About us
We provide management consulting services to transform & scale up mid-size businesses, build capabilities, offer expertise in the areas of strategy, sales, marketing and operations. We do market research, provide data and information, and develop insights for strategy. We work with our clients to catalyze and implement strategy by benchmarking with the best, applying management frameworks, designing structures, systems and processes. We bring in the much-needed management bandwidth & capabilities wherever required. We also provide marketing support services to help our clients scale up their B2B sales and marketing capabilities, offer interim management support and help in bridging the leadership gap.
Management Consulting Services
Strategy, Marketing, Operations, Sales
Growth, scaling and transformation of small and mid-size companies
- Strategy, research and business planning, project feasibility analysis, contracting and structuring for projects, JVs and alliances
- Co-create strategy with client by offering research-based insights;
- Provide specialist knowledge support to leadership the CEO;
- Assist with implementation, coaching, reviews, change management and interim management support to bridge capability gaps
Capability building to grow and scale the company
- Conduct audits to identify gaps, lack of alignment among functions
- Implementing Processes & frameworks –Build a high performance sales/marketing/ops functions, Design & implement Agile/scrum processes (from work planning to implementation/control, to achieving outcomes), Control process with data, causal analysis and resolution, Growth hacking & continuous improvement.
- Design and implement Operational governance systems: organization structures, work processes, performance management frameworks to align behaviour with strategy & cross-functional goals
Marketing Support
Marketing, Content creation, Proposals, Branding
- Creating high quality proposals (value based marketing) for large deals, feasibility studies, brochures, presentations, sales kits, white papers, case studies, website, blogs
- Market entry research, strategy and plans
- Product Marketing/management support
- Branding & Content creation
- Developing the Value proposition, positioning, Re-branding
- Creating original content based on research and interviews that help in positioning.
- B2B Inside sales & Digital marketing campaigns – Lead generation/enrichment & qualification; creating digital marketing content, engaging leads, frugal/targeted brand building; Product launch/re-launch; India market entry services for foreign companies
- Customer engagement programs, Customer success programs, Customer reactivation, Aftermarket sales
- Distribution channel development: Design, policy, on boarding partners, activating and driving them for sales
Market Research
• Primary / secondary research – Qualitative & quantitative, Focus groups & surveys
• Analysis of syndicated research & data
• Insight reports for Strategy
• Regular updates for Decision support
Problem identification research
- Discover what went wrong with your current approach in the market
- Market characteristics – What does your target segment really want? What messages do they like? What are their buying preferences?
- What are the problems faced by potential customers?
- What is the real market potential?
- What is the competition really like on the ground?
- Brand image perception – understand the problem and work to overcome it
- How are business trends affecting us (regulatory, social media, digital channels, etc)?
Problem solving research
- Business Growth: Understand customers better, segment and target them accurately, size the market segment, forecast sales etc. Explore new market & product opportunities
- Product research (throughout the product lifecycle) – test marketing, pricing/promotional research, distribution research etc.
- Decision Support: Brand tracking programs, competitor updates, consumer usage trends, benchmarking
- Sales and marketing effectiveness – collect & analyse data to monitor & provide insights, performance management, resource alignment, alerts and goal setting
- Insights, knowledge & reports for Decision making and Strategy
Our Blogs
Transform Customer support into a value generating function
Marketing & sales focus on customer acquisition and essentially the buyer. Customer support focuses on the user and is required for customer retention. This is valuable in businesses where customer lifetime value is significant; (ex: we keep visiting amazon repeatedly to shop); Especially, online retailers, automobile companies (who depend on significant revenue through service), hospitals, machinery/OEMs, technology...
Is marketing evil or good?
Evil marketing Well, It’s is just a tool. But it is the marketer and the goods being pushed that really matter. If it’s drugs, or cigarettes, then yes, certainly it is evil. Then there are cases where the marketer started out with a good reputation and has turned malefic. Recently, a very large reputed mutual fund in India that holds tens of thousands of crores of people’s money in trust to invest on their behalf in certain...
