabale Brainiac IP Solutions

Emerging Technologies and where do we stand as a Start-up Nation in Global Market…

26 Business Spotlight N o Tu n n e l , O n l y l i g h t : Indian Government Plan For Startups Ecosystem Tr a n s f o r m a t i o n

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

18 Acreaty

41 RNCOS

Mr Paramjit Anand Founder & Executive Director

Miss. Leena PisheThomas Founder

Mr. Shushmul Maheshwari Founder & CEO

CDOTNET

Mr. Kapil Garg Founder

Benaka

Market Insight Consultants

Incognito Worldwide

Bruce T. Dugan Founder & CEO

Mr. D. C. Chetan Founder & President/CEO

KBS Consultants

Global Business

Xllent

Sanjay Nagi Founder

S. Sankaran Founder

MARG

Sudeshna Basu Roy CEO

40 MONK

Girish Trivedi Co-founder & Director

Editor’s Opine

Consultants Growth Aspects In The ‘Life Sciences & Healthcare’ World

n today’s era, commercial environment is getting harsher as companies are facing modern business challenges and fierce competition. Businesses often need support for meeting companies’ goals and objectives, and the consultants are the right hand of business which includes the whole industries. This article highlights the world’s largest transforming industry; “Life Sciences & Healthcare” Consultants roles, responsibilities, and growth aspects. Life Sciences are the vast industry in the area of businesses, which is growing faster than ever. Various industry challenges leave Life Sciences, Biotech, and Pharmaceutical firms increasingly in the spotlight as they tread the fine line between delivering life changing value to consumers amidst the backlash of being one of the profitable industries overall. Emerging markets are becoming more valuable for Life Sciences firms. And to be successful, the companies need a rapid shift from a marketing and sales focus to an access-driven commercial model. Plethora of Challenges for Life Sciences and Healthcare The life sciences sector faces some hurdles that can affect the industry scenario in the imminent future. While most organizations are attempting to counter the rise of generic drugs, the generic market advances to grow and is supposed to reach global profits of $283 billion by 2018 as per the latest analysis. The primary problem lies with unregulated and developing markets, with the lack of government control. Also, the sale of illegally manufactured under patent drugs in low-income countries without regulation, remains a major problem for global pharma firms. As regulatory authorities are making stringent requirements for more precise and detailed data during approval processes, companies are required to sustain comprehensive patient and product data along with improved data acquisition and

April 2016 06

supervision processes. With the growing use of electronic data capture systems, cloud computing, and data sharing, the necessity for improved systems capable of securing companies’ network from cyber-attacks and data leakage has also heightened. Growing focus of government in both developed and emerging markets, to enact pricing legislations to minimize pharmaceutical spending is one of the significant concerns globally for life sciences industries. This has emphasized the need for proposing innovative pricing models in markets to develop breakthrough therapies which will ensure the desired profitability. Consultants: Business Partners for Transformation & Growth A consultant is a professional with expertise in a particular domain and therapeutic areas. The consultants advise clients with their strategic decision to develop winning strategies in a dynamic global market, at every life cycle of the stage, solving complex issues and helping clients create lasting value. The consultants apply scientific thinking to solve complex business problems, often with immediate effects and tangible impacts. A consultant is the backbone of company with the deep knowledge, which injects “Multi Vitamins” to obtain results, with multiple clients & projects, for growing their business in the corporate world. A consulting firm outsources their services to the customer’s businesses, fulfilled by the experts who are generally Ph.Ds or postgraduates associated with the consulting firms. For example, the pharmaceutical firms routinely outsource their clinical trials to neutral third parties. With the help of consultants, clients solve their

Contract Research Organizations Contract Research Organizations provide their assistance to the Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Device industries in the form of analysis, and research services outsourced on a contract basis. CROs support foundations, research institutions, and universities, in Strategy Consulting Firms: addition to governmental organizations Strategizing Life Sciences and play a signiﬁcant role in learning Organization’s Business Growth how life-changing drugs get to The Strategy Consulting companies patients. Strategy ﬁrms usually hire work in Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, PhDs and MDs at the post-MBA Medical Products, Pharmacology, position of Associate but CROs are Biotechnology, Medical Devices, New more research-focused and often do Emerging Technology, and Research work in the clinical sciences that has and Development strategies. As a been outsourced by different consultant they work in a team serving organizations. The consultants then large company clients to solve market work on various projects for the client dynamics and regulatory demands. which can differ from project to Consultants help their customers to project. Contract Research manage Research and Development, Organizations mainly hire researchers enter new markets, improve operations and scientists, who are specialized in with delivering better value for clinical trials services and can offer patients, and reduce the cost and their customers the expertise of complexity of operating systems. moving a new drug or device from its strategic problems in various sectors including R&D projects. Businesses seek consultation from a particular strategy team according to their background of challenges. There are two types of consulting corporations that mesh completely with the Life Science background.

conception to FDA/EMA marketing approval. With the consultants in place, drug sponsor doesn’t need to maintain staff for these tasks. The Life Sciences business requires planning for the “next wave.” There will be more demand to present realworld evidence of positive patient outcomes, value pricing, reimbursements, market access, and marketing. There are new stakeholders who will have an inﬂuence and will require a more collaborative customer model that involves all of the critical decision makers. The life sciences industry is set to tackle diverse opportunities as well as newer challenges in recent years. Along with the conventional strengths of the industry, companies will also crave to be more adaptive and innovative to counter regulatory and consumer demands which in turn are instigated by the technological advances in the ﬁeld and global scenarios.

April 2016 07

COVER STORY

Ravi S Ramakrishnan Founder & CEO

COVER STORY

RvaluE: The Game Changers in Business Process Transformation

India has risen as the preeminent global destination for offshoring of IT and Business Process Services. Leveraging the off shoring experience, Indian corporations have been desirous of reaping similar benets by adapting practices that suit the local requirements to effectively manage their business processes. This prepared the opportunity for a few expert organizations to draw on their specialist knowledge base and resources to meet the demand for such consulting requirements. ‘RvaluE Consulting’ is one of the ‘game changing’ rms in business process transformation that has helped strategize and execute plans for many client organizations, there by delivering value to them since 2006. RvaluE Consulting is a niche Business Process transformation organization, rendering three major services - Consulting, Capabilities and Operations. Having started a decade back, RvaluE is a team of qualied and skilled professionals and business gurus delivering comprehensive services and solutions. The company renders Redesigning of Business Processes, Leadership and Capability Development, and Industry Expertise for business process strategy adoption, execution, and enhancements across offshore operations, Indian Corporations, and BPS organizations. The ‘Team’ at RvaluE is the backbone of the company and believes in the mantra of ‘transaction to transformation’.

COVER STORY

The Pioneer Ravi Ramakrishnan, Founder & CEO of RvaluE Group, is a CA, CMA and CSwith 35+ years of rich experience in the corporate world, of which 20 years is in business process services, management and transformation. He started his career with Hindustan Unilever Limited, acquired senior leadership experience as Controller/Commercial Manager in Murugappa Group, and later, became the CFO at Eicher Group. In his last role, he was the part of the global leadership team as Vice President and Business Leader at American Express to set up the pioneering off shoring Global Financial Center. He is the rst independent consultant in India certied by ITSqc, Carnegie Mellon University, USA to implement eSCM-eSourcing Capability Model, and the emerging global standard for the SSC/BPO/ITO space.

expertise into consulting focus on business process landscape through sourcing advisory and shared services. His idea is to empower organizations and people to ‘realize business value’, having worked with global teams, across multiple functions and business units.

Over the years, RvaluE has a broad range of customized services in business process transformation across the business process spectrum covering all functions like F&A, Operations, Procurement, IT and CLM. Shaping and Redesigning business process services strategy by analyzing and assessing client requirements and business goals, comprehensive sourcing advisory services including innovative operating models and end to end RFP Management, set up, stabilize and even manage captive operations through robust program governance and change management, Having set up global centers of leveraging shared services as a excellence and been an integral strategic enabler to business, part of the global and India service/performance BPS ecosystem, Ravi management frameworks Ramakrishnan says, and process improvement “What started as initiatives, all combined transaction processing to transform the current operations in the mid-90s processes to deliver has today moved up the efciency and value chain to process effectiveness. Through and business the effective use of transformation services, operational alignment thereby delivering value and capability models to corporations across (eSCM), RvaluE brings the globe and now, for in best practices to Indian corporations too.” Clients for improving Rakesh Sinha operational excellence, Vice President & Business Leader Collaborative enhancing customer Partnership relationships and Ravi is a well-rounded and proactively adding value. multi-faceted expert having a novel blend of exposure to As Ravi leads the RvaluE professional, family and global team, his passion and goal work environments and in is to work closely with various domains of CXOs in India to make manufacturing and service business process Industries. He was instrumental transformation a in translating the off shoring strategic priority in

COVER STORY

today’s ever changing and intensely competitive world. Simultaneously, connect with multiple global organizations in India and abroad to spot and share best practices in business process transformation. Ravi rmly adds that: “We believe that business strategy gets executed through robust business processes. Besides aligning these two pillars for all horizontal functions and processes to achieve the business outcomes, we ensure collaborative execution and end to end engagement with clients. Our joy comes from driving metrics based management across levels to deliver efciency, productivity, cost

strategy, benchmarking, location strategy etc. Rakesh has made signicant contribution to projects in vision planning for globalizing shared services, identifying process consolidation opportunities for over 2500+ FTEs, preparing the business case, leading process migration/people transition and stabilization in SSC operations. “We have carried out over 30+ advisory and transformational assignments and set up over 14+ Shared Service Centers (SSC) within India and overseas, with tailored operating models like Captive, BOM, BOT, Managed

“RvaluE stands for ‘realizing business value’ and we have created an accomplished team in the BPM & SS space to bring ‘Best in Class’ to ‘Best in Context’ practices of global offshoring services and India domestic organizations, and build what we passionately call as Global India,” says Ravi Ramakrishnan. saves and decision support analytics.” Innovative Leaders for Transformational Solutions Ravi brings together leaders with rich professional expertise in business processes and constantly innovates to nd new solutions and practices. Rakesh Sinha, Vice President is with RvaluE since inception and is a founder member for the growth and expansion of RvaluE and Anand Maheshwari, President - Strategic Initiatives is a veteran from American Express and has been associated with RvaluE over the years in many roles, and now leading couple of big transformational initiatives. Rakesh Sinha possesses a strong strategic leadership and execution capabilities with 15 years of experience in the Business Consulting and IT/ITeS Industry. He is an IT graduate and acquired business management skills from IIM Calcutta. He has played vital leadership roles and has successfully led many customized business transformation initiatives such as sourcing model

Captive etc. We have pioneered and demonstrated 20-25% cost saves for India corporations, which others even now nd it hard to achieve,” says Rakesh. Anand brings three decades of extensive work experience to RvaluE to create the next generation waves in the industry like Value Exchange as a platform for consolidation of BPOs to enhance the scale and Managed Captives as a business model to provide improved services to their clients in India and Overseas. He is an accomplished CA/CS with a blend of senior management and entrepreneurial roles, within India and UK. After having worked at Jubilant Organozys and Kanorias, Anand joined American Express as part of the rst set of leaders to set up the Financial Center and has handled multi billion dollars’ business transactions, pioneered transitions and management of customer sensitive/time critical nance and operations processes, mentored young professionals and led multiple global projects like Y2K and BPR. Post his well- rounded experience at Venture Infotek, he has

COVER STORY

been a serial entrepreneur in technology, business process services and energy domains.

captive-like operations, ably supported by on-demand availability of capabilities and enhanced automation/tools to transform business processes.”

