Management consulting is a big billion industry. It’s big. It’s growing. It’s highly profitable. And it’s about to be disrupted. Whether the focus is strategy, operations, tax, finance, HR, or IT, business consultants are a staple of corporate life. Today, many consulting firms provide services across virtually and globally in all the aspects of business. From defining strategic direction to simply serving as an additional pair of hands for outsourced work, consultants have become intimately linked to the success of most organizations.
As over the years, business consulting firms have mushroomed, SmartHead Consulting, with its passion for excellence, has also emerged as one of the leading firms in the industry. Since its inception in 2011, the company’s portfolio has been focused on providing thought leadership for Business Growth, Profitability, Market Development, Product / Service Portfolio, People Management, Working Capital Management, Supply Chain, Business Processes, Authorization Structures etc. in various industries such as Healthcare, Textiles, Education, Real Estate, Oil & Gas, Energy, Water Infrastructure, Telecom Equipment, Cables, Polyester Fiber, Pollution Control Equipment, Printing Inks & Packaging Films & Chemicals, Dairy etc.
The founding members of the organization, who do not come from the proverbial consulting domain, believe in simplifying the solutions to various business issues, rather than complicating them. This approach has helped SmartHead to create a niche for them. There is also a huge value proposition for the clients since SmartHead’s solutions are easy to comprehend and implement, thereby more efficient.
But, it is easier said than done. As they say “Simplicity is the ultimate Sophistication.” Saral Samadhan is not easy to achieve. It needs a drill down approach to get to the core of the problem in order to differentiate between the symptoms and the disease.
SmartHead’s partners come from a strong executive operations background and with extensive hands-on experience of widespread implementation of business solutions, allowing them to decipher the real issues. They believe that mere intellectual play would mean nothing if it fails to deliver the desired results. Their collaborative approach helps in creating a bond of trust and faith between them and their client.
Driving Force of the Smart Solution Provider
With the perfect approach of an entrepreneur, the CEO of SmartHead, Pramod Bapna, Managing Director and Head of Strategy & Operations Practice advices to the budding young-entrepreneurs, that the youth must be aware that Entrepreneurship is not short term; it’s a long haul process which takes time and patience to build up. He emphasizes on the fact that there are no short cuts to success. He also advised that one should be honest, straight forward and humble to one’s customers, employees, partners and other stake holders. He said one should be ready to accept challenges, feedbacks and criticism, and make course corrections as they go ahead. “One must learn to put down their ego if they want to succeed,” asserts Pramod.
Pramod comes with a rich industry experience of over two decades in managing businesses, developing potential markets, drafting policy initiatives, and accelerating profitable growth through strategic initiatives. Prior to SmartHead, he served as the President & Managing Director at Degremont Ltd. (an EPC business of the Suez group of France). Previously he has held key positions of General Manager & CEO of