I might have got what is next!!

So, it was nearly 6-7 years ago when I asked the question to myself - what is next? Believe me I had a plan then, but I was waiting for the right time to execute it.

Now, things have started moving again! However, let things get finalize first, then I will write some more - as someone has said - let the dust settle down, then you can yourself see what is there.

Wait & Watch!!

The Comeback Consultants :)

THE CARD HE HANDS OUT now reads ‘Partner and National Director, Business Advisory Services, Ernst and Young’ (E&Y), but some months ago Sunil Chandiramani’s designation was National Director, Risk and Business Solutions. The change in his title hasn’t changed his role, but it signifies an important change his firm brought in on July 1, 2007. The accounting major quietly created a separate advisory services group and then split the division into two service lines — risk and business advisory. It wasn’t just a cosmetic change or a minor realignment but a clear demarcation of the paths the two service lines were to follow. “We have aggressive growth plans for the newly created business advisory services, hence we realigned the division on global lines to bring focus in each service line,” says Chandiramani. ‘Business advisory’ is the nomenclature E&Y uses for its consulting arm and in the months that followed, Chandiramani hired close to half a dozen partners and nearly 100 associates in the business advisory side and the hiring spree is still going strong.
Interestingly, it was this particular business that most (Price waterhouse Coopers, E&Y and in some parts of the world, KPMG) of the Big Four disposed off globally some years ago, in the aftermath of Enron and subsequent disintegration of Andersen Consulting. In India too, KPMG (which bought out Andersen’s consulting arm in India) and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) carried on with consulting work but in a low-key way. The reason for the sudden disinterest was a slew of new Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) and other regulations that forbid the firms to offer many service lines because the regulators, wanting to avert another Enron, thought there was a built-in ‘conflict of interest’ in many such situations. The accounting firms didn’t actually stop but carried on consulting discretely with small teams embedded within various other service lines, but they didn’t speak about their work and it was done selectively for a few clients.
But all that started changing during the last couple of years as the Big Four started rebuilding their teams globally. In India, the consulting arms of accounting firms are back in the business with a bang and chasing clients as aggressively as before. “We think India is going to be a big market for consulting services and we want to be a major player,” says Rajiv Memani, Country Managing Partner, E&Y.
“We have been strengthening our consulting services through the last few years. Since we didn’t get out of the business, we have established a credible track record of consistent delivery with our clients,” adds Russell Parera, CEO, KPMG. The Business Performance Services (BPS) of KPMG has grown over 40 per cent over the last three years.
So as not to compare apples with oranges, it’s important to understand what the accounting firms mean when they say consulting. The Big Four are structured differently, so in some cases the consulting part is a part of a larger division. For example, the Business Performance Services (KPMG-speak for consulting) is part of Risk Advisory Services (that includes IT and Risk) in the firm, and in PWC the advisory business overall includes performance improvement, transactions, internal audit, Government reforms and infrastructure development. The consulting parts would be just performance improvement and some parts of IT. E&Y and DTT have a separate consulting division. Just the consulting parts of the E&Y, PWC, and KPMG have grown at more than 40 per cent on an average in the last two years, and though the firms are willing to share the larger division numbers but refuse to divulge the consulting figures,industry experts estimate E&Y and KPMG may each have around 200 associates doing consulting work.
WHY ARE THEY BACK?
But why are these firms back in the consulting space? A host of factors actually. Some relate to individual firms and some are linked with the sector as a whole. “The most important reason has been the easing of the regulatory restrictions over a period of time,” explains Ashwani Puri, executive director, PricewaterhouseCoopers. That allowed the firms to increase their scope of work and mine relationships more effectively. For E&Y and PWC, the non-compete period they had settled with the acquirers of their consulting practice was over and they could grow their business again legitimately.
In India, a major reason for the firms to beef up their consulting capabilities fast has been the sheer demand for these services. The galloping 9 per cent GDP growth coupled with India Inc’s newfound desire to explore opportunities abroad have lead to a situation where the companies are chasing growth like never below. And most of the companies need help growing — be it with strategy, people, processes, or technology. SEAT AT THE TABLE
BUNDLING IT UP
That’s where the consulting arms are stepping in, selling services as a bundle. While the bigger groups chose to employ costlier blueblooded consultants like Mckinsey, Bain, BCG, and AT Kearney for major transformational exercises and strategic initiatives, there are lots of smaller bits of consulting work that fall into hands of these firms.