“RvaluE stands for ‘realizing business value’! We have created an accomplished team in the Business Process & Anand has a natural air for Shared services space to business, is commercially sound bring ‘Best in Class’ to ‘Best in with a legal bent of mind and Context’ practices to clients in brings excellent technology Team - The Strength offshoring operations as well The team is the most valuable connect to the New Strategic as India domestic Initiatives. Anand says, “Based asset of RvaluE, and comes with organizations, and build what on the successful track record high skill and rich experience we passionately call as Global of RvaluE, in the next 5 years, across shared services and BPO India.” says Ravi operations. For RvaluE, so far the Ramakrishnan. we see greater opportunities whole journey in the consulting for growth in business process services when clients space has been nothing less than The rich gamut of clients served a success story, and the most in India and overseas are by RvaluE includes Fortune 500 important factor behind this provided with a unique and BS 1000 companiesin India, success is the RvaluE team. combination of exclusive US, UK, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Middle East conrms their expertise and stronghold in business service domains. Plans to Reshape the Consulting Services To sustain the current record of success and continuous knowledge exchange, RvaluE has laid out plans to strengthen adoption of Shared Services & Business Process Transformation through leadership roundtables, process journals, visits to other global/Indian SSCs and networking interactions for companies at various regional locations. With all these comprehensive offerings and a multitude of services, strong accomplishments of the past ten years and concrete future plans, RvaluE is scaling greater heights to become the game changer in the Global India Business Process space! Anand Maheshwari President Strategic Initiatives

IS 20 Most Valuable Business Consultant Companies 2016 was an open green field for the consultants where they hit fours and sisters to drive the industry to the whooping billion scores. In the Organization, an increased number of consultant firms are reshaping high-value consulting in India. New companies are looking for the perfect consulting services, and ultimately making consulting relationships more valuable. Every consulting is thriving to establish a long-term relationship with their clients and gives the complete satisfaction with their deliverables as per their customer’s requirements. Consultants play a prominent role in shaping the things, and breaking the regular myth as consulting is more than just giving advice. Consultants are preserving the unique attributes to accomplish tremendous things, of their brands in contrasting fields, and stand to gain the most in future. Insights Success brings you the anecdote of ‘IS 20 Most Valuable Business Consultant Companies.’ Over the years, these top most and reputed Business & Consulting companies are continually growing by leaps and bounds every single day. Insights Success magazine is covered and showcasing you the latest edition of ‘IS 20 Most Valuable Business Consultant Companies’, after shortlisting a long list of services and solutions provider, that will best meet your business’s current and future needs with increased productivity, in your growing business. Our Magazine ‘IS 20 Most Valuable Business Consultant Companies’ highlights some of the consulting companies that have amassed years of business expertise resolving tons of clients’ issues.

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20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

Company Name

Management

Brief

Acreaty Management Consultant Pvt. Ltd. acreaty.com

Mr. Paramjit Anand Founder & Executive Director

Acreaty is a leading Management Consulting ﬁrm, with the core set of offerings including Business Strategies, Process and People Outsourcing, complete HR Recruitments, Training Programs & IT Enabled Services.

Avance Business Consultants LLP avanceconsultants.com

Aditya Malhotra CEO

Avance Business Consultants LLP is a niche consulting and execution ﬁrm that focus on international collaborations, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions as well as identiﬁcation of markets.

Benaka Business Consultancy benaka.in

Mr. D. C. Chetan Founder, President & CEO

Benaka Business Consultancy is a Bangalore based Strategic consulting ﬁrm, which focuses on Business Advisory, Capital Advisory and Tax Advisory Services.

CDOTNET Infosystem Pvt. Ltd. cnetinfosystem.com

Kapil Garg Co-founder & CEO

CDOTNET Infosystem is well known in offering web based application development, mobile applications, internet and digital media marketing and branding solutions that are futuristic and scalable.

Global Business Inroads globalbusinessinroads.com

Miss. Leena Pishe Thomas Founder

Global Business Inroads provides International Business & Project Management, Energy & Environmental, Technology Transfer & Commercialization, Program Management & Ecosystem Development.

Helical IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd. helicaltech.com

NikhileshTiwari Co-founder

Helical assist you on all the aspects right from tool selection, ETL, Data warehouse, designing & consulting, solution development, and analytics as well.

Incognito Worldwide India Pvt. Ltd. incognitoworldwide.com

Bruce T. Dugan Founder & CEO

Incognito Worldwide is a Bangalore based digital agency providing consulting and creative digital services including endto-end branding, technology, and marketing.

KBS Consultants kbsconsultants.com

S. Sankaran Founder

KBS Consultants provides consultancy services for businesses, clients and individuals in the domains of Accounting, Taxation, Legal Matters, Business Buying & Selling, and Job Placements.

Maleshaa Inc. maleshaa.com

Sivachenduran B

MARG margonline.com

Founder, Chairman & CEO

Sudeshna Basu Roy CEO

Maleshaa Inc.creates innovative Business ideas and provides competitive advantage through unique solutions, building brands and organizations. Marg is a Bangalore based training ﬁrm passionate about helping people discover and sharpen their professional skills, specializing in Communication Skills, Soft skills training, Finance training, MS Ofﬁce training across all levels of management offering both in-house trainings and external workshops.

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

Company Name

Management

Brief

Market Insight Consultants

Sanjay Nagi Founder

MIC is India’s Leading Decision Support Consultancy that assists its clients to take objective decisions based on high quality Market Research across sectors.

marketinsightconsultants.com

Monk Consulting monkconsulting.co.in

Girish Trivedi Co-founder & Director

Pearl Business Consultants Ronnie Rodrigues (India) Pvt. Ltd. Founder & Chairman pearlbusinessconsultant.in

Monk is a Strategy Consulting & Investment Advisory company. Monk Helps enterprises grow their Industry, Market and Customer Segments.

Pearl Group of Companies always take pleasure in providing professional personalized service to clients who demand professional perspective.

Pylon Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd. pylonconsulting.com

Ravi Shankar Practice Head

Pylon is India’s Leading Talent Search Company, providing Executive Research, Junior & Middle Management Search solutions for a wide range of industries and functions, specialize in sourcing, assessing and placing exceptional talent that ﬁts their client’s culture and business strategy.

RNCOS Business Consultancy Services rncos.com

Mr. Shushmul Maheshwari Founder & CEO

A business consulting ﬁrm providing multiple services to companies with global presence, wishing to engage in any business expansion.

RvaluE Consulting Pvt. Ltd. rvaluebs.com

Ravi Ramakrishnan, Founder & CEO Rakesh Sinha, VP & Business Leader

RvaluE Group is aniche business process consulting, operations andcapabilities organization,providing Shared Services & Business Process Services under multiple engagement models in Global India, rendering a New Edge to Indian and Global Organizations

Sathguru Management Consultants sathguru.com

K Vijayaraghavan Founder & Director

We are a premier consulting organization which encompasses traditional consulting areas such as strategy, corporate ﬁnance, M&A and unique offerings such as technology transfer and innovation advisory.

Swathi Business Solutions swathisolutions.com

Arun Thiyagarajan CEO

Swathi Business Solutions is one of the IT Service & Solutions Company, its mission is to bridge the relationship between clients and their consumers, by means of offering global innovative solutions and services.

Synergy Project & Business Consulting projectconsult.in

Pradeep Bagewadi Managing Director

Synergy Project & Business Consulting provides cost-effective professional Project & Business consultancy services for business enterprises, to maximise their productivity, proﬁtability, and competitiveness.

Xllent Corporate Services Pvt. Ltd. xllent.in

Pavithra Umesh Director

Xllent is a consulting ﬁrm specializing in Accounting Services, Assurance Services, Payroll Management, Compliance Management, and Business Consulting.

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

Acreaty: Because You Deserve The Best !

Mr Paramjit Anand Founder & Executive Director

n today’s hypercompetitive age, customization is ought to revolutionize the way, the companies manage their workforce. Organizations in the future are no longer going to treat their workforce as a single monolithic entity, but they will consider every resource as a team player of the workforce. As a fact, it’s of no wonder that the growing trend of outsourcing management and HR tasks is gaining popularity amongst small and large organizations around the world. A leading global management consulting and advisory firm, Acreaty Management Consultant Pvt. Ltd. was founded in 2001, with its corporate office in Delhi. Acreaty emerged as a key market player in complete HR & Recruitment Operations and has strongly positioning itself with an extensive geographical footprint across India , USA, UAE & Ghana. While keeping an eagle eye on the larger picture, capabilities that enabled Acreaty to execute specific projects like Business Strategies, Process and People Outsourcing, Strategic HR & Recruitment Operations and Training programs. Whether you are scaling up or down, or adapting to seasonal nature of the business, experts at Acreaty help you to solve issues, create value, maximise growth and improve business performance through high April 2016 18

Paramjit Anand, Founder & Executive Director of Acreaty Management Consultant Pvt Limited, is a leading performer in Sales & Marketing strategies and has more than 20 years of corporate, consulting and accomplishing experience. His experience and elegance is proved with the solutions and possibilities to various organizations which he puts forth to his clients ranging from various global giants like Gillette Group, ITC Limited, Unilever and Cavin Kare.

impact and innovative management consulting solutions. During his tenure with these FMCG organizations, he had learnt that a Sales & Marketing person had to be competent in HR skills. Hence, identifying the synergy in both the departments, he founded Acreaty, that provided an entire spectrum of servicesolutions dealing with the quintessential element of any organization. For Anand, Acreaty is at one side being a dream into reality organization, but on the another side, Ascentaz is one area which he always relished about, and continue to live his life to the full and complete his responsibility towards both the organisations. Later in 2012, Paramjit Anand also founded Ascentaz Consulting Pvt. Ltd., with the focus to serve organizations, tend to enter India and India based organizations to scale up their business outside India. He has secured several awards and recognitions to his credit like the one most prestigious “Inspiring Entrepreneur of India” from Mr Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Union Minister of State Skill Development and Entrepreneurship & Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India and Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Government of India; while featuring in the special edition of ‘The Economic

Times’. He also received “Business Excellence” award from Mr Kailash Satyarthi– Child Rights Activist and Nobel Laureate. Today, Acreaty has expanded its services in the domestic as well as international markets including USA, UAE and recently has set up in Ghana. Acreaty offers customized solutions for

Acreaty does thrive on the idea that “People make the difference”; and completely committed to its clients “Because You Deserve The Best.” temporary stafﬁng.They propose skilled talents, which can be harnessed to add value to the organization. And they also offer professional experts for temporary requirements across various industry verticals as well as hierarchical segments. With the passion of creativity and innovation, Acreaty is excited to serve their clients with the aim to set the benchmark in HR & other outsourcing services at global level by 2020.

