Category: Growth

Consulting Disruption: Adapting in the AI Era

The HBR article by Prof Clayton Christensen on Consulting Disruption came out in 2013. It was way before any AI wave. The writing was on the wall then. With USD 50 subscriptions to ChatGPT Pro, entire sustainability reports are being written. This situation is a clear warning for lazy consulting work. Such work does not warrant an expense.

Consulting, of all typologies, was never about reports, it was about solving a problem. Clients never paid for EIAs or ESGDDs. They paid for ticking off the requirements for conditions precedent on a loan tranche. It could also be for a construction permit. The shift from risk management and compliance to value creation is never more urgent.

Entry-level analysts will face challenges. Consultants need to add technical expertise. This need is evident from expert hires at the MBB strata too. Cost arbitrage which India and the Philippines brought in for its English prowess is nullified by Grammarly Pro. The Client with a lean ESG Manager with a college intern with LLM can fill up all ESG compliances such as BRSR and CDP.

The knowledge provider ecosystem includes consultancies, law firms, university think tanks, and research institutes. They vie with information providers for the same target audience. The client has plenty of options unless there is a critical reputational capital risk at hand.

Consulting firms will shrink unless the focus is on value creation through implementation support and getting back to the ‘jobs to be done’ focus.

The key question for fellow consultants is:

What are we doing which LLMs cannot do?

Or

What internal teams can suffice as they have domain expertise?

Professional Service Firms that do statutory compliances will sustain. This is especially true in the regulatory sphere such as Assurance. However, tech will encroach there as well. There will be a nudge towards process reforms such as self-verification.

Expertise and Trust are non-negotiable, as Private Banking and FinTech have their respective clientele.

Writing Philosophy in a Blurb.

My writing practice is undergirded by the ethic of representation and recovery, a response to the chaos of the everyday mayhem where where things seems just about ‘normal’. Writing ethnographic archives is the core of my written word artistic practice. Long term projects are painstakingly hard, takes a lot of time, yet the series of conversations with Autowallahs and Cabbies are a glimpse in to urban life, entrepreneurship, tech innovation and the view from below. It is a chronicle of agency more than any other tangential impulse.

Speaking 2020.

With writing taking on a professional avatar this year, speaking opportunities in your webinaritis era were generous and kind. The 2020 speaking roster included:

  • Speaking on Growth to students at Enactus DTU, or Delhi Technological University in July.
  • Speaking on Repivoting Careers at a Business School in Navi Mumbai in the month of April in the heart of the lockdown where hope was in short supply for young professionals.
  • Presenting on AI Ethics and Sociotechnical Resilience at a Faculty Development Programme at my Alma Mater, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra in July.
  • Spoke to final year thesis students doing research at the Rizvi College of Architecture sharing thoughts on resources and methods in October.
  • I was on the Cafe Khaleej Podcast speaking on my book project in November.
  • I was on a panel on migrant narratives at the Global Migrant Festival 2020 in November.

As an alt-academic, opportunities to speak to diverse practitioner communities is generative in many ways.

I thank all sponsors deeply for the opportunities, this year.

Happy to speak in 2021 as well. Please do let me know if a shared conversation can be held.

#growthmindset

Build Back Better 2021

2020, a year benefitting many new metaphors and semi baked vocabularies has been a year of brisk learning while being in one city the entire year, probably for the first time in my life. As a writer and researcher, I love travel however I made up for it by walking the bylanes of Pune. Travel is measured in miles rather it should be gauged in understanding the depth of the place. Which place has the best Chai for instance. Or which Kirana store was open serving the community in the heart of the pandemic lockdown.

Having made a pivot to writing as a career thanks to the pandemic, being Aatma Nirbhar is not that hard. Fear is all that needs to be conquered along with resetting of desires. Working on writing and institution building of ventures begins with the mind. As chaos stifles the imagination. The pandemic has caused a stuttering of the mind as the normal sublimated into the unknown abyss of the radical present. Build back better, is more than jargon this crisis.

I wish we can travel at ease in 2021. Wishing everyone a safe and blessed new year.

#writinglife

Aatma Nirbhar.

I have always been kiasu, paranoid to fail and a determined vitae building machine since my high school days. The elusive fear of success, drives me to think that I am worthless and link my sense of self worth to what I do. 2020 has given me a new lens of worth that I can be worthy as I can create projects and initiatives digitally on my own with the help of kind souls who share a common vision.

One does not have to be necessarily affiliated with a brand to create value. One can be a brand themselves in this remote era. The gig economy has created an economy of contractors and a different mindset is needed to succeed. My journey has been turbulent this year but the clarity can be very peaceful.

Aatma Nirbhar or self reliance , is a frame of mind rather than a political slogan.