A Little About Myself

I am Vyas, I belong to the strategy & operations group of Deloitte Consulting. I went to IIT Madras for my bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. Like almost everyone on the campus, during the last few days of my four-year stint, I found myself at the sacred Y junction- whether to take up a job or go for higher studies. No offense to those who chose the later (or might choose in future), but by then I was almost tired of the nth root equations, theories that were too ideal to be applied in real situations (if at all we get a chance). If I were to continue in my field of study (I was studying micro-channel heat transfer), I would have found myself in some remote corner of a lab waiting for that eureka moment that might have eluded me for eternity. (A paper/ patent does not qualify as a eureka moment, I believe in business implications and mass application of science and technology which is also cost-effective compared to traditionally available alternatives).

I did not have much idea of what consultants do when I sat for the interview with Deloitte. That I made it through and have been spending the last 2+ years with Deloitte makes me feel that sometimes we just need to let life go the way it likes, without much resistance. My value proposition to the firm when I joined was ‘being good with numbers, good with people’ and some common sense. I got to work on some real cool projects that helped me develop a good sense of business and in the process met some really good people. Working across industries and service lines helped me gain a holistic perspective of the business world and offered me multiple areas to choose from, if I were to consider specializing myself in any area.

To preserve the sanctity of the post’s title (and stop boring you further), let me get to the point. I believe in the ‘What’s in it for me’ attitude when it comes to allotting our time to anything. So here it goes for those who are still reading:

Like I developed a passion for business and consulting, I have recently been developing a keen interest in entrepreneurship. The startup momentum in India has risen to never seen before levels and is expected to transform the Indian business scene like it has been happening in the US for a long while now (US economy is largely dependent on small & medium scale businesses, we will talk about it later). Though I am not an entrepreneur myself (I have a hundred ideas but none convincing enough to yield a good NPV or let’s just say, none better than my job for now), I would like to involve myself in this movement. I don’t think I am qualified enough to call myself a mentor (and there are better people to be called so- I will post about them soon) but I can help startups by using my business consulting skills, providing an outsider’s perspective, asking the right questions and possibly providing some insights into unanswered questions. What’s my offering to the entrepreneurs’ market is going to be my next post. Coming to the ‘What’s in it for me’ thing from my side, I

1. Would be happy I’m able to put my consulting skills to use for a great cause

2. I believe startups offer great learning – there is some business beauty in startups that one cannot savor through consulting for behemoth corporations – this is going to be one of my next posts

3. Last (and the least), I can spend my weekends effectively

I am well aware of how costly it would be for one to follow a wrong advice (especially so in the case of entrepreneurs). I do keep this in mind when I suggest something, and it is only a suggestion, to be implemented only if it makes sense to the whole stakeholder group. Having said something about myself, about my intention in writing this blog, let me take a leave for now until I come up with my second post (within a week). Cheers !

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