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

Benaka: Helping to Drive Business Value from Technology Innovations Mr. D. C. Chetan, Founder and President/CEO of Benaka Business Consultancy, He is a commerce graduate with an MBA, specializing in Finance and Marketing from IBS India. He has extensive experience in key account management in consulting, healthcare, banking, risk-management, real estate, technology, imaging, printing, electronics, agrotech industries to name a few; and he has worked closely with a number of boards of several small and medium companies and corporates in India. Mr. D. C. Chetan Founder & President/CEO

in formulating strategies supporting business growth. He is proficient in building, leading and motivating teams to deliver business promises, client servicing and implementing egovernance standards. He is a firm believer of technology within and between institutions. He is committed to integrate the key aspects of quality, Benaka’s client approach formula provides a structured framework aimed professionalism and respect to direct this consultancy to be a preferred at delivering high quality customerrelevant business solutions. They have choice to its customers, colleagues and stakeholders. developed a store of knowledge and Even though these transformations experience through several have taken place earlier, the development projects. Benaka has fundamentals of the business and the “We at Benaka are committed to client focus have remained unchanged. refined the business process by delivering maximum value to our following and disseminating the best Aware of this, Benaka Business clients helping them succeed in a industry practices. Consultancy, a Bangalore based constantly changing and challenging Strategic consulting firm focuses on world of business. Our fundamental Business Advisory, Capital Advisory Furthermore, they have absorbed best company values stem from approaches to get maximum and Tax Advisory Services. With understanding, that our success is tied performance and highest quality for years of experience working with with success of our clients,” believes their projects while leaving away Indian SMEs and Corporates, it Mr. D. C. Chetan. provides its clients with cost-effective redundant complexity that may affect project budget or timing. Benaka’s and market relevant solutions. Benaka’s aim is to well establish methodology promotes a research themselves in local market and wish to backed and result-driven interactive Benaka’s Business Advisory service offer their services in other Indian approach and guarantees better provides strategic direction to the metro cities in due-time. They also customer service with regards to businesses and helps them define and intend to have more strategic tie-ups redefine the growth strategy. Through quality, cost and customer’s strategic with other managed service providers goals, without compromising on any of to broaden their services portfolio, their strategic tie-ups with number of private, foreign and public sector banks these factors. geographical reach, add resources, and major financial institutions, they enhance infrastructure, strengthen their Prudent Leadership with Versatile help to raise secured and unsecured finances and increase their market Experience capital to the clients. share by delivering high performance. Mr. D. C. Chetan recognizes skill sets he global Business Consultancy industry has been through several changes in past few years, with the most recent one during few years ago, for which, after-effects are still observed. However, analysts speculate that some of the transformations in this industry are yet to happen. It is predicted that the industry will metamorphose over the upcoming years.

Their Tax Advisory services help to identify key tax planning opportunities that minimize both current and future tax liabilities for the clients. They also help their clients understand the challenges and regulations of settingup and doing business in India.

April 2016 19

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

CDOTNET: Strategically Channelizing Your Web Presence To The World Kapil Garg, Founder of CDOTNET Infosystem started his venture with techno commercial background with ﬂare of working experience in many industries. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in science and master's degree in marketing from Delhi. Visualizing his way back that the future is online marketing and if a corporate need to have an edge on others, he must invest in internet based marketing and technology. Mr. Kapil Garg Co-founder & CEO

nline marketing is an erratic, impulsive, and volatile industry that evolves quickly. The prevailing trend of online marketing nowadays is like catching the tiger by its tail. This ﬂuctuating landscape is actually urging all marketers to step outside their comfort zone to attract high quality leads. Marketers no longer see digital as a distinct marketing discipline and are craving towards “digitally led business models”. Meanwhile, those who are gun shy about adopting new strategies, miss out the full beneﬁt of these opportunities. Today, thinking a life without the internet and digital media is almost a dead idea. There was an era when idea of choosing online aspect of doing business was not understood by many,and then this rejection led to foundation of CNET Infosystem, which is now changed to CDOTNET Infosystem. Today, the company surpasses many big vendors in terms of quality solutions and result driven marketing. Unlike other companies they offer custom solution rather a package deal for all. The company don’t compromise with the quality they use intellectual strategies to create the

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solution by virtue of their own knowledge base system, rather than a boxed solution. After working with various corporations and having 20+ years of experience in the ﬁeld of technocommercial environment with expertise in web technologies, internet marketing, business development, marketing, project planing, mobile apps, he decided to start his own venture with a team of three in the ﬁeld of web technology. Although in this business, entry level is easy, but challenges that they faced were, convincing the customers for the services they offer and the knowledgeable human resource who can deliver faster results with good quality. CDOTNET Infosystem has completed long fourteen consistence years of kudos in the year 2015 and they have been endowed with the distinguished as well as branded award of Global Quality Award for their Quality performance in the Digital Media and other web services. The company is well known in offering best ever support and comprehensive assistance in the domain of Information Technology as well as worldwide transmission network to serve the customer’s needs in this cut throat competitive age.

CDOTNET Infosystem focuses on offering 360 degree solution for web from a simple idea of having a website for the state of the art web based application development, mobile applications, internet and digital media marketing and branding solutions.

“If you are not on web you don’t exist, If you are on web, but no one see you, you don’t exist.” They offer a total IT consultancy for all types of solutions be it ERP or cloud based solution or data center under one roof. As predicted now the future is ONLINE, in almost every ﬁeld like shopping, education, jobs, trading, user based services, etc.; they strive to increase their knowledge base to offer best and quality solution that can be sustained for long and future ready.

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

Global Business Inroads: A Boutique International Business, Technology & Project Management Consulting Firm Leena Pishe Thomas, Founder of Global Business Inroads started the company in 2009 with the mindset for rendering world class consultancy services and deploying technologies in markets. She completed her B.A. (Honors) from Delhi and followed that up with business management studies from ICFAI, Hyderabad. Leena is a certiﬁed Energy Manager from Atlanta, USA. Miss. Leena PisheThomas Founder

lobal Business Inroads (GBI) is an International Business, Technology and Project Management consulting firm with specialization in Energy and Environment sector. GBI is working in International Strategy Development, and offering Market Research Services, Customer Project Identification, and Financing Assistance. GBI’s aim is to provide clients organizations with a unique one-stop integrated solution for developing markets and implementing projects. GBI is selected as an expert by Swissnex to support Swiss startups in India and is the India Representative of EU and US accelerators like EBN and USMAC. Leena has worked as Country Program Manager, India for Clinton Climate Initiative. Leena was appointed by the EU Commission to strategize EU clean technologies migration to Indian Market. She was selected for the US State Department’s International Visitors Leadership Program as a leader in Clean Energy and Climate Change category. GBI’s Services GBI provides Technology Management and market entry services to international private and public sector organizations, which includes a whole gambit of services including Indian market validation, partner identification, country representation,

business development, technology localization, piloting, local business model development, and technology commercialization.

to address the width and depth of the technology management and market entry. GBI manages the risks and challenges upfront. Their business ethics and values focus on getting GBI also contributes value added things done and their ability to engage Internationalization Services including; stakeholders and convince them are Global Cultural Intelligence and some of the other key differentiators. Leadership training, Cross-border Business & Investment services, GBI’s team has unique skills that have Market research and report services in been developed through in-house Cleantech, Biotech and ICT sectors, training and experience, unprecedented India In-country Representation, US in terms of knowledge and capacity to market entry services, and EU market deliver, which comprises of entry services. management and investment experts, engineers, and life-science specialists “Plan of Action” with global exposure. Having worked in international business for 18 years (as of 2015), GBI Aim for the Upcoming Years team realizes that those international Tech Management and technologies need hand-holding Commercialization; scale the number mentorship in India and the know-how of technologies, deploys in India and in connecting with the right assists the Indian tech sector in opportunities. The team has designed a accessing US and EU markets. management process that deals with such problems upfront, hence focusing Program Management and Ecosystem Development; GBI is on a proactive strategy where client’s bringing the right collaborations and risks are managed well. international ecosystems to the market Further, challenges that GBI manages like, European Business & Innovation are sustaining in-market visibility for Network, Global Life science Cluster the client, coaching and mentoring Development, and US Market Access both sides, managing people with Centre. GBI is planning to build a different cultural dimensions, global “cluster of clusters” of biotech expectations and advising on IP issues innovation centers around the world. to make it a win-win proposition for Cleantech Project Development and both sides. Management; GBI is planning to Success with Clients Aid develop projects in solar, energy The most important contribution that storage, smart microgrids that can GBI has made to its clients is the signiﬁcantly impact the power scenario unique hands-on approach it has taken and electricity management in India. April 2016 21

Entrepreneur Speak

Last Mile’s journey towards success in the Consultancy world -By Diwakar Menon Interview with Insights Success Q - What were the risks involved in Last Mile’s consulting business and how you have addressed them? The biggest challenge we face in the consultancy business is the commoditisation trap. Our uniqueness stems from the fact that we have carefully designed our offerings and tailored them to organisational demands. We have ensured that we have leveraged our past experience to build effective and easily deployable frameworks across all our service lines. We have then taken these frameworks and been able to very quickly adapt it our customer engagements. This has helped our customers to jump start their initiatives. That, in addition, to the fact that the people we have brought on board has been our differentiating factor, and to that end, we have been lucky to get the right team in place. Lastly, in a consulting mode, we offer point solutions - i.e. we come into an organisation, solve a particular problem, enable the organisation to work independent of us and exit. We have seen a fair amount of success in this way of working, and helps bringing in a fresh point of view into organisations, without the need to commit to long term business. Q - Have you encountered situations within Last Mile where you have had to take critical decisions? If so, how have you overcome the situation? Saying no to a particular line of business. We have been very clear that our operating model is to offer point solutions, enable the customer, and get the customer’s organisation to be able to move forward post our catalysis. Our goal is to help them solve a particular testing problem. If we are not the right set of persons to solve the problem, we indicate so. It is tough - for the customer, as they look to us for all solutions, and to us, as turning down a possible

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business is not easy. But I think that has held us in good stead. We are not there to compete with our customer organisations - we are there to help them get better at what they do in their core services. Q - What are the things you have learnt from your mentors? Being close to your customer and being available for them 24x7. We have come across situations where we know we are not the right persons to deliver, but have stepped out of our zone to help them find the right partners. Solve their problem, even if you have to stretch yourself. It’s a trait I learnt from observing my leaders at Perot Systems and Tech Mahindra. Secondly, keep an eye on the cash flows. We have been cash flow positive from our early times, and we have been prudent with how we have scaled. We hired part-time consultants initially to start with, invested in bright kids, coshared office spaces before we rented our own, and managed our expenditures. When you have employees’ dependent on you, you look at financial risk very differently! Lastly, the value of a good network. The value that a good network provides cannot be quantified. Q - What roadblocks Last Mile has encountered while achieving success? Sales and Marketing: We built a lot of our offerings leveraging our network, but good sales and marketing has to be built so that your business can sustain outside of the network too. Product focus: We started our product focus a little too late, IMO. We should have created different ways of funding this

and spun this out separately early in the lifecycle. However, this is always a chicken-and-egg issue - so not really a big regret. Each of the founders will have different drivers: We learnt that each of the initial stakeholders brings a different focus and intensity into the organisation. It will mean that all of us need to recognise it, and work with it, rather than getting worked up about it. Support functions: Pay attention to the fact that there is more to an organisation than just the idea or the service. There are supporting functions, where you have the practical challenges of managing an ofﬁce, managing your ﬁnances, managing your sales, managing your workforce. Not many tend to speak of these, but they are time consuming too, and these are basic building blocks of a lasting organisation, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Lastly, the need for a cohesive team that you can depend on. Our fall back mechanisms kick in, when one is temporarily out of action, and works amazingly well. Q - Your views on entrepreneurship/ leadership and management Ego - the biggest stumbling block to getting work done. Be ready to don different hats - from running around to paying bills to taking strategic decisions. Set short term targets in the general direction of where you want to head. Long term is 6 months in the initial stages. Have a focus, stick with it, be ready to adapt - since market perceptions can be very different. Go out of your network, and get a true feel of what your services (or products) are worth to people who have no obligations towards you. About Diwakar Menon Diwakar has over 25 years of work experience ranging from test consulting to delivery to pre-sales. He has been the head of service delivery for key customer contracts that encompass a variety of services from AD, AM, Testing, Infrastructure Management and Business Support Services across a multiplicity of pillars like Govt, Health, Financial Markets. He has pioneered and set up end-to-end test services across multiple lines of business, consolidating the services across the organisation. In previous roles, he set up and oversaw the Test and