Hybrid Innovation Strategies
Innovation now needs Second wave technologies to be integrated Digital is no longer about digitizing bits and pieces of workflow in the company to usher in automation and be productive. There is a more serious disruption at play involving innovation in products, business models to transform the entire business itself. It’s not just using IT, but also adopting many second wave technologies like IOT, AI, AR, and machine...
How to use permission marketing to grow business
Fundamental tactics of digital marketingThe tactics for digital marketing strategy are essentially advertisements, social platforms or direct mailing. The first two will allow us to market to an audience for a certain payment. They give temporary permissions to target certain audiences. In the case of ads, its like an interruption in the consumer’s flow of consuming media (like a TV ad), though, in the case of digital ads,...
Thoughts for Strategy – post opening of lockdown
Economic and work changes due to the pandemic The virus could recur, and severity could wax and wane, if predictions that it will follow the influenza virus pattern is something to go by. Also, how long will it be before everyone gets vaccinated? Future pandemics cannot be ruled out. Strategists will be worrying about these now. There is already a thinking that dangers from climate change could be worse and irreversible...
Transforming the business for growth, sustainability & scale
Owner driven small and mid-size companies grow quickly, but may at some point, consider professionalizing the business, to allow the next generation to take over, or scale up the business, or to bring in strategic investors. Reasons could be many. Owner led firms usually depend on preferential access to clients (by virtue of the founder’s relationships), talent & capital. Clients would know them well, their bankers lend...
Strategies of best performing companies
Difference between the best companies and the rest Surveys have revealed that most senior executives believe that their companies do not have a winning strategy, nor do they have the right capabilities to execute the strategy. Companies that are great at both strategy and execution don’t necessarily follow existing industry practices. Below are a few things they do that contradicts conventional management wisdom, but if...
Building core management capabilities in companies
Most people think of Strategy as intellectual and exciting, while execution is considered mundane. It is often left to lower and middle level managers to handle on a day to day basis, and not much thought goes into it, especially among small and medium enterprises. Execution means effective management and this means challenges in the form of processes and people. Unless companies actively make necessary investments in these...
A lethal combo tool to grow business
Many mid size companies in India have good calibre sales men. In some of the older companies, these sales people acquire technical capabilities and are long timers in the company. They are pretty good in talking the customer’s language and closing deals. Unfortunately, 70% of a sales reps time is spent scouting for leads and in trying to get an appointment. They just don’t seem to have enough of them. The common complaint I...
Leveraging messaging platforms for marketing
Marketing has evolved from being personal to being generic and finally onto algorithmic personalization today. Marketing culture today is obsessed with digital technology. People are just data points and subsets of various online communities, profiling logic, databases etc., The outcome of such micro targeting has still been a hit and miss. Going forward, this could be a thing of the past. Messaging platforms are expected to...
How to design a channel strategy
After segmenting, targeting, understanding customers, positioning ourselves and exploring new markets to enter (subjects discussed in my other blogs), comes the task of reaching out to these markets. Channels are routes to reach customers, Customers can be reached through a spectrum of channels ranging from a direct sales force or indirectly through distributors, volume resellers, value added resellers, service and support...
Strategies to re-engineer and grow your trading business
Trading companies are the most widespread form of businesses and act as channels for manufactures to reach into far flung markets. Trading companies are complex organizations that have their own culture, diverse functions and customer relationships. They can range from small entrepreneurial set ups to professional companies with focus, and there could be large global trading companies like the Japanese sogososhas. In India,...
The future of our work life
Articles going around on Amazon’s work culture talk about companies (including many start-ups) envisioning a new workplace which is fluid but tough, with employees staying for only a short time (meaning temporary) and employers demanding the maximum. Many are places where blue collar workers work in difficult physical conditions, while white collar workers feel driven hard, but get no empathy from their employer. A request...
Tuning the Sales engine
Many a times, the sales of a firm starts off from the founder’s personal contacts and then expands into newer territories. As firms grow and expand, there is need to diversify and derisk customer base, both in terms of revenue from a particular segment and percentage of contribution from a the top few customers. However, most companies find this desired state alluding, for many reasons. Sales structure, team reporting,...
