MarketRx is a leading provider of specialized Sales and Marketing Effectiveness solutions to global Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies. Its customers include over 50 top-tier pharmaceutical companies in all therapeutic areas and across geographies. Recently, it was ranked 195th in 24th Annual Inc. 500 list of “Fastest Growing Private Businesses” in the U.S A. It has been seeing a year on year growth of about 50% for the last few years and holds great potential to people wanting to start out in the consulting domain.

The lecture traced the trajectory of consulting sector as a whole over the past years; Starting from the 50’s where consultants were typically bright young graduates who were focused more on ideas than actions. Many a times, these ideas were not weighed against the practical difficulties in implementing them, and hence, organizations ended up with huge reports that could be put to little use. In the 90s, there was a radical shift in the approach towards consulting with greater stress is being laid on the actionables rather than just strategies. He discussed the fact that in a typical problem solving approach, the stress lies not just on the strategy part of consulting, but also on breaking down these strategies into clearly measurable tactics. He quoted a few examples from MarketRx case histories, where the company left their clients with clear tactical tools to support their implementations even after the consulting project was completed.

Mr. Challu also put forth the proposition that the years coming ahead belong to that of the Specialist and not that of the generalists. The students at DMS, IIT Delhi, had a very riveting discussion with him on this issue and got out the finer nuances of the differences in the Consulting domain between the generalist and the specialist-based firms. He also enumerated on careers in consulting in the strategy domain and their implications vis-à-vis a specialist-consulting career.

The interaction fostered a very riveting discussion between the students and the industry on taking up consulting as a career and put the consulting domain in the right perspective in the minds of the students.