Diwakar Menon Founder Last Mile Consultants Application Management competencies for a leading service integrator. The group focused on speciﬁc transformation programs to help reduce the TCO of organisations, and being able to present the same to the clients at CxO levels. Part of the initiatives were helping a major customers reduce their overall cost of operations through selective outsourcing of application development and management services, transformation programs to reengineer applications using legacy systems onto a more strategic stack, and optimization of the process through Business Process Reengineering. He was also responsible for growing the Testing practice from 1% to 12% of the company’s revenues in a span of 3 years. He has also been an early proponent of quality, having worked with and then led organizations to ISO 9001: IT Certiﬁcations. Diwakar possesses a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Mumbai University. Prior to founding Last Mile, Diwakar has worked in global organizations like Tech Mahindra, Perot Systems (now Dell), Deutsche Software, Tata Unisys (now TCS) and CMC Ltd.

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20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

Incognito Worldwide: Transcending Digital Branding with Inventiveness

Bruce T. Dugan Founder & CEO

ommenced with the goal to meet clients’ business objectives through creative and strategic digital solutions, Incognito Worldwide was inaugurated in 2013. Incognito Worldwide is a Bangalore based digital agency providing consulting and creative services with end-to-end branding, technology, and marketing services.

Incognito Worldwide India PVT LTD is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the U.S. digital product company Intech Creative LLC. Incognito was founded by Bruce T. Dugan-- along with its CTO Sanjeev Aasoori, and Director Nihanth Kandimalla. Bruce is a lifelong entrepreneur who gained eclectic knowledge from a varied career and customer base. He has served many Fortune 500 clients with his logistics companies in the 1980s - ‘90s before foraying into entertainment, publishing, and technology. He has also served as CEO for several public companies. and output; marketing clients’ products and services to propel brand awareness by devising a sound marketing strategy that includes SEO, Social Media Promotion and Digital Advertising; developing Mobile App and website Development; and, a series of Web Services that includes content management, technology integration, and other value-added services for their customers.

challenges and deliver for their clients. Bruce notes that “We understood that we needed to make our client’s job easier -- because they already have enough to deal with. Hiring us is, in part, to reduce headaches and to turn out world-class, cost-effective solutions for them. Research is a big asset for us in that we know how to do

“We strive to apply our diverse business expertise to convert our clients’ vision into practical reality. And our business analysis often yields new ideas to meet our customers’ goals.”

While discussing the strategies that differentiate them from their competitors, Bruce says, “While we do serve Indian clients, the bulk of our client base is USA or EU. So we combine cost-effective pricing without the language and culture barriers because we are (in part) westerners. We try to provide a turnkey service to clients, taking them from website it correctly.” through online marketing strategies Flourishing Future and implementation.” While discussing the company’s future strategies, Bruce says that, “As a “We interpret a client’s vision and digital agency, our direction is to convert it into practical reality without continue to build a worldwide network the artistic indulgence inherent with of agents in North and South America many techies.” says Bruce. Their Services and the European Union; providing Incognito Worldwide offers a wide them with great services and pricing to Core Values as Catalyst breadth of services like Branding & maintain a win-win for all involved. As Design, Consulting for startups, brand Incognito’s key value lies in combined a consulting ﬁrm, our largest client is knowledge and experience of its top promotion, marketing and business our parent Intech Creative LLC. executives. The company has a deep processes. Their goal is always to Incognito Worldwide is doing much of optimize customers’ business goals and understanding of processes, can focus the product and marketing research for objectives and eventually to maximize on technical competencies, as well as Intech regarding their new products the client’s cost-effective productivity array of value-add services to meet Craveller, Eventigo.Today, and the forthcoming Eventzpipeline.”

The Company at a Glance The creation of Incognito was a fortunate stroke of serendipity when Bruce was on a business trip to India. He met and befriended a young group of programmers, Sanjeev and Nihanth while spending time at acafe in Bangalore -- waiting for a company he contracted to build a product, who never actually did anything. Bruce realized the incredible cognitive learning skills of his friends and they decided to launch a company together, which ultimately became INCOGNITO Worldwide.

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Business Spotlight

N o Tu n n e l , O n l y l i g h t : Indian Government Plan For Startups Ecosystem Tr a n s f o r m a t i o n

tartups play a critical role in the development of a country. Growing market, favorable funding, and technology have made the startup ecosystem take off. Who had imagined that our favorite food, cab or grocery can be at doorsteps with a mere touch of a button? The significant industry body NASSCOM has also realized that the growth of the software product industry in recent years has signaled a transformation in India and across the globe. With increasing numbers of active online users becoming consumers of e-commerce solutions and the related marketplaces, today Indian startups are unfolding global digital solutions to capitalize on this rapid growth. Hyper-growth, capital availability, and acquisitions are the leading drivers of the growing startup ecosystem in India. It all starts with an idea and coming up with a startup idea is very regular thing for someone aiming for an independent work life. But implementing the plan is a real big challenge which gradually gives rise to a chain of problems. When it comes to establish a startup in India, most Indians are reluctant. The reason is that the road to build a startup in India is filled with hurdles and challenges. Common factors which are essential for a startup success encompass right talent, marketing strategy, funding of startup and most important is the supportive government ecosystem with better policies and myriad laws and regulations. Without them, it's immensely difficult to start a business. As a matter of fact, Government is the single biggest enabler for the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Government plays a vital role in the ease of doing business and helping companies start. World Bank Group in their latest 2016 report “Doing Business” has placed India at 130th position in “ease of doing business” column behind countries like Nepal and Vietnam.

Undoubtedly, Startups are significant, playing very crucial role in the development of a country but they demand necessary infrastructure, attractive tax benefits and supporting policies from government. The Indian government has now started understanding the necessities of modern startups, realizing the importance of entrepreneurship in the economic development of India. First generation entrepreneurs across the country applauded the government's effort to recognize their business ventures under the banner of “Startup India” when Indian Prime Minister - Narendra Modi announced the government's initiative on 15 August 2015 and Finance Minister - Arun Jaitley launched it on 16 January 2016. “I see startups, technology and innovation as exciting and effective instruments for India's transformation.” Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India Startup India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, intended to build a healthy ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities. The Government through this initiative intends to empower startups to grow through innovation and design. This initiative will provide startups an ecosystem without the trapping of the system. To meet the objectives of the initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Startup Action Plan has a 19 point agenda incorporating incentives such as self-certification for complying with labor and environment regulations, a panel of facilitators to help file patents & intellectual property applications, tax exemptions from seed funding, capital gains and three year holiday on income tax as well as 10,000 crore financing support for four years. Let’s unfold the key action plan objectives in detail.

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Startup India initiative addresses all aspects of the startup ecosystem, from digital, technology sector to a wide array of sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, social sector, healthcare, education, etc. With this Action Plan, the Government hopes to accelerate spreading of the Startup movement. Each and every objective mentioned in the Action plan is decided keeping in mind the current existing problems startups face in India.

regulatory agencies. To make compliance for Startups, friendly and ﬂexible simpliﬁcations will be done in the regulatory regime.

Startup India Hub: To create a single point of contact for the entire Startup ecosystem and enable knowledge exchange and access to funding. In today’s environment, we have more Startups and entrepreneurs than ever before and the movement is on the cusp of a revolution. However, many Startups do not reach their full potential due to limited guidance and Compliance Regime based on access. The Government of India will Self-Certification: To reduce the regulatory burden on Startups thereby take various measures to improve the ease of doing business and also to allowing them to focus on their core build an exciting and enabling business and keep compliance cost environment for these Startups, with low. the launch of the “Startup India” Current regulatory formalities movement. Startup India hub will requiring compliance with various collaborate with Central & State labor and environment laws are timegovernments, Indian and foreign VCs, consuming and difficult in nature. angel networks, banks, legal partners, Often, new and small firms are consultants, universities, and R&D unaware of nuances of the issues and can be subjected to intrusive action by institutions. Startups will be assisted

through their lifecycle with a focus on obtaining ﬁnancing, feasibility testing, enhancement of marketing skills, technology commercialization, and management evaluation, etc. Legal Support and Fast-tracking Patent Examination at Lower Costs: To promote awareness and adoption of IPRs by Startups. Providing access to high-quality Intellectual Property services and resources, including fasttrack examination of patent applications and rebate in fees. Startups with limited resources and manpower can sustain in this highly competitive world only through continuous growth and development oriented innovations; for this, it is equally crucial that they protect their IPRs. The scheme for Startup Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) will facilitate the ﬁling of Patents, Trademarks, and Designs by innovative Startups. This scheme is being launched initially on a pilot basis for one year; based on the experience

Startup India Standup India We have a million problems, but at the same time we have over a billion minds. Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India

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gained, further steps will be taken. Providing Funding Support through a Fund of Funds with a Corpus of INR 10,000 crore: To provide funding support for development and growth of innovation-driven enterprises. One of the key challenges faced by startups in India has been access to finance. Often startups, due to lack of collaterals or existing cash flows, fail to justify the loans. Besides, the high-risk nature of startups where in a significant percentage fails to take-off, hampers their investment attractiveness. To provide funding support to Startups, Government will set up a fund with an initial corpus of INR 2,500 crore and a total corpus of INR 10,000 crore over a period of four years (i.e. INR 2,500 crore per year). The Fund will be like Fund of Funds, which means that it will not invest directly into Startups, but shall participate in the capital of SEBI registered Venture Funds. Tax Exemption on Capital Gains: To promote investments into Startups by mobilizing the capital gains arising from the sale of capital assets. Due to their high-risk nature, Startups are not able to attract investment in their initial stage. It is, therefore, important that proper incentives are provided to investors for investing in the Startup ecosystem. With this objective, the exemption will be given to persons who have capital gains during the year, if they have invested such capital gains in the Fund of Funds recognized by the Government.