Need for B2B branding
Is branding required in the B2B context? In the B2C context companies like Coca-cola and Pepsi persuaded consumers that sugar water with some acids and colouring was better than water, and the in-thing to keep sipping all the time. If branding worked for them, it must surely have relevance in the B2B context as well. At the same time, surveys have shown that most industrial brands are just labels and do not really have...
Aligning sales & marketing
Most companies in traditional industries during the formative years typically have marketing and sales managed by a single department. On the marketing front, companies usually make rudimentary investments as part of sales efforts. They at best participate in related industry events or advertise in local media. However, as organizations grow, the need to manage marketing and sales as independent and yet complementary...
Developing second level leadership
Most heads of organizations, founders and owners express that grooming engineers or professionals to be leaders is their greatest concern. Heads of organizations realize that they need to be able to groom these technically oriented engineers to become good managers and capable leaders, if they really want to grow and scale the business. Most of the technical staff have an engineering or professional background and are very...
Enabling employees to perform
Management is not just about strategy and systems. It is all about doing & managing people as well. Managers make grand plans, but fail to get teams to work effectively to produce greater output. Often, there is a tendency to do everything themselves – individually. This is understandable, given today’s situation – resources lack competency, freshers have no clue what they are supposed to do, high churn among trained...
Pointers to building a Go to Market strategy
Companies need to evaluate their go to market plans every year. Whether it is SMEs or Family businesses wanting to reach new markets, expand reach and grow revenues, or large companies trying to align according to changes in products and markets, everyone needs to re evaluate their go to market plan at least once a year. This basically involves choosing the target markets or even exploring new markets, aligning with...
Pointers to building a Go to Market strategy
Companies need to evaluate their go to market plans every year. Whether it is SMEs or Family businesses wanting to reach new markets, expand reach and grow revenues, or large companies trying to align according to changes in products and markets, everyone needs to re evaluate their go to market plan at least once a year. This basically involves choosing the target markets or even exploring new markets, aligning with...
Enabling employees to perform
Management is not just about strategy and systems. It is all about doing & managing people as well. Managers make grand plans, but fail to get teams to work effectively to produce greater output. Often, there is a tendency to do everything themselves – individually. This is understandable, given today’s situation – resources lack competency, freshers have no clue what they are supposed to do, high churn among trained...
Developing second level leadership
Most heads of organizations, founders and owners express that grooming engineers or professionals to be leaders is their greatest concern. Heads of organizations realize that they need to be able to groom these technically oriented engineers to become good managers and capable leaders, if they really want to grow and scale the business. Most of the technical staff have an engineering or professional background and are very...
Aligning sales & marketing
Most companies in traditional industries during the formative years typically have marketing and sales managed by a single department. On the marketing front, companies usually make rudimentary investments as part of sales efforts. They at best participate in related industry events or advertise in local media. However, as organizations grow, the need to manage marketing and sales as independent and yet complementary...
Need for B2B branding
Is branding required in the B2B context? In the B2C context companies like Coca-cola and Pepsi persuaded consumers that sugar water with some acids and colouring was better than water, and the in-thing to keep sipping all the time. If branding worked for them, it must surely have relevance in the B2B context as well. At the same time, surveys have shown that most industrial brands are just labels and do not really have...
Tuning the Sales engine
Many a times, the sales of a firm starts off from the founder’s personal contacts and then expands into newer territories. As firms grow and expand, there is need to diversify and derisk customer base, both in terms of revenue from a particular segment and percentage of contribution from a the top few customers. However, most companies find this desired state alluding, for many reasons. Sales structure, team reporting,...
The future of our work life
Articles going around on Amazon’s work culture talk about companies (including many start-ups) envisioning a new workplace which is fluid but tough, with employees staying for only a short time (meaning temporary) and employers demanding the maximum. Many are places where blue collar workers work in difficult physical conditions, while white collar workers feel driven hard, but get no empathy from their employer. A request...
