India needs domestic consulting firms to become a thought-leader

Are Americans Fundamentally Better Advisors? No, consulting is a tertiary industry. Primary and secondary industries should be developed to make consultancy industry. For much of the 20th century, the US was the engine of global economic growth. This set the stage for US-bred consulting firms to build on the experience, credentials and methodologies they effectively exported to other countries. US-bred consulting firms are missionaries of the American way of doing business globally.

Extending the argument that India will be a major engine of global growth in the 21st century, shouldn’t there be a conglomerate of global consulting firms born in India? Absolutely.

Is this trend already going on? In some ways, yes. Almost all the firms listed above leverage Indian talent to support their global engagements. McKinsey leverages its Gurugram-based knowledge center, Bain to do the same with its capability network as Accenture does with its global network. Deloitte recruits consultants in Hyderabad to support its US offices in high-level consulting work. These US-bred firms leverage thousands of India-based mentors to support engagement globally. In addition, there are thousands of Indian consultants working for these MNCs in international offices.

If US-bred firms are already leveraging India for high-end consulting services, why aren’t India-bred companies taking the lead? The answer is complicated: since the advent of globalization, its rules have been designed in favor of the West, positioning India as a source of “affordable” talent, no matter how high-end. International firms look to leverage India’s talent and cost-benefit while Indian firms struggle to build against the tide.

Even India’s enduring success story, the IT services industry, has been pegged as an ancillary service at the CIO-level rather than a strategic service at the CEO-level. The situation has also been challenging for leaders such as Infosys, which has struggled to create a globally competitive consulting practice.

Are there signs that this trend may be changing? Yes, we are seeing convergence of some significant change drivers. The Indian economy has grown to such an extent that firms born in India can build on the experience, credentials and methodology to succeed globally. As digital technologies become an integral part of every business, Indian IT companies now have direct access to the CEO and Board beyond the CIO. Indian consulting talent has reached a critical mass both in India and abroad. Access to top class talent is no longer restricted to a few MNCs. Lastly, COVID-19 has significantly reduced the demand for physical co-location for high-end counseling services. The advantage of co-located offices to MNCs has diminished significantly.

So, what needs to be done to create at least five India-bred global consulting firms? First, we need some Indian-bred firms to try and establish a business model. It will create a body of global case studies and sponsor clients that are essential to building on this trend. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do at Octus Advisors: More than half of our business is already global and we have sponsor clients in the US, Spain, the UK, Brazil and the Philippines. Second, India-breed consulting firms need to come together to form an advocacy platform like NASSCOM (or perhaps NASSCOM needs to expand its scope to include India-breed strategy firms). In the end, while COVID-19 may be the Y2K equivalent of the event that propelled Indian IT to the global stage, we need someone to create this narrative and own it, like Thomas Friedman of IT services with The World Is Flat. had done for

Strategy consulting firms may employ a smaller number than IT services, but the impact this industry can create is disproportionate. The soft power that the Indian-born global consulting industry can harness is critical to India’s overall competitiveness at the global level. India needs its own consulting firms to reshape its economy from cost-leader to thought-leader.

The time has come for global consulting firms to be born in India. Unfortunately, the window is small, and we must build on this narrative now. The competition will not wait.

Abhishek Mukherjee is the co-founder and director of Octus Advisors.