Tax Exemption to Startups for three years: To promote the growth of Startups and address working capital requirements. During the initial years, budding entrepreneurs struggle to evaluate the feasibility of their business idea. Significant capital investment is made to embrace ever-changing technology, fight rising competition and navigate through the unique challenges, arising from their venture. Also, there are limited alternative sources of finance available to the small and growing entrepreneurs, leading to constrained cash funds. To stimulate the development of startups in India and provide them a competitive platform, it is imperative that the profits of startup initiatives are exempted from income-tax for three years. These were the few among many phenomenal objectives in the Startup India action plan. These government initiatives will undoubtedly galvanize the startup ecosystem and provide national and international visibility to the startup ecosystem in India. The change it will bring in the Indian startup ecosystem will make a noticeable impact on healthcare, education, employment, agriculture, etc. On the macroscopic level, the resulting ecosystem will contribute to the Indian economy by enhancing citizen's life, building innovative solutions and generating scope for opportunities for stakeholders. Indian startups backed by government’s support will be instrumental in transforming India. Soon, India will become the primary technology hotbeds allowing fascinating possibilities for emerging businesses to thrive and establish in the world with their innovative ideas and solutions.

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20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

KBS Consultants: Helping to Achieve Growth, Unlock Potential, Innovate and Stay Relevant S. Sankaran, Founder, KBS Consultants is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Also holds a Bachelor degree in Law. He has more than thirty years of experience as a Business Consultant. He understands the responsibilities of the role in-depth, as well as the practices and parameters of the domain. Knowing that each client has different requirements, he is ready to provide prompt services for a wide range of industry. S. Sankaran Founder

Now the scale of operations is larger and more complicated; economies are s companies develop in more sophisticated; higher emerging markets today, they expectations; fiercer competition; and must be capable of addressing ever larger sums of money are at risk. a wide range of growing challenges. Be it a job, or a career, or a business of And they must be stable enough to any scale, they help clients with wellmanage complications both anticipated informed decision making, achieving and unforeseen. growth, unlocking potential, enabling innovation, and staying relevant. As we are expecting and observing many positive indicators, which point Expertise That Help Your Business to a slow but steady rise in the Excel economy, the concern of business Nowadays, difficulty lies in properly leaders still remains unchanged, which addressing vulnerabilities before they is the level of uncertainty. Also, it is evolve into significant risks. By necessary for organizations to deliver preparing and managing these common and create sustained value in order to pitfalls – and making sure you know stay on the pace. and understand all of your shareholders and their needs – you can avoid risk Trust, Transparency, Loyalty, and Full and position yourself for success in commitment are more than ever your emerging market. essential these days, as emerging markets scenarios are vastly more “We believe in staying relevant. That’s complex than they were earlier. KBS why all our services and delivery Consultants facilitate business, clients models focus on providing relevant and individuals in this transformation. solutions to our clients, by adapting to dynamics of businesses, geography, KBS Consultants provides Accounting and technology. No matter if you are a and Taxation consultancy services, large business or an individual, if you with consolidated taxation, legal are looking for a change or want to matters, and accounting insights transform your business, we’ll help performing central duties efficiently; you,” assures Mr. Sankaran. and this brings in additional benefits that add value to the organization. They offer Professional Expertise, Furthermore, Business Buying & Quality Services, and Personalised Selling, and Job Placements services Solutions for the businesses in an are also provided by them. unprecedented way which enables

April 2016 28

businesses to focus on their key value. Responsible consulting is provided with the knowledge clients need to be more responsible and sustainable for the future ahead. They also provide counsel to Reinvent Business Potential, masterfully. They are aiming to expand operations to USA & Far East, with a global perspective

“People’s search for ‘Job Search Consultant’ ends here, and they always leave happy. That’s simply because our job search services are exclusive and personalised and hence highly successful.” while focusing on their core values. Customers Recommend KBS “We have been, since inception of the organization, using the services of Mr. Sankaran as not only our auditor but also as our taxation and legal advisor. Mr. Sankaran’s skill and knowledge as a chartered account will help any company small /medium or large to carry out their accounts ,taxation commitments. Mr. Sankaran chips in wherever required with his legal knowledge and generally is a professional who upholds value systems in operation.”

Thought Leader

Evolving from CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) to CSV (Creating Shared Value) -By Meena Vaidyanathan niiti consulting Pvt. Ltd. The need India is the world’s second most populous country in the world, and the ﬁfth largest economy in terms of GDP when adjusting for international price differences. However, its per capita income in 2011 is only $3,600, placing India 129 out of around 184 countries. Despite this, India’s economy grew at a pace of 7.45% between 2000 to 2011, making it the world’s second-fastest growing major economy, according to, “Indian Social Enterprise Landscape Survey 2010”. The increasing urgent need to tackle social issues in more effective ways. At present, India’s rapidly growing economy has not managed to alleviate the extreme poverty of nearly half the country’s population that lives below the $1.25 per day poverty line. There are several reasons for this, including non-uniform infrastructure, low quality public good provision by the government (especially in health and education), and resource limitations. Successive governments have dealt with the complex problems at the root of tackling and alleviating the social challenges. Despite several initiatives, social inequalities remain even as we begin 2016 and we are very far from resolving some of our urgent social challenges like homelessness, malnutrition, illiteracy, substance abuse, gender-based violence, etc. The social sector has admirably addressed many of these burning issues but they have also been woefully underfunded, despite the CSR Bill and increasing Philanthropic donations. It is imperative that we look at addressing the social challenges in an innovative manner. In the traditional bifurcated system, social needs are primarily met through grants, CSR funds, non-repayable contributions, while capital markets are focussed on ﬁnancial returns and economic growth. In addition, while the industry deals remarkably with economic consequences but more often than not, it largely doesn’t take into account social consequences in its primary business models. In recent times, however, a new sector that is bridging private,

public and social sector is emerging. Emergence of a new converging economy A rising wave of social entrepreneurship is seeking to make meaningful difference to people’s lives. India’s vibrant social enterprise space is young in terms of years of operation, and nascent in terms of revenue size per enterprise. According to the Beyond Profit 2010 survey, about 68% of SEs have been in existence for five years or less. The social enterprises have several innovative business models. Enterprises could have a for-profit business models like Udhyogini; include collective ownership structures such as cooperatives and producer companies, like Waste Ventures, which “incubates solid waste management companies owned and operated by waste pickers”, not-forprofit structures, which make up a fifth of all social enterprises, such as Aravind Eye Care Hospitals, or have a business model that can be categorized as hybrid, wherein two or more entities, while not legally bound, work in close synergy with each other, usually because they are both founded by the same individual or individuals, like LifeSpring Hospitals. By definition, a social enterprise is a means to achieve sustainability through earned income. However, it is important to note the financial objectives differ among organisation. Social enterprises do not need to be profitable to be worthwhile. They can improve efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation by: - reducing the need for donated funds - providing a more reliable diversified funding base; or - enhancing the quality of programmes by increasing market discipline Globally, there are multiple experiments in this space linking CSR, entrepreneurship and livelihood, including helping existing/traditional community businesses as CSR (e.g. Indian public sectors like Oil and Natural Gas

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Corporation- ONGC- trying to promote local craft); using/leveraging social innovations/businesses as an extension of the company’s business strategy with tighter alignment (e.g. U.S. company Patagonia using recycled denim for their textile products); and linking social innovation with entrepreneurship, while keeping and treating them distinct from core businesses (e.g. Tata Steel / Usha Martin’s effort to empower local communities through entrepreneurship). Many companies in India are looking to this model for bringing about sustainability to their programmes.

This trend is gaining ground in India as well. Mahindra Finance and Marico have partnered with social venture fund Villgro to ﬁnance startups by using their corporate social responsibility (CSR) budget. The new Companies Act amendment allows such funding though incubators as CSR contributions, according to economictimes.

Companies can create shared value opportunities in three ways: • Reconceiving products and markets - Companies can meet social needs while better serving existing markets, accessing new ones, or lowering costs through innovation • Redefining productivity in the value chain The concept of shared value could lead to large scale Companies can improve the quality, quantity, cost, and social Innovation reliability of inputs and distribution while they The concept of shared value seeks to promote inclusive simultaneously act as a steward for essential natural growth as a key agenda in India’s economic growth story. Corporations are finding new ways to accelerate growth and resources and drive economic and social development increase competitive advantage through innovative business • Enabling local cluster development - Companies do not operate in isolation from their surroundings. To compete models that meet societal needs and help create impact at scale. A well-known shared value example is that of Nestle, and thrive, they rely on an ecosystem of players, all that decided to train and assist cocoa smallholder farmers to collaborating to create enhanced value and improved foster rural development while ensuring a reliable supply of sustainability. Our future ability to meet growing needs in education, high quality raw materials. This rural development strategy healthcare, energy, climate change, and the inclusion of has had a direct impact in furthering the company’s vulnerable populations such as seniors, people with business goals while at the same time ensuring disabilities, requires an integrated approach to link and sustainability of critical stakeholders in the supply chain. unlock economic and social value. Small-scale initiatives of this nature could also be important test-beds for large-scale sustainable solutions. About Meena Strategically implementing and networking among small Meena Vaidyanathan, has a double Masters degree in scale initiatives can create an environment that supports large-scale change by connecting relevant stakeholders and biotechnology and business management and a certificate holder in Social Entrepreneurship from INSEAD, has groups, such as from the policy or business domain. Many worked with Monsanto, Honeywell and HCL Technologies. new emerging businesses like solar energy storage and She founded niiti consulting Pvt. Ltd. in 2010, with the aim distribution, waste management, etc. were of supporting and enabling programmes and organisations considered as small scale social that create large scale social impact. Meena has innovations just a few years ago. But led many projects with educational and they are considered the sunrise healthcare institutions, NGOs, corporates industries of today. The impact and social enterprises alike. niiti also investment market is currently worth conducts training workshops on topics of around $50 billion (£30 billion) social relevance for professionals like globally, but it is estimated to be sexual harassment at work place, worth $1 trillion (£600 billion) in the monitoring and evaluating social next five years. This is because the impact, CSR reporting, leveraging lines between investment portfolios social media for community and philanthropic objectives are mobilization, etc. through its becoming blurred and impact programme called Doer’s investing could soon be part Labs. Meena Vaidyanathan of everyone’s asset Founder allocation, according to blue niiti consulting Pvt. Ltd. and green tomorrow.

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Tech N Trends

Trends In Consultants Industry

mazement! That’s the word very appropriate for Consultants Industries today, the way they have played an important role in the development of the Indian business sector. In the past several years, the Consultants Industry has not only grown in size, stature and global reach, but it has also gone through several cycles of professionalization, making it one of the most developed ﬁelds within the professional services industry. Consultants are more than giving advice; it’s such a highly extensive, multi-sourcing growing ﬁeld with experts having wide knowledge of a particular subject, which play a crucial role in helping organizations to embark on the path of success. Consultants render services spanning from recommendations for impractical data and poorly implemented processes in the Finance sector to Healthcare consultancy to deliver better value for patients, fuel innovation and reduce the cost and complexity of operating systems.

Today, Modern era organizations now face intense competition, demanding customers, product proliferation and greater exposure to the volatility of the global economy. In this changing scenario, business leaders have to constantly look for new sources of competitive advantage to win in their markets. This change in the market puts tremendous pressure on consultants to bring the best of their ﬁeld.

