The event played host to some very eminent speakers from companies of great repute in the domain of Consulting. We had speakers from some of the consulting bigwigs such as A T Kearney, Deloitte, BristleCone, Protiviti, IBM, Avalon Consulting etc giving us insights on the challenges and opportunities in the consulting field.

The inaugural session of the day witnessed Mr. Kaustav Mukherjee from A T Kearney Limited, the global management consulting major. Mr. Mukherjee is a Vice President and Partner with A.T. Kearney Limited. Speaking on the occasion, he quoted the significance of the consultant in today’s environment as someone who uses his/her talent to generate ideas that last. A global traveler having worked worldwide, Mr. Mukherjee gave a good account of the consulting scene globally. He reiterated the plethora of opportunities that is available in India today as an emerging market. He also spoke about the challenges faced by the big consulting firms. Nothing could sum up the rise of India and its opportunities in the Consulting sector as much as Mr. Mukherjee’s statement that he ‘wanted to be born 20 years later than when he was born’ would sum it up. In response to a question from the audience, he mentioned that even to a company like A T Kearney, losing a consultant to pressures of work is its biggest loss.

Mr. Mukherjee was in the esteemed company of Ms Kalpana Jain, Senior Director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd. in Financial Advisory Services practice. She gave a fresh new dimension to the discussion, explaining the importance of cultural sensitivity in this new era of consulting. She also emphasized on adopting different work cultures to cater to different needs of clients. She talked about the workload of typical consultant’s life.

The next session saw Mr. Ramit Gupta, Associate Vice President with Avalon Consulting. He talked about key enablers of consultancy as globalization has evolved. He further explained the trends in de-verticalization of the value chain, citing examples from global and domestic industry. The students were then witness to Mr. Shobhit Gupta, Associate Director, in the Risk Consulting Practice of Protiviti, India. He underlined change as the genesis of consultancy. He talked about how avenues were always open but how these avenues can be better capitalized on today. He compared different consulting firms on the basis of their clientele, popular perceptions, technical aspects etc. He further spoke about being able to predict risk as a key indicator of consulting efficiency.

Next up was Mr. Gaurav Sharma, a Managing Consultant within the communications practice at IBM India. He brought out the effectiveness quotient of a consulting firm by focusing on the program management aspect. He talked about the keys of project success and spoke about managing the basics as an important means of achieving the objectives. He too like other speakers before him stressed on the importance of working in teams.

The final speaker of the day was Mr. Mrityunjay Mishra, from JuxtConsult India. He added a new dimension to the discussion by talking about online research and advisory services as an effective tool to help arrive at effective Consulting decisions.

Keeping with the aim of generating an Industry – Student thought synthesis, DMS organised a case study competition for its students. Teams were shortlisted from the preliminary participants by Mr. Samir Shukla, Senior Consultant at BristleCone and these teams were to present their case to the panel of judges.

There was a lot to learn for the students of DMS on this eventful day. Some of the experiences came from speakers of companies every aspiring consultant would dream of being part of. The audience got an idea of the highs and lows of being a consultant, got a dose of the kind of lifestyle they lead and also learnt of the challenges faced by them. The young enthusiasts looking for a career in Consulting had a lot to take away from the invigorating sessions.