Strategies to re-engineer and grow your trading business
Trading companies are the most widespread form of businesses and act as channels for manufactures to reach into far flung markets. Trading companies are complex organizations that have their own culture, diverse functions and customer relationships. They can range from small entrepreneurial set ups to professional companies with focus, and there could be large global trading companies like the Japanese sogososhas. In India,...
How to design a channel strategy
After segmenting, targeting, understanding customers, positioning ourselves and exploring new markets to enter (subjects discussed in my other blogs), comes the task of reaching out to these markets. Channels are routes to reach customers, Customers can be reached through a spectrum of channels ranging from a direct sales force or indirectly through distributors, volume resellers, value added resellers, service and support...
Leveraging messaging platforms for marketing
Marketing has evolved from being personal to being generic and finally onto algorithmic personalization today. Marketing culture today is obsessed with digital technology. People are just data points and subsets of various online communities, profiling logic, databases etc., The outcome of such micro targeting has still been a hit and miss. Going forward, this could be a thing of the past. Messaging platforms are expected to...
A lethal combo tool to grow business
Many mid size companies in India have good calibre sales men. In some of the older companies, these sales people acquire technical capabilities and are long timers in the company. They are pretty good in talking the customer’s language and closing deals. Unfortunately, 70% of a sales reps time is spent scouting for leads and in trying to get an appointment. They just don’t seem to have enough of them. The common complaint I...
Building core management capabilities in companies
Most people think of Strategy as intellectual and exciting, while execution is considered mundane. It is often left to lower and middle level managers to handle on a day to day basis, and not much thought goes into it, especially among small and medium enterprises. Execution means effective management and this means challenges in the form of processes and people. Unless companies actively make necessary investments in these...
Strategies of best performing companies
Difference between the best companies and the rest Surveys have revealed that most senior executives believe that their companies do not have a winning strategy, nor do they have the right capabilities to execute the strategy. Companies that are great at both strategy and execution don’t necessarily follow existing industry practices. Below are a few things they do that contradicts conventional management wisdom, but if...
Transforming the business for growth, sustainability & scale
Owner driven small and mid-size companies grow quickly, but may at some point, consider professionalizing the business, to allow the next generation to take over, or scale up the business, or to bring in strategic investors. Reasons could be many. Owner led firms usually depend on preferential access to clients (by virtue of the founder’s relationships), talent & capital. Clients would know them well, their bankers lend...
Thoughts for Strategy – post opening of lockdown
Economic and work changes due to the pandemic The virus could recur, and severity could wax and wane, if predictions that it will follow the influenza virus pattern is something to go by. Also, how long will it be before everyone gets vaccinated? Future pandemics cannot be ruled out. Strategists will be worrying about these now. There is already a thinking that dangers from climate change could be worse and irreversible...
How to use permission marketing to grow business
Fundamental tactics of digital marketingThe tactics for digital marketing strategy are essentially advertisements, social platforms or direct mailing. The first two will allow us to market to an audience for a certain payment. They give temporary permissions to target certain audiences. In the case of ads, its like an interruption in the consumer’s flow of consuming media (like a TV ad), though, in the case of digital ads,...
Hybrid Innovation Strategies
Innovation now needs Second wave technologies to be integrated Digital is no longer about digitizing bits and pieces of workflow in the company to usher in automation and be productive. There is a more serious disruption at play involving innovation in products, business models to transform the entire business itself. It’s not just using IT, but also adopting many second wave technologies like IOT, AI, AR, and machine...
Is marketing evil or good?
Evil marketing Well, It’s is just a tool. But it is the marketer and the goods being pushed that really matter. If it’s drugs, or cigarettes, then yes, certainly it is evil. Then there are cases where the marketer started out with a good reputation and has turned malefic. Recently, a very large reputed mutual fund in India that holds tens of thousands of crores of people’s money in trust to invest on their behalf in certain...
Transform Customer support into a value generating function
This article discuss the steps organizations can take to convert the lowly customer support and service (CSS) function into a value generating strategic function. It outlines the strategic benefits that can be derived from CSS.