Tech Consulting Career Conversation XLRI

1. Technology Consulting Career Conversation
An IIMB NSRCEL & Goldman Sachs Supported Firm

2. About me
17+ years of professional experience in providing IT services ranging from advisory to implementation for
fortune 500 clients
Joined
Cognizant
Client Facing
at onsite
Delivery
Responsibility
EPGP - IIMB
Consultant
@ Deloitte
Independent
Consultant
2002 2011 2012 2016Both client facing and
offshore
Testing /
Development
Tech Lead /
Solution
Design
Professional Journey
Analytics Head
@Agilisium
2018 2020
Director – Data
Mgmt @Securra.
I like to….Under Graduation
BE, Mechanical Engineer
NIT Trichy
Home Town:
Trichy, Tamil Nadu
Currently: Bangalore

3. Agenda
 What is Consulting
 Types of Consulting
 What is Tech Consulting
 Skillsets Required
 Critical Success Factors
 Career Growth as a Consultant
 Other Activities Expected of a Consultant
 How can MBA Help
 Preparing for Consulting Interviews

4. What is Consulting
Dictionary Definition:
Business of giving expert advice to other professionals.
Examples:
• Leadership / team building
• Advertising (Brand)
• Marketing
• Business management
• Environmental
• Financial planning
• Risk management
• Employee stress management

5. Types of Consulting
‘Management’
Determine
building blocks
towards achieving
strategy
Setting the
‘Strategic’
Direction
Validation or
support during
execution
‘Business Operations’ ‘Technology’
Exit Strategy from a
Country
Technology Strategy
(E.g. Digital)
Corporate Planning
and Budgeting
Achieving 30% Cost
Reduction in 3 years
Competitive advantage
through Efficiency and
Effectiveness
‘Build vs. Buy’
‘Rationalization’
ROI / Results
Management
Supply Chain, PMO,
Audit, Biz Tech
Rollout
Tech PMO,
Technology Solution,
Tech Review

6. Tech Consulting
Objective:
Inform / help clients on building their IT practices to achieve their business objectives.
Strategic Assessment and
Roadmap
M&A / Tech Due
Diligence
Business – IT
Management
New ideas and trends
(Digital Transformation)
Develop business case for
a specific investment
Setup offshore Center
New capability (Workforce
Transformation)
Product (Solution) –
Business Fit
Risk Assessment Analysis
(existing system)
Business / IT Portfolio Cost
Restructuring / Prioritizing
Operating Model
Transformation
Tech Consulting Areas
Planning and building a
new IT System
PMO (Showing progress
reports to the sponsors)
Staff Augmentation
Generalist Focused

7. Skillsets Required
• Technical skills
− Direct or indirect experience in technology solutioning / implementation
• Look at things holistically to get a better understanding of the current state and business needs
− Not supposed to solve the problem of JAVA vs. .NET
• Ability to understand and talk the language of business
• Ability to talk the language of executives / SVPs / Directors
• Lots and lots of listening and information processing
• Ability to get on to good conversations with any one
• Ability to look at a problem objectively, analytically and not arrive at a solution immediately
− Hypothesis driven problem solving | 80:20 rule | Data driven decision making

8. Skillsets Required
 Word Documents, Power points and Excel Files
 Technology Trends (What’s trending)

9. Critical Success Factors
 Develop ‘Trust’ or ‘Belief’ to customers
 Gear up for a life style change – Lunch / Dinner / Travel
 Extremely Reactive – Fire drills
 More and more time before the customers

10. Career Growth as a Consultant
 Many Consulting Firms are Partner Firms (LLC)
• Designations and positions may vary, but the usual path is towards a Partner or Director
• Partners and Directors are principal sales people
 Other growth possibilities are:
• P&L ownership for an account and towards regional ownership
• Technology Leader (Ability to handle complex technical situations)
 Core Responsibilities:
• Building customer relationship and trust. Especially advisory is very subjective.
• Important to align to industry. Remember technology assists to support business.
• Consultant’s responsibility is to make his / her principal customer successful

11. Other Responsibilities for a Tech Consultant
 Publishing Thought Leadership
• Business Wired, Books, Trends, Articles, Interviews, Points of Views
 Learning / Knowledge Enhancements
• Certifications, Attending Events and Summits, Research / Reading about Industry Trends
 Business Development / Pre-Sales
• Pre-sales Response Structuring (documents, presentations)
• Competitive research about customer and industry, presenting thoughts to leadership
 Practice Support
• Mentoring, Training, Hiring

12. How can MBA Help?
 Spreadsheet Model – highly recommended for aspiring consultants
 Strategy – understand and define it in your own words
 Finance and Accounting – annual statements, NPV, ROI, Cash Flow Analysis, etc.
 Operations – achieving efficiency and effectiveness
 OB and HRM – understand organizational inertia, value system, people resistance to change
 Marketing – understand the needs of clients
 Connect all these courses together to solve a specific problem for a customer

13. Preparing for Consulting Interview
 Case in point
 Sample case questions in the company’s website
 Prepare based on role offered (Job Descriptions)
 Talk to some one who is currently employed in the company (to understand culture, style)
 Focus on approach, not on solution. E.g. If the case is cost reduction, the approach will be:
 Note: Consulting (Advisory) Roles are usually small sized teams, less of people management and
more of client stakeholder relationship
 Identify cost reduction levers: Offshoring,
Rationalization, Automation, Process Efficiency
 Assess current state cost structure for above levers
 Understand business and technology objectives
 Determine savings opportunities on current cost
baseline through the application of levers
 Asking more facts on current spend (cost)
 What is the current IT spend?
 How much is Cap-Ex and Op-Ex?
 How many people are there in the IT department