Category — guest posts

[This is a guest post from Mohit Kant, founder of the Consulting Network, a great platform that brings together aspiring and practicing consultants, with a focus on India. Today he will share his views on consulting in India with us. Thanks a lot, Mohit!]

US President Barack Obama in his first meeting with Indian PM Manmohan Singh remarked that India is a critical player on the world stage. Being an Indian, I take pride in knowing that to be true, however, a simple translation of what Mr. Obama meant is that India is poised to grow at a considerably faster rate as compared to the rate at which more developed nations would grow. The reasons for such an assumption are obvious, as companies strive to be more competitive, they are more likely to seek out newer markets, India with its over 1 billion population and an emerging middle class provides a perfect setting for prolonged periods of growth.

Phew! That sets the context for the main purpose of this article, as more Indian companies seek out unexplored global markets and as more global companies seek out Indian markets, one Industry that is likely to greatly benefit is the “Consulting Industry”. Yes you heard it right. Mr. Consultant in India does not have to worry about slowdown in the Consulting Industry for the next years.

So one question that comes to mind is how difficult is it for a prospective Indian candidate to break into consulting compared to his global counterpart? Answer is “considerably more difficult”. Reasons for such a contention are obvious; India probably churns out more graduates each year than any other country in the world. Strong emphasis on studies by parents plays a major role in more students pursuing studies diligently. So in the end, the applicant pool for Consulting Jobs in India is extremely competitive.

Thus the major proportion of the consulting job opportunities is grabbed by students graduating out of tier-1 schools and colleges, and even among those students graduating from tier-1 schools and colleges the competition is extremely high. Irony in all of this is that even if you do break into a consulting firm, life does not get easy. Any practicing consultant will tell you that the work pressure is tremendous, timelines are tight, there are always things pending and at the appraisal time, you are pitted against the same hard working, extremely bright and highly competitive peers.

Second question that comes to mind is what are the major differences between an Indian consultant and his global counterpart?

The answer in this case is “it depends”, if you manage to break into the top 3 consulting firms, i.e. McKinsey, Bain, BCG then the difference is marginal, the reason is that these firms tend to promote global engagement teams; each engagement you work on will include people from different geographic areas and skill set. Hence, over a period of time, an Indian consultant tends to pick up skills to match his global counterpart.

However, if you break into other big consulting firms i.e. the famous Big 4’s (I avoid calling them Big 4 Accounting firms because significant portion – 50 percent in some cases – of the revenue is now derived from advisory services and hence it would be unfair to tag them as purely accounting firms) or firms such as Capgemini, Diamond Consulting etc., the business model for these firms is very location focused. They tend to promote country specific knowledge as their USP and hence interaction with global peers tends to be limited. Thus this category of consultants tends to be a little different in their style of working and depth of knowledge from their global counterpart. However, such differences are often mitigated over a period of time due various in-firm measures such as secondments etc. This second category of consultants tends to have a much deeper knowledge of the local markets than the other category described above (or so is my opinion anyway).

Though I’ve tried to generalize the differences between Indian and global consultants, there are some other extremely relevant factors that can make a mockery out of my generalizations, these include adaptability, opportunity, Intent etc. How easily an individual can adapt to new working styles, whether the service he or she specializes thrives on expertise in local markets or demands a more global outlook, whether an individual wants to travel and explore new environments – These are some questions that need more probing before a more conclusive generalization can be developed.

About the Author:
Mohit is a consultant at a leading big 4 firm, he specializes in advising clients on mitigating non financial risks during investments and business dealings. Mohit is also the founder of Consulting Network, a leading portal for aspiring consultants, Consulting Network focuses on providing in depth knowledge and mentoring services to aspiring and practicing consultants and promoting networking and job opportunities. Visit http://www.consultingnetwork.co.in/ for more on Consulting Network.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by the author on this article are completely his personal views and in no way reflect the views of his employer or any other parties mentioned in this article.