The Consulting Business

Hi friends… Yes I am back after a long gap. This gap was needed as was setting up my own start up hence was very tied up but I always missed writing and interacting with you all.

Few months back when I took the decision to move out of comfort zone of VAS to consulting, people/friends in the industry were surprised and I was flooded with calls and smses. Well Well, I always wanted to get into consulting business as hearing others problem and solving them was something I learned from my grandmother, hence I can say that consulting is in blood even grand ma consulting is different from the consulting which I am trying to do.  I also get to hear that you need domain experts  for consulting, however I have different view.

Few days back as part of HR consultancy to a group I was talking to young gentleman and he after spending 1.5 yrs in the industry wants a change as he wants to learn something new. Now I don’t need to be domain expert of that industry to solve his problem. We all have faced this issue in our professional life and still face it. After spending sometime in the industry we feel we have learned all and want to move to other industry as other industry looks very promising but one thing we forget that whichever industry we join we will always face some issue. No industry is perfect. Everything has its own merit and demerit. Change is definitely spice of life but you cant have spicy food at all levels and at all the time. Somewhere you have to stop and think what exactly you want to do in life.

Now since we are discussing consulting business here let us also discuss strategy as strategy is the core of consulting. Lets take live example -  Chadha brothers killing each other was conspiracy or strategy by the rivals to bring their market value down. Whatever the facts are, strategy can change the future of the organization . It can change for better as well as for worse. It’s the strategy & its implementation defines the future of group. Now at what level you can strategize ( Not by planning to kill someone) but yes definitely help organization grow to next level by killing the rival product not brain. Because if you kill the brain you will have many brains standing to kill you and your business. Rivalry should be confined to business only. Killing the brain behind the strategy is not the solution but to hire the brain is definitely a good strategy to grow your business to next level. So how do you create strategic plan ? Strategic plan is a puzzle and whoever creates should ensure to solve it as well. And before you lay down the strategy you should ask yourself 3 magical questions ;-

1.       Where are we in terms of business now ?

2.       Which direction we are going ?

3.       How we will get there ?

Where are we in terms of business now :-

To answer this question we need to look at the foundational elements ( Mission and Value) of the organization. Mission and Value is for long term and is usually not revised on regular basis and that lay the foundation of the organization. Then you would like to look at your current strategic position by evaluating the internal and external environment. After evaluating you can conclude whether you need to shift and change or not. One should review the strategic position regularly through the use of SWOT/PEST

Which direction we are going?

Once you answer this question then you can be sure of answer of a question “What will my organization look like in the future” ? It’s the same question when you go for nursery admission for your child the teacher asks you “ Where do you see your child in next 10 yrs?” because teacher wants to understand which direction your thinking goes ? Where is your child headed in future ? Future is hard to predict but you definitely will enjoy predicting the future of your organization as you are the creator of that future. Following elements can help you determining the future for your organization

1.       Does your organization have sustainable competitive advantage ?

2.       Does your Vision statement is aligned with the Mission of the organization and does all the stake holders are aligned with the mission of the organization? Do all of them speak the same mission statement?

How we will get there ?

Once you achieve “where” and “which” you definitely will know “How”

Reaching your vision is the most important element of the strategy and its also the most time consuming. The reason it takes so much time to develop because there are number of ways to look at your current position and how to achieve vision. Picking the right one determines how quickly you can reach your destination. The road-map is the future of the company and must include the following points:-

1.       Strategic Objectives

2.       Strategy to achieve the objective

3.       Short term goals

4.       Action points

5.       Scorecard

6.       Execution

As per my understanding from all the above points the last point is the most difficult if the stakeholders are not properly aligned with the formation of the strategy.

A successful organization will also depend on the person driving the entire organization. As I mentioned earlier that brain behind any organization success is the key but as part of strategy you should not think of killing that brain because an intelligent brain always think ahead and would have mentored someone to replace him/her at anytime.

Ciao !