The need to move ahead in the competitive structure and gain optimum market share in today’s highly competitive markets, has made companies across the world opt for third-party consulting and advisory services. This is making consulting an indispensable function for companies these days. The success for most companies lies in the fact that, each company provides a differentiating factor in order to achieve a competitive edge over their rivals/competitors. And specifically in the Indian market, this cannot be attained without the proper knowledge of market trends and It was in the 90s, that McKinsey first brought the consulting behavior. Also, this success can be achieved only by implementing the right strategies from time to time and by strategy in India, setting up an office in Delhi. The growth taking pertinent decisions considering the market scenarios was initially quite slow and in a decade, they were only they cater to have prompted companies to subscribe to the able to bring in 100 odd consultants. However, that products and services offered by consulting firms. The escalated very quickly in the next decade and today, in primary reason behind this urge is because consulting firms India, Consulting companies are offering services in interact or are involved with all the market participants or Strategy/Management, Information Technology, and industry participants on a regular basis and are very well Process & Operations sectors. Other sectors include, informed about the market happenings in each of the Human Resource Consultants, Public Relations sectors. Consultants, Marketing Consultants, Legal Consultants, Financial Consultants, Social Media Consultants, and so “Progress is impossible without change, and those who on. Today, major players in Consultants Industry in India are McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, can change their minds can change anything.” A.T. Kearney, BAIN & Company. Some home grown big names are Tata Consultancy Services, Oracle Financial Trying and maintaining a long-term relationship with Services Software, Wipro Technologies, HCL, etc. existing clients is another key challenge that the small and emerging consulting firms are facing. The common trend has been that the Indian consulting market is more or less a Why Consultants? buyer’s market. As a result, instead of convincing the If we take a look in the past, consultants as a profession or companies to sign-up proposals, factors such as cost-benefit formal business didn’t formally come into being until the ratios, value added services and so on play a pivotal role. late 19th century. Before that, the biblical kings had Numerous market participants and increasing market prophets and the Greeks had their oracles, Mauryan entrants with a variety of project deliverables have Emperors Chandragupta had Chanakya, and Akbar had Birbal. But, consultants have taken institutional shape only leveraged organizations by giving them the option to choose the right consulting firm for the right price for a around the Industrial Revolution. project.

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Smaller and emerging firms also face the challenge of gaining market share. Regional consulting firms have a lesser market share as compared to the bigger established firms who always top the competitive chain, even in the Indian market. However, a trend seen in the recent years, is that the smaller and niche firms are gradually taken seriously than the bigger ones. Trends in Consultants Industries Multi-Sourcing Companies today, are not limited to a single consultant firm. There is a growing trend amongst clients to switch away from the mega-deal with one consultant, and pressure to get multiple firms to collaborate on projects. Clients may feel that, no one firm can handle either the scale or complexity of their large projects, and they may require a partnership with five or six firms. Clients may cut projects down into small pieces, which they gave to specialist firms. The conclusion is that, clients want consultants to work together. They don’t expect one firm to supply

everything. Multi-Sourcing intensifies competitiveness among consultancies, which makes consultancies to offer better services. Fast Growth The business world is desperate for consulting help. With excess staff being cut down, most organizations lack in the technical, strategic and project management skills to handle the benumbing rate of technological and market change. The consulting industry is trying its best to accommodate the demand. Big consulting firms are inhaling new employees, gulping up smaller firms and merging with peers. Offshoring In addition to a boom in the number of consulting firms, the size of individual firms is growing in response to the other industry trend: one-stop shopping. Providers that can’t compete on size will still try to offer one-stop shopping by outsourcing a chunk of a client’s project to another firm, while maintaining responsibility for the overall project.

Premium Hiring Top consulting firms such as Bain, BCG and Ernst & Young are hiring fresh engineer graduates like never before, and most of these have almost doubled the number of offers they made in this campus placement season in the country’s top institutes. Lately, many of the consulting firms are getting a lot of work in the engineering space and this is pushing the demand for the engineers at colleges such as IIT’s and NIT’s. Theoretically, in the next few years, consulting could be driven more by collaboration than competition. That is, more cross-working between different consulting firms, which hopefully will result in a better product for the client. “Consultant firms grasp these trends while preserving the unique attributes to accomplish tremendous things, of their brands in contrasting fields, stand to gain the most in future.”

April 2016 33

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

MARG: Your Navigators to Success

Sudeshna Basu Roy CEO

ith the vision to be a preferred training partner to organizations by providing 70-20-10 solutions which impart skill & initiate behavior change enabling them to reach the next level of performance by applying learning to workplace, Marg has emerged as a training firm and is resolute on its journey to fulfill the vision. Marg has its clients across diverse industries including Manufacturing, IT/ITES, Services, Research & Development, Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate, Education, Energy and Publication. Marg’s prime focus is to help their clients deliver results by providing skill based and behavioral trainings so that they can effectively contribute to the company’s growth. Marg has a list of clients which includes MercedesBenz, San Disk, EPSON, Apollo Hospitals, Janalakshmi, ITC Gardenia, State Street Corporation, Madura Coats, Wonderla among various others. Based in Bangalore, Marg is passionate about helping people to discover and sharpen their professional skills. They are specialized in Soft Skill Training Communication Skills, Presentation Skill , Managerial & Leadership Training . Finance Training & MS Office Training also are a part of the portfolio. They impart training across April 2016 34

Marg is the One Stop Shop for all soft skill requirement for varied audience - freshers ,Individual Contributors, Managers, Leaders, Factory Personnel, Expats etc belonging to various industries of IT /ITES , Hospitality , Manufacturing , Real Estate , BFSI etc. The offerings of skill and behavioural training encompasses Language Basics , Communication, Cultural Orientation , Presentation , Personality Development, anagerial, Leadership and Outbound trainings which are delivered by trainers having subject matter expertise who are earmarked for different industrial sectors. The professionally managed Marg team makes all efforts to customise the standard offerings to meet the exact requirement of the the corporate client so that they are able to apply the learning to their workplace making ROI on soft skill training a reality. all levels of management offering both in-house trainings and external workshops. Their trainers come from varied experiences across Manufacturing, FMCG, Services and IT industries. Kannan Krishnamurthy & Sudeshna Basu Roy, had established Marg in 2007, with a special focus on training and consulting in the areas of Soft Skills, Finance and MS Office across all levels of management. Kannan has over two decades of extensive experience in domestic/International Finance and Strategic Leadership. His areas of expertise include business and financial modeling creation and analysis, governance, business performance measurement, supporting and driving business results etc. Sudeshna, presently CEO is a Chartered Accountant by profession and held strategic finance roles in her prior assignements. Additionally, Marg provides services for both Finance and non- Finance professionals. In fact their services don’t stop here, they also provide Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint training. MARG’S Learning Methodology MARG follows “Experiential”

methodology which is a combination of relevant case studies, role plays, videos, games and exercises. They use “VARK” learning style in the classroom.

“Our effective training methodology does not only save learning time but also help to build and refine a company’s workforce, leading to operational excellence.” Training support MARG is providing Pre Training Support with the use of surveys, assessments, evaluations etc. and PostTraining Support like 30 day email window, homework, post-evaluation, tracking classroom learning at workplace, interventions etc. Directors, Heads of Departments, Vice Presidents and all operating Senior Managers have the responsibility of the company goals on their shoulders, are responsible for structuring the framework of the company’s mission and vision towards which the whole company is steered. And Marg is providing state-of the art training solutions for these requirements.

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

Market Insight Consultants: A Comprehensive Suite of Decision Support Services

Sanjay Nagi

Sanjay Nagi, Founder of Market Insight Consultants, had worked closely with numerous organizations. Sanjay founded MIC with ethical beliefs and a desire of adding value to the clients. A true follower of Sai Baba, Sanjay always believes in self-actualization, which can be achieved only by providing the best services to his clients. The DNA of MIC is based on ethics and every personnel engaged in the company has imbibed it as his/her operating principle.

Founder

n today’s modern era, every new business emerges with its unique idea and operations. The right market insight is the key to its growth and success. Taking objective and strategic decisions before the start of any business may help you not only to reduce the risk in business failure but also to continue and expand your business internationally. Market Insight Consultants (MIC), founded in 2002, is a division of Tomorrow’s Market Innovators Pvt. Ltd., MIC is emerging as one of the premier companies in the space. The organization is poised to grow signiﬁcantly in the Market Research Industry. In the initial days, it was a hard time for MIC to present itself at the forefront of the Market Research Industry with stable employees and steady client base without affecting its revenue growth. “Our goal was to create an in-house team that understand and share MIC’s vision. Initially, we faced challenges in retaining our employees, but by restructuring our HR policies we achieved the stability we sought,” Sanjay describes. MIC is always striving for achieving its service excellence through its strategic innovation approach. Today, MIC has outstanding resources and

incredibly unusual services. MIC’s prime focus is on providing a range of Decision Support Service which include Market Access Studies, Market Strategy Development, and Measurement of Customer Satisfaction, Market Research Services, Turnaround & Growth Strategies, Market Process Outsourcing, and CSR Services. The company’s research based solutions are aimed at enabling their clients to take decisions with regard to their business. Hence, MIC’s working procedures and methodologies are scientiﬁcally formulated to meet the stated objective.

Pune, Bangalore and the company expects to widen its services in other regions. While talking about its future plans Sanjay declares, “We are planning on adding CSR interventions and program management services to our existing suits of solution. We are working out a capitalization plan to adequately invest in these related diversiﬁcation areas.”

With a proven track record of managing diverse industries and verticals, MIC is staying ahead of peers. Rather than just submitting the reports, the company has an exhaustive implementation of programs. It allows them to assist client with the implementation of the strategies. MIC has worked with major client such as Ministry of Science & Technology, L&T, Caterpillar, Godrej, IIM-A, Mahindra among others. The company has also worked with all ﬁve private Airports of India and became the ﬁrst to make a position in the country’s innovation index.

ensuring quality and

MIC has its presence in India with its ofﬁces in Mumbai, Kochi, Hyderabad,

“We establish long term relationship with our clients by cost effectiveness in the deliverables.”

In the near future, MIC will penetrate into different geographies other than its current existing ofﬁces in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Cochin, and Bangalore. The leading market research company is expecting to look ahead for venture funding where the investor is not only interested in instilling money, but keen to put up in the direction of MIC’s growth.

