An Afternoon with Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta

In the first week of July right after our Term –I exams, we had the privilege of hosting  Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta for a leadership talk series at our IIM Lucknow, Noida Campus the area of focus being, “Management Consulting”

Mr. Dasgupta is a stalwart of the consulting industry, having more than 15 years of experience in this field and is currently the executive director and partner at Price Water House Coopers (PWC Ltd.)
In the 90 minute session he touched upon the various changing trends in consulting space.

He shared insights on the business areas which are evergreen for consultants and what it requires for consultants to keep themselves updated with the changing industry trends. The wonderful anecdotes interspersed in his lecture made the session lively and enchanting.

A key point that we took from the session was that the methodology of consultants keeps changing as per the requirements in the market. Firms might look for ideas ranging from price optimisation to cost cutting and transparency in governance of company to shareholders.

Sharing his views about the various consulting areas, Mr. Dasgupta, said that during the recent recession period most of the companies were focussing on pruning their operations and consultants in Supply chain Management (SCM) and Operations were the most sought after people. In fact even in a period of a growing economy, operations is an area which is always in high demand due to continuous operational and regulatory changes. For example in India introduction of GST, VAT forced many companies to restructure their operations in various states. He held the opinion that consulting in India is very unique and is much more challenging as the issues a consultant faces in India are quite different from those in other parts of the world.

To highlight the challenges, Mr. Dasgupta shared with us a scenario of how a truckers’ strike might delay the vehicular movement and a company might have to suffer unexpected losses. A consultant working in the Indian market may have to take cognizance of such “Indian Factors”

He touched upon the changing landscape of consulting where consultants now are staying longer with the client company to show the results of their suggestions. This trend is increasing in the industry and thus the line between consulting and support is getting thinner and more blurred with the changing demand in the market.

Another area where consultants are in high demand, but in short supply, is consulting in Human Capital Management space. This is an area where consultants face ethical dilemma more often than any other field. They are always confronted by the questions such as 'Who am I working for? Is it the client, the country or the nation?' The examples given by him to show these issues were real, current and thought-provoking.

The session ended with a long Q&A session, the questions ranging from the UID project in India to the attributes required to become a good consultant.Mr. Dasgupta helped us gain a better perspective of the field of Management Consulting and how one can work towards developing skills necessary to be part of a consulting firm

-Brajesh