The bean-counters have an inherent advantage – they are wide spectrum firms with a bouquet of service lines (assurance, audit, tax, transaction advisory, and risk & business solutions) and deal with hundreds of clients serving various needs. Hence they can access these relationships and cross-sell services more effectively than specialist firms. “For the accounting firms, offering consulting is just an extension of service and it’s a very good way of increasing revenues,” says R Ventkaraman, Partner, AT Kearney. On an average, more than 50 per cent of clients use firms’ other services too.
In some combinations, the Big Four claim they offer superior solutions compared to pure play consulting firms. For example,
supply chain
restructuring may sometimes involve a fair bit of tax work as well, or a mergers and acquisition assignment may require a fair bit of corporate finance work. “Clients are telling us that they want complete solutions, and that includes doing parts of strategy, tax planning, transactions related work and also some advisory. We are in a unique position to offer that,” says Parera of KPMG.
These firms are also cheaper than pure-play consultants and are willing to work on smaller projects that the bigger firms won’t touch with a barge pole.
But if you ask the pure play consultants about the attempts of accounting firms to get into consulting, most would shrug it off. “Everybody will claim to do everything. Consulting involves CEO and board level engagement. If the client is a CFO, then the project is mere control related, and that’s not consulting. That’s the level that these firms work at,” says a senior partner in a consulting firm, contemptuously.
Experts explain the rush towards accounting firms as a mere demand-supply situation. “India is on such a growth path that a lot of companies need help dealing with scale and scope issues. And a lot of these companies are first time buyers of consulting services who will learn by trial and error and become mature buyers slowly, till then they will experiment with a lot of firms. So a whole host of vendors are getting work,” says Dr Janmejaya Sinha, managing director, BCG.
Another common dig the high priests of consulting take against their poor cousins is that they are not equipped to handle proper consulting assignments. “Most of these firms have Chartered Accountant’s (CAs) masquerading as consultants. They are more suitable for number crunching and ‘preparing project plans’ than handling big transformation assignments that require a deeper understand of an organisation and domain expertise,” says another respected consultant from the big three in consulting.
BRICK BY BRICK
Not to be ruffled by the criticism, this time around the Big Four are rebuilding their businesses prudently. For example, the majority of their clients in India are now non-audit clients (more than 90 per cent), so the compliance part is taken care of. Secondly, the firms are also attempting to bring in greater domain expertise, for example, in last two years, KPMG has hired respected consultants with deep industry knowledge like Arvind Mahajan, Ravi Trivedi, and Dr Ganesh Sharman to head different industry verticals, while E&Y’s business advisory team boasts of 12 partners and 6 directors now, of which five partners have come on board in last one year.
Thirdly, this time around the firms are also exploiting their global linkages better. E&Y has brought in experts from its Norway practice to help a client in the oil and gas sector. Similarly, for another client in the entertainment space, help was sought from its London office. Both its New York and London offices were involved in an assignment for a financial company. Similarly, KPMG is working closely with its UK practice on a public-private participation assignment and some actuarial type of work as well.
Finally, the firms this time around are making clear decisions about what kind of work they will do and what they won’t do. For example, E&Y and KPMG are not getting into IT implementation, while Deloitte and PWC have chosen to play heavily in IT. “We think that model for IT implementation is different and we don’t want any play in that,” says Memani.
CHALLENGES ABOUND
Despite the beefed up teams and a favourable environment, the going will not be easy for the comeback consultants. The competition is intense, be it within the Big Four or with other consulting firms. At the top end of the competitive spectrum there are the big daddies of strategy and then there are other consulting firms like Accenture in the middle. Then there are specialists like Kerkhoff and at the lower end the boutiques like Halcyon, Positron, and Axis. “The consulting market is segregated with firms working at different levels, and there is space for everyone because of the sheer demand,” says Abhijeet Virmani, co-founder, Positron.
There are other stiff challenges too, that the Big Four face. The biggest one is talent. With aggressive plans to ramp up, there is a shortage of people who can be put on consulting p r o j e c t s straightaway. So firms are processing ‘consultants’ and that may be leading to a slip in quality in delivery of services. “We are just ‘adopting’, passing on the religion and away you go on an assignment,” says a senior consultant with one of the Big Four. That apart, internally too the consulting arms face some challenges — sometimes they have to lower their rates due to internal pressures and that can lower the overall realisations of the divison.
Another big challenge for the firms is brand building. After their absence from the market for some time, the firms need to undertake a brand building initiative to create awareness and also need to differentiate their services offerings sharply to create distinct positioning. And maybe they will require external help, but then who will consult the consultants? McKinsey, maybe?


