Leadership Talk Series: Mr.Rohit Bansal, Vice President, EXL Services

“If you are a person who hates mediocrity and loves challenges in life, consulting is the place for you”. This was the core message delivered by Mr. Rohit Bansal, Vice President, EXL services to the students of IPMX in his two hour session. It was a great learning experience for the students of IPMX where they learned about the nuances of Consulting industry and what it takes to touch the zenith of success in this industry.



The life cycle of consulting mainly consists of 3 phases - deciding upon the strategy, transformation and sustainability. The major contributions by consultants are made in first two phases. But what do consultants do as part of consulting? The simple answer given by Mr. Bansal was that they fulfil the known and unknown needs of their client. Known and unknown - how one can fulfil the needs of an organization if the need itself is not known, one may ask. But that is what consulting is. According to Mr. Bansal, as a consultant one has to fully understand the requirements of the client, even if it is not known even to them, and suggests the best possible solution. Sounds pretty weird, isn’t it? But that is exactly the reason why consultants are paid so much more than many other professionals.

Next he talked about the big four in the worldwide consulting arena - PWC, Deloitte, E&Y and KPMG, and their operations in brief. He also talked about other big names in management consulting and differences in their consulting space vis-a-vis that of the big four.

A very important question which was lingering in everyone’s mind was answered next. What it takes to become a consultant? According to Mr Bansal, one must have the ability to see through the problems and visualize the big picture. One should have ability to ask smart questions to gather all the relevant data. One should have lots of patience and influencing skills while dealing with the client. And last but not the least, as a consultant one must have the ability to handle pressure and stress. He told us that for consulting firms people are the most important resources and hence the success and failure of a consulting firm depends greatly on the type of people they hire and retain.

So is it all sweat and no joy in consulting, was the next obvious question raised by the audience. To which, he told us about the pleasure one gets out of this job. He told us about the various types of tasks one gets to perform, the money one is rewarded with, the opportunity to travel around the world and the opportunities to meet and work with the top-notch people in the corporate world. It definitely sounded like a thrilling experience.

The session was so engaging that two hours passed in a jiffy and finally it came to an end with great applause from the audience. Overall it was a great learning experience for all the students of IPMX making them more informed and confident about their future in consulting industry.

-By Brajesh