Brief us about the inception of your career? What were your ambitions as a teenager?
As a teen I wanted to fly for the Air force. Fast jets and power excited me. But a not so perfect vision moved me to engineering, rather electrical engineering in MIT Manipal. There my affinity for control systems and math bloomed and got me to become analytical with a desire to solve complex issues. A desire to Strategise or to plan always existed. A flair to think big while taking risks with new ways to establish a business drove me to try innovative selling solutions. In 1990 I dabbled with leasing capital products in the electrical power systems industry to industry and electricity boards. After a 2-year hiatus from studies I went back to do my MBA in marketing from Jamnalal Bajaj Inst of Mgmt Studies, Mumbai. Post my MBA I moved out from the electrical industry from selling complex power system solution to selling edible oil and soaps as head sales and marketing for Postman oil at the age of 27. Concepts of TQM and processes for ISO 9000 were indoctrinated in our working in the first few years of work life. These systems probably have helped in given a direction to my future values and behaviour.
There after I have been Head sales and or Marketing for Pidilite, Beiersdorf ( Nivea), Cavin Kare VP Marketing and Usha International as CMO.
Thereafter in 2013 we started Evolution Strategy Advisors LLP with an objective to cater to the mid and large sized organisation in the B2C space to identify growth strategies as well as to partner our clients in executing them. We have now extended our services into Business Transformation, Building Excellence in Sales and Marketing and Building Business Alliances as well as bringing in International brands to India through JV and licensing.
What are the aims and ideals that guide you as you run your company?
Our clients give us a mandate for their growth only when they trust us. We are tasked with identifying challenges in a dispassionate and unbiased way without identifying the individual creator but looking at solutions. We believe there is no point in going into who did what as both success and challenges are created by a team and not an individual. Our focus is the issue and its quick solution. We focus on identifying the blind spots in the business, identifying strategic and system gaps as well as competencies required. We link problems with solutions, which can be easily implemented. Most importantly our solutions come at no increase in cost (men, money or materials) to our clients, we reallocate the resources.
As an innovative leader, how do you manage to inspire your team to innovate and think outside the box?
Every client has unique strengths and culture. They also have challenges which are unique to the industry, in fact no 2 competitors are similar and thus the solution for one cannot be applied to another. Every client issue is a challenge in innovation as the solution has to work in the existing culture. At times we face a wall and have then to look at different industries on how do they solve similar issues. We have cross pollinated ideas from pharma to automobiles (both use IT based tablets for detailing their products). Further we have used solutions from durable industry on value creation in building material industry. Innovative solutions are also required during execution, specially when we set systems for IT or HR and even Route to Market. For ESA innovation is in our DNA and it’s the vast exposure and experience of our Managing Partners who have been at CXO levels in different industry which gives us this ability. IN fact there are hardly any challenges which our experienced team has not lived through.
What were challenges and obstacles you faced along the way?
As we had a unique solution creating a customer base for the same took us a bit longer. Clients were not used to handing over their challenges to a consulting company unless forced by top management. Disclosure of business issues and cultural issues could only happen once trust is built. We had identified a specific segment of customers who could benefit greatly but reaching out to the decision makers there often took long. Internally we had to evolve on our systems as we had to be miles ahead of our clients capability for them to learn from us and deliver success for them.
What sets your company apart from the rest of the market? Do you believe in diversifying?
We are amongst the very few growth consulting and business transformation practice who strategies and execute. We put our skin in the game and collect a part of our fees only when we deliver. The difference is in our success we have delivered from 20% to 65% growth within a year and more than 70% of our clients come back to us. Our high success rates in delivering for our clients is driven by practical solutions delivered by a senior team of ex CXO’s. To support them we have unique tools which use digital diagnostic and analytics. These tools have proven success across Industries. We are already diversified in delivery covering a wide range of industry sectors: automobiles, auto components, durables, building materials, fmcg, OTC and Pharma
Kindly mention some of the notable recognitions and accreditations received by your person and organisation?
Our recognition comes not from the awards which are plenty but from the success of our client and them coming back to us for new challenges. We have a > 70% repeat business from our clients. Our clients trust in our delivery and genuine advisory which delivers for them is our recognition. We have done multiple projects for the Tata Motors, Titan, Murugappa group’s Parry & Carborundum, Mahindra’s, Pfizer, Abbott, Pepsi, Faber Castell, Saint Gobain and close to 50+ clients
Where do you see your organisation in the years to come? How do plan to respond to the lows that followed the pandemic?
We have expanded our team of Managing Partners to take on more projects across different industries. This would make us ready for a 3x growth in the coming year. Post the pandemic the lows were felt only during the 1st year thereafter most companies have realised the fragility of their business in the context of external factors. Many businesses are now more than willing to consider a transformation so that they can be future ready.
We have further added Business Alliances as a separate vertical where in bring in international companies to India through JV and licensing. For India we partner LMCA a leading Global Brand Extension organisation headquartered in the US. They represent HP, Cummins, Castrol and many other brands for licensing.
What is your advice to budding entrepreneurs who wish to kick start their careers?
Consulting is an area which requires nurturing and patience. Its important that consulting entrepreneur’s identify a key customer segment where they can deliver excellence, as market is segmented into startup’s, MSME, Family managed conglomerates and MNC. The delivery has to evolve as problems get complex thus it has to be a learning organsation.