~ courtesy - The Economic Times.

We the Secularists

Treating all religions equally, favoring no religion more than the other, no discrimination among sexes & giving them equal opportunities, no hatred for other religions & giving them equal respect as ours, that's Secularism. We have been listening that since our school days as your parents or Civics teacher must have taught you. But didn't they tell you that how much those principles have been implemented to really make India a secular country. We boast of our country being secular but are we really. I don't mean to offend my country ,I am as much Indian as those ministers who are sitting there at Delhi. I am just worried about my country & couldn't find anyone to talk to ,so am here writing down & hope it proved to be a fruitful writing. Lemme try to analyze some situations some incidents, lemme get some inference and then you decide.

The first point I would like to raise is the caste based fuckking reservation. I donno from what aspect they find it in favour of nation & its people. On one hand they are talking about secularism & other hand they are dividing the society on the basis of caste. Will it help in attaining social harmony? How can I be at good terms with someone if I feel like he's robbing me of what I deserve. It will certainly create differences in the society & will make the whole meaning of secularism irrelevant. If you really want upliftment of society provide reservation on the basis of economy irrespective of caste.

Next I would like to talk about the Madrasa- The institutions that provide Islamic education. Now, I am not saying that religious education is bad but the problem is that many of the madrasas are misguiding the youths. They have been filling the hearts & souls of these innocent youngsters with hatred towards West. They have been telling them that even though they are Indian citizens but this country doesn't care about them. Even if something happens which has nothing to do with religion, these madrasas present them in a way to show that it was against Islam & was meant to destroy their identity. The problem can be solved & these madrasas can become a genuine center of religious education provided they should be registered. Just like a technical institute gets a recognition from government ,we can have same thing for madrasas. Moreover, these madrasas should not be exclusively for Muslims but anyone who is interested in Islam should be allowed. If that can happen then I won't hesitate in calling India a secular country.

Politics has always been the greatest threat to secularism of a country, atleast that's what I think. Be it the killing of sikhs in 1984, the Ayodhya kand, the Bombay riots of 1992-93 or the Godhra riots , in one way or another can be related to politics.

Ayodhya was about the destruction of a mosque which ultimately led to the bloody riots in the country. I don't know why such a fuss over a mosque. Was the existence of that mosque was more important than the human lives? Wasn't it possible to have both Hindus & Muslims going to a common place for worshipping?Imagine if that could have been possible what would the picture of our society. India would have been a true secular country. But for them we are just a vote bank. Politicians can go to any extent for votes.Take the case of a party that deliberately started riots in a city during the time of election, so that it can impose curfew & the opposition party won't be able to campaign. For me , I was really shocked.Anyway, lets get back to Ayodhya. Politicians needed to woo the people & Hindus being in majority they thought the best way to do have the Hindu votes is to demolish the mosque, without even thinking the consequences. And the politicians knew that this is going to work because still religion is one of the most important thing for the people in INDIA, more important than a human life or someone's emotions.Now, I am not saying religion is irrelevant ,it's an important aspect of our identitiy but there should be some rationality behind every religious thinking. Therefore, as far as possible there should be clear boundries between religion & politics. Don't blend them , someone has said , " Religion & Politics go side by side , If you don't understand religion you can't understand politics" -- man guess you would like to give it a thought.

The similar case was the Godhra riots. Without know the cause for the fire ,the Hindus OR better to say ,"a section of Hindus" mainly those VHP, RSS etc. assumed that muslims are behind this. Hundreds of innocent muslims were killed. Even if a few muslims were behind that Godhra incident the government should have tried to look out for them and prosecute them. But punishing a whole community I couldn't understand this. As I have said earlier, these Extremist organisation like VHP etc shouldn't exist. Many girls were raped, many children killed, men were burned alive -- Is this the way one seek justice in a democratic country?
So, what I conclude from this is - ban the organisations like SIMI, RSS etc & I am not talking about passing a law stating that they are banned but an effective ban. Use police and if required Army but pleas "eliminate" them.

Seculariam also involve treating the sexes at par. But still after 60 years of Independence the condition of women is pathetic. Though, that's more in rural areas but urban areas are not left untouched too. Recently I read an article in newspaper about a minister(TN or Karnataka ,i guess) whose daughter is not allowed to study abroad, she can't wear jeans, if she hangs out with friends she has to inform her parents before doing so while his brother, pursuing higher studies abroad, chills out with frnds and nobody gives a damn what is he doing. Why such difference?Girls also have equal right to do whatever the guys can do. I don't know why the society always blames girls. If a guy is out with frnds it's all right but if a girl does the same, even with girls, there are talks all around. Still in Indian society parents think the ultimate aim of a girl is marriage ,though things have been changing- accha hai. Husbands asks their wives to stay home,no jobs. Now I donno how does it make sense. For first few yrs. its fine ,but once the child is ready to go to school women can go for jobs. Everything can works what you need a little cooperation. This mindset of society has to be changed. Men should understand that women too have dreams, they should try to cooperate with them, don't just think of them as someone who's there just to raise your child though that hell of a job & they do it so perfectly.You gotta praise them for this guys.
However, this is one front where things have been changing. More & more women are concentrating on their career, the attitude of people towards girl child is also changing - ppl nomore think them of some kinda burden, 'cuz aaj kal ladkiyan cracku ho gayi hain yaar , in fact guys seems to be the burden.:P And as from our side ,girls we will try to do as much as we can( hope I will get your supports guys). No nation can progress unless it respects its women.

So, at the end of the day --
Separate Politics from religion THOUGH it seems difficult.
No more extremists organisation like SIMI, RSS etc BUT with the involvement of politics they will exist.
No preference on the basis of caste in the name of progress ,like that reservation thing AGAIN Politics makes it impossible to achieve.
Women need to be respected & should be treated on par with Men. Now this one thing is in our hand. Lets start from here guys. Nations cease to exist if women aren't there, both metaphorically & literally.

But again , Who do these politicians represent? Obviously the society - - so unless & untill the ppl chg their thinking becomes more rational the problems will continue. And how does this rational thinking comes- you got it right- Education. Not just education that's taught at school but general awareness.

~ deepak sirari