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Highlights

Becoming Becoming A A Business Business Consultant Consultant

owadays businesses, whether it’s a financing organization or a health-care company, are facing challenges in today’s global economy. As a business matures, diverse predicaments and opportunities oblige different solutions. Day by day, the companies are overcoming these difficulties which in turn are revolutionizing business industries. Companies are striving to adapt to entirely new marketing channels in the field of the social & digital world, which is one of the way businesses can continue to run. For this reason, business owners hire consultants when they need guidance or perspective on their determined path and need a catalyst to drive the change in their companies. Who is a Consultant? A consultant is a trained professional who provides expert advice to his clients to develop business abilities and knowledge. Helping companies in crucial decision making like designing their business model and deciding the marketing strategy which suits well with the services and products which company offers. These professionals scrutinize businesses, identify weaknesses and formulate solutions while also assisting companies to reach their goals. Thinking to be a Consultant? First, you will require possessing the relevant skills, knowledge and experiences in chosen domain to enable an aspiring candidate to give professional advice based on your experience. Being a proficient consultant does not require to be a successful business person but a good understanding of business model and practices is a must. Another essential task is to market you as a consultant. This can be accomplished by evaluating your depth of

April 2016 36

knowledge, strength, and weakness in the preferred ﬁeld. You must horn your work experience or skills through training and study. Let’s check other essential duties of a consultant; Consultant’s Roles & Responsibilities A specialist or a consultant plays an essential role in the business industry, playing the essential character to assist extensive work in different areas of the organization. Consultant acts as a catalyst, a resource, an educator, and a facilitator in the organization that produces objectivity and a new perspective in the business. Business consultants give an analysis of the current practices of an organization and present proposals for improvements. These professionals specialize in one domain of business management, such as human resources or marketing. For an instance, a hospital can hire a healthcare business specialist to promote further in maintaining the patient’s record management effectively or developing its employee training programs. Another example can be a distribution center or transport company which can hire a business consultant specializing in logistics to streamline its shipping department. Every business according to its domain of operation needs domain speciﬁc specialist, but in spite of different areas, consultant’s responsibilities are more or less same from a higher level. “Rising opportunities due to the booming economy and growing demand for consultancy services are the key factor for growth.” The most important task of any consultant in a company is to analyze and assess client requirements, business goals

and provide the impartial analysis. Next action plan and need of improvisation will depend on how well the assessment is done. Facilitating and participating in meetings with principal client stakeholders to cultivate an understanding of their business is also an important task. Creating programs and advising client company’s management to fill the gap separating the present situation and aspired ones. Identify and document functional requirements, information sources and initiate structured documentation and presentation of findings and system specifications. Consultants can support businesses with workforce development initiatives by overseeing implementation of improvement programs and drive process improvements and efficiencies. Consultants can also actively take part in direct services to business which includes employment development, job search assistance, and recruitment, job matching and special projects. A consultant’s principal responsibility is to help client organization to maintain an edge over its competitors by evaluating and gathering details of products and services of competitors in the marketplace to understand the business ecosystem and competitive panorama of the client.

may not sufﬁce for bigger roles which require a master’s, Master of Business Management.

Necessary Qualification & Skills Consultancy is more than providing advice and this “more” factor comes with the expertise of consultant in that particular domain. A consultant can be anyone with expertise in a particular field and enough exposure to help others, for example, an experienced system administrator can support a startup to start with their network systems setup. A person aspiring to become a business consultant needs to have essential qualifications to get the job done. A business consultant typically possesses bachelor’s degree in business management or business administration. Bachelor’s degree is sufficient for entry-level positions but

Obstacles in the Path A consultant can face multiple obstacles in his or her job which must be overcome to accomplish the task, let’s discuss some challenges a consultant can face;

With experience, a consultant can specialize in a particular business industry, focusing on a specific business function like Human Resource, Marketing, Finance, etc. Certifications and special license to practice can give you an edge over your colleagues. Apart from qualifications and experiences, there are certain essential attributes which can serve a consultant well in their job. Foremost is creativity and out of box thinking which can help consultant to identify opportunities to grow a business, increase profits, and boost efficiency. Excellent communication skills help a consultant to break down complex, technical ideas that clients can comprehend efficiently. Analytical skills and problem-solving capabilities make up the intellectual foundation of a management advisers. Ability to motivate yourself, good judgment, ability to get along with all different personality types and management styles is also important. And at last, determination to overcome various challenges can make consultant reach new heights in his career.

challenging sometimes. 90% of the world’s data was created in the past two years, managing and extracting insights from the ever-increasing amounts of data client company produces which can only be handled by a qualiﬁed professional who can help to get the most return from that data. Acquiring more market knowledge to keep the learning curve rising all the time requires continuous effort. There will always be times when a potential or existing client may challenge your suggestions or method of operation. And sometimes you can also face adverse criticism when your suggested methods and idea does not work out well in practice. In such cases, instead of taking criticism personally you should embrace the facts and improvise from mistakes with a positive mindset. Why should you become Consultant? You might be thinking that “Is consulting really for me?”, Yes, if you want to be your own boss, You can work as long as you remain to market your services and ﬁnd a missing niche in the marketplace that needs your services. Instead of taking the same job every time, you can diversify your work at your discretion. You create your own schedule as a consultant and in your time off to take care of family responsibilities.

Through consulting, you can gain exposure to many companies and industries. This exposure allows you to develop your network and client One huge challenge a consultant can meet is tackling with a client who has relationships, which can lead to repeat lofty goals but lacks a forward thinking business which is vital to most successful consulting careers. attitude. Usually, they’ll expect significant results from small investments.Work, life balance is “In the middle of difficulty lies another significant challenge and can opportunity.” – Albert Einstein depend profoundly on the time of life when you are consulting. Consultants have to analyze the huge amount of data which can be

April 2016 37

Executive Talk

Emerging Technologies and where do we stand as a Start-up Nation in Global Market…

he entire human history and anthropology is full of evidences as to how intelligent human beings have given rise to new technology and how they utilized that new technology to further our chances of survival. The technological development has reached such a phase now where human survival is something which is taken for granted. The enormous size of human population is a testimony to that fact. If it wasn’t for the newer drugs and equipments and procedures we would have still been dying of minor diseases like diarrhea. This is just one example as to how deep an impact the new inventions and technological developments have had on human life at large. Technology, of its own accord, cannot reach the millions and millions of human beings. It needs some assistance from another aspect of human interaction i.e. Economy. In today’s parlance Economy and Market go hand in hand. The Market forces have been instrumental in the spread of newer technologies to the grass roots. The combination of these two factors has had a humongous impact on our individual, social, political and personal lives. But this wasn’t the case if you travel only a few hundred years back. The current phase of technological and

April 2016 38

economical development could be traced back to the period which is famously known as ‘Industrial Revolution’. It started in the late 18th century Britain and spread to the various parts of the world. The parts of the world which could garner these forces in their favor are currently known as ‘Developed Countries’. The so called “West” with capital ‘W’ is the single word to describe them. Honestly speaking the rest of the world is still catching up with them. So where does India stand in all of this? We are a developing country and currently among the emerging economies of the world. The tag of “Developing country” means we are among those who are still catching up with the developed world. But the tag of ‘Emerging Economy’ gives that much of a positive outlook about our future prospects. Now keeping this larger picture in mind we can now discuss as to how Indian entrepreneurs can make it big in the Global arena. Last year was hailed as a year of Start-ups for India. With the change of political guard and a new found optimism of “Achchhe Din” young Indians have indeed come forward with their skills and courage in the business arena. It would be a bit too early to reach a judgement about the viability and success that these start-

ups will have in the long run. We need to give them some time before they can establish themselves in the market, domestic as well as global!

our Start-ups are kind of Imitation ventures. For example, online shopping websites like Flipkart, Snapdeal. They are the ideal representatives of the Indian start-ups However there is this undeniable trend although they are more than a few among these start-ups that not many years old now. There are limitations to among them are based on Inventions or such ventures because as soon as something Substantially New. What I domestic market is opened up to mean by ‘Substantially New’ is similar players in the global arena (e.g. something which can have a Global Amazon) there is always a chance that impact. Something which might our smaller ﬁshes will be swallowed fundamentally change the way we do up by the bigger ones. things. The period of Industrial Revolution is abound with such To be fare to our young generation of examples. For example, Telephone entrepreneurs they do have all the skill completely changed the way we sets and leadership qualities to make a communicate with people. And if huge impact in the global arena. Our telephone seems to be an example young minds are fed with the same from the distant past then we can knowledge about how to run a business consider Internet and Mobile as do those in the West. Our business technology which has further schools are imparting quality fundamentally changed the way we do knowledge to its students which can things. None of the Start-ups that have help them become great business come up in the last year in India show persons of the future. So problem of such a promise. Unfortunately most of Indian Start-ups does not lie in the

qualities that the individual entrepreneurs possess but in lack of an organized effort at a national level to do well in the extremely competitive global economy. An organized effort at national level means a synchronized, complementary and harmonious movement of the major players in the country’s economy i.e. the Political will, Research and Development efforts and the Market forces. Research and Development should give our young creative minds enough incentives to explore and come up with new inventions rather than make do with ‘The Jugad’ method which is a buzzword of today’s young generation. These new technological inventions will then require the assistance of market forces in order to penetrate the grass roots of our domestic as well as global market. The abundance of political will in last couple of years has been a major advantage that the young entrepreneurs can make the most of. In absence of this organized effort our Indian start ups are facing competition from an organized research and development industry of the Western world which is well supplied with ﬁnances from the transnational private players which are hungry for more and more proﬁts. The already established industrial giants have the capacity to eat our young start ups in absence of new inventions. No matter how good the managerial skills and leadership qualities the individual might have, there are limits to what they can do alone.

Suneet B Sabale Owner & CEO, Brainiac IP Solutions.

This opinion may smell of an IP professionals bias towards Research and Development but if we turn some pages of history then this bias might well be justiﬁed.

April 2016 39

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

MONK: Preeminent Advisor Helping You Develop Unique Solutions Girish Trivedi, Co-Founder & Director at Monk Consulting exemplifies his excellence in leadership through his commitment to company’s growth, diversity and dedication to mentor future leaders. He is also the Co-Founder and Governing council member of Shape Foundation. leading global organization on executing on complex and strategic Girish Trivedi programs. He specializes in strategy Co-founder & Director consulting, financial valuation, oday, businesses operate in an strategic due diligence, business planning, market entry advisory, go-tounprecedentedly fluid market strategy, Market development environment. The technology advisory, growth planning, marketing landscape is turning highly complex as strategy, product and service strategy, it evolves to meet the demands of a regulatory analysis, M&A Analysis and competitive marketplace and an recommendation. Girish is regular experiential economy. At the same speaker at various forums, conferences time, customers are increasingly and media. He has expertise in demanding simple, new, and Enterprise Telecom, Telecom Services, convenient experiences. So enterprises and planning in the ICT space. need a consulting partner who will own their business challenges, identify new Monk’s Consulting is expertise in four opportunities and question the conventional in order to keep pace with core areas - Strategy & Tactics (S&T), Benchmarking, Improvement and the growing marketplace. Assessment Services (BIAS), Monk Consulting is the prime example Investment Advisory (called GFS Growth Financial Services) and in this field that helps global Analyst Services (called BSS-Business corporations to develop unique Support services). Fundamentally solutions to address their complex Monk relies on providing an actionable business challenges and create value through sustainable innovation. Monk advice to ensure business viability. The company’s services are based on two is a Strategy Consulting and parameters, i.e., Original Research, Investment Advisory firm helping consulting services based on facts and enterprises develop and implement growth initiatives offering Consulting, advisory.

Advisory and Research Services. As a pragmatic consultant with an eye on execution, they help in designing and achieving market-leading performance roadmaps by combining creative thinking, technology expertise, and global reach.

Monk’s passionate consultants go beyond being traditional advisors and aggregators of past knowledge. They help in developing bold innovations and new partnerships that empower their clients to disrupt their markets. They view business challenges differently and reimagine solutions With over 17 years of consulting experience, Girish has a track record of leveraging design thinking; combine

April 2016 40

new and existing technologies to transcend the limitations of traditional software and accelerate the response of complex technology landscapes. Monk’s consultant team are redefining client solutions that create value for global corporations across verticals such as Telecom, Media and Technologies (TMT), Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), Media & Entertainment and FMCG, Healthcare and Healthcare IT, Financial Services and Impact Investment. Monk Consulting offers a list of services for business owners to choose from, depending on their individual business needs including Growth Consulting, Strategic Workshops, Budding CEO and Incubating start-ups, Custom Research Consulting, Webinars, and Not-For Profit Consulting. With a strong foundation of industry experience, Monk consulting team works as an XTENDED TEAM to their clients’ team and is on the top of competitive dynamics, regulating changes and advancing in technology in order to enable enterprises to thrive and compete in their sector. Leaning towards future, the organization is planning to open offices at various locations like Bangalore apart from Singapore, Dubai in coming years. Besides, the organization has an eye on SAARC countries including Sri Lanka and South East Asia.

20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

RNCOS Business Consultancy Services: “One-Stop-Shop” For Businesses Facilitation

Mr. Shushmul Maheshwari Founder & CEO

NCOS is a Management Consulting and Business Facilitation Service provider which offers research solutions to distinguished clientele’ across multigeographies and industry verticals. The company embarked on its journey in 2002 with an aim of providing multiple services to the companies wishing to engage in any business expansion. RNCOS has offices in India and Dubai, and they have established a global presence in 20 countries and five other cities in India through channel partners. The organization has a broad range of services including but not limited to Financial & Business Assessment, Market Entry/Expansion Strategies, Market & Industry Research, Identification & Selection of Business Partners, Feasibility and Facility Location Studies, which makes RNCOS a “one stop shop”. “We believe in multi-level client interaction and complete transparency from the project commencement till efficient implementation. RNCOS is considered all stringent when a customer comes to accommodating additional tasks. We consider this to be an effort that would help us to

The organization was established with the unswerving efforts of Mr. Shushmul Maheshwari, Founder & CEO of RNCOS. Shushmul has more than 24 years of experience with 14 years as CEO of RNCOS. He holds a graduate degree in Electronics Engineering and MBA. He has an extensive experience in Indian Market Entry Consulting, expertise in Industrial/Consumer Market Research, Strategy Formulation, Concept Testing, and Pre & Post Product Evaluation. Shushmul has helped many North American and European clients through market research, product strategy building, and creating a go to market strategy for India. maintain long-term relationships with the clients. In terms of time, costs, and deliverables, we bring the best to the table.” Services Offered RNCOS services have enabled their clients to make the company as their preferred collaborative partner for an end to end focus, from strategy creation to implementation. They have a broad range of services categorized into three groups- Strategic Consulting; which includes In-depth market assessment, Market Entry Strategies, Concept & Product Testing, Existing Business Optimization, Growth Consulting, etc. SME Business Setup Support; includes Strategies & Planning for Start-ups, Location Analysis, Regulatory Compliance Assistance, and Marketing Plans, and at last Dealer/Distributor Network Setup; under which the company does Dealer Identiﬁcation, Business Due Diligence, Dealer Performance Assessment & Improvement. RNCOS’s Values & Strengths RNCOS’s key values such as Integrity, Accountability, Passion and Quality have not only helped the company to expand from Syndicate Research ﬁrm

to Consulting Business but has also developed long-lasting relationships with the clients. Their core strength lies in delivering the project on time at competitive prices which is not possible without reliable people in the team who have worked for years. These people make their research segment adamant. Time and cost are the real benefits which their clients get from RNCOS in addition to the ground zero information for their strategic decisions. Dazzling Future RNCOS has emerged as a customized research and consulting firm after starting as a syndicate research firm. Considering the market conditions and growing industry requirements, the company aims to be strengthened in terms of market feasibility to end-toend implementation partner. It is looking to develop its team of CAs to deliver solutions for Financial Viability Modeling, Bankable Reports, Mergers & Acquisitions, etc. Additionally, the organization also aims to expand to be able to handle Medical Device & Drugs Registration and Purchase & Procurement Processes for the international clients.

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View Points

Effective Talent Management Building Tomorrow’s Winning Organizations

mployees are the most important factor for driving success to the organization, they may vary from their role, from mid level to C level; each one has his own talent in his respective ﬁeld.

productive growth.

Aligning Organizational Goalswith Clear Expectations If there is no clear understanding of work expectations, employees will get confused. Each individual of the team Leaders are actively demanding the people most affected by should know about his exact work what he is responsible for, the goals he is working towards, and how his success the change in its implementation. This will help ensure will be contributed against expected goals. They also need employees at all levels of the organization embrace the context in order to recognize where they well suited into the proposed changes. company and how they help to its overall success. Always a company’s largest expense has been its labor costs, but human capital is also a crucial part in maintaining Don’t waste time and start understanding your workforce and agree with the company’s basic business goals. The a competitive advantage. Statistical research shows that company’s mission helps to create context for projects and when companies invest in talent management, they work activities at the department level, which gives your consistently outperform their competitors. employees a better context for their contributions. Most leading organizations ranked best in both efﬁciency Do not Forget, business priorities can change rapidly. and effectiveness by intensive emphasis on talent Always review goals frequently to make sure they reﬂect management, and having a deep understanding of what the company’s current priorities. skills requiredto develop or acquired in order to attain the success for their business. These businesses primarily focus Need of Consistent Support and Improvement Cycle on talent processes such as planning, development, management, engagement, and retention in such a way that For reviewing past achievements, current challenges, set goals, and skill development you can go for regular they operate at 23 percent lower cost per employee than performance appraisals. It is also helpful for the typical companies, and function with 32 percent less staff. communication over skillsets, career aspirations, and development plans that address performance gaps. Also, Most of the global leaders use analytics to obtain high keep in mind once the annual performance appraisal is ranking business insights from the employee data. What delivered, it doesn’t mean the feedback has ended. would be the perfect solution over this? Yes, the best HR software can give this type of comprehensive picture. For best ranking companies, effective talent management is not To increase performance, managers must provide mentoring, coaching, and support on an ongoing project. an additional feature; it is a basic element that is an Employees require regular and quality feedback with essential need for the company’s continual growth. particular guidelines on how they can improve. Here we are giving you some best practices which will be differ you from your competitors and make your company’s According to the talent management survey report, 64

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percent of organizationsconsider their managers to be fair or poor at providing regular, timely, and in-themoment feedback regarding performance. Managers are failing to take fast action on their corrections.

developing their leaders.

progression and workforce planning.

To fight with this, organizations should examine implementing a learning management system. These programs offer interactive, on-demand content to help you prepare employees and develop a talent pool of high-potential workers that can fill available roles as they emerge. Organizations that give learning based on performance reviews, 37% improved engagement and have 62% more positions with identified and willing successors.

Companies are grasping HR technology to allow consistent, company-wide talent management. $5 billion market size for corporate talent management softwareincludes webbased tools for collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Ranging from performance and learning management to employee engagement, these platforms enable employees and managers to locate content, share information, view goals, and develop skills, all while giving valuable data to support continual improvement on the entire talent management lifecycle.

Developing Leaders’Skills Once performance gaps are recognized, employees come to know exactly which skills they need to enhance in order to progress in their respective area. To help them take action and improve their performance, a ﬁrm commitment to developing new capabilities in existing staff is required. Enhance Talent Management with Analytics Measuring the improving talent Although, developing skill for management with analytics is the most workforce planning and succession important factor to consider. Topmanagement is a real challenge for businesses. As per research, only 4% of Notch organizations are gaining higher levels of self-service and process organizations can quantify required automation by investing 8% more on headcount in “what if” business technology than typical companies. planning scenarios, Less than 1% of organizations have internal candidates Also, analyze HR data to identify supply and demand trends, assess risks, ready to ﬁll key positions as they and uncover opportunities. In addition, become vacant, and 48% of all organizations do not yet have a plan for they are more likely to depend on common platforms and toolsets for

Finally, the conclusion is your workforce that is thegreatest asset which will drive the success of the organization and will keep you ahead from your competitors. Give priority to your workforce and make the effective talent management. Investing in your workforce, you are investing in the success of your organization.

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20MOST VALUABLE BUSINESS

CONSULTANT COMPANIES

Xllent: Futuristic Approach and Right Mix of Experience to All the Ideas, Strategies, and Solutions Xllent is passionate about the services it brings to the table and the complete satisfaction of client is the ultimate milestone as they consider. They are very focused on startup companies as the founders of the company have extensive experience in this ﬁeld. Xllent founders have extensive experience in servicing startup and other companies. They are positioned quite well to address these opportunities and guide the entrepreneurs to avail the beneﬁts and ensure that they focus on their strengths.

inancial markets are the fulcrum of modern economies. The more they are integrated, the more efficient allocation of economic resources and long run economic performance will be. There is a need to provide small and midmarket companies with a superior alternative to building and maintaining in-house functions in the Finance area. Xllent Corporate Services, fulfilling this need, is an established organization, set up to provide you the complete end to end services in the area of Finance, an entity would need so that the core functions can be given larger attention that it really deserves. The services they provide are so integrated and interdependent that one agency providing all the functions brings its clients a lot of advantages in terms of money, monitoring and efficiency.

which the management would need to analyze their performance and take corrective actions if necessary. These services include: Accounts Payables, Accounts Receivables, Reconciliations, Fixed Assets Management, General Ledger Maintenance, Ageing Reports, Accounts Finalization, and Cash Flow Statements. Assurance Services- In this world of complex business environment and multiple stakeholders, it is very important to have all controls and processes in place so as to satisfy the legal, statutory and regulatory systems of the business. Xllent, with tremendous experience in this, provide services like, Financial Audit, Legal Due Diligence, Financial Due Diligence, Internal Controls Review, Secretarial Services, and Management Audit.

Xllent team consists of experienced Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants and have associates in the areas of Corporate Law, Intellectual Property etc. Xllent has the necessary expertise, skills, and talent to bring in distinct advantages to the companies.

Payroll Management- Employees in any organization expect the best in terms of payroll and regular reports for the payroll. Understanding the importance of this function, Xllent provides solutions in- Compensation Structuring, Payroll Calculations, Reimbursements Administration, Reports Management, and Statutory Returns.

Adroit Solutions by Xllent Accounting Services- Accounting is the backbone of any organization

Compliance Management- Starting a company under various modes has

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become very complex and takes a lot of time and energy. Xllent helps clients in making this process smooth and efficient with, Registrations under various laws, Approvals, Filing of regular returns, Assessments, and Tax planning & advice. Business Consulting- Right from inception to advanced growth stage, companies need effective business consulting advice to be ahead with their competitors. Xllent’s experts, having varied experience, offer Startup Advisory, Business Valuations, Joint Ventures, Business Plans, Project Reports, and CFO Services, etc. Remarkable Examples of Highly Achieving Clientele Xllent has supported Little Eye Software Labs Pvt. Ltd. in various areas right from the incorporation. The company was acquired by Facebook in Jan 2014. This was the first acquisition of Facebook in India. Xllent has also supported ZipDial Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd. which was acquired by Twitter in Jan 2015. This again was the first acquisition of Twitter in India. Another client company Cucumbertown Software Labs Pvt. Ltd. has been acquired by Cookpad, a public company listed in Japan in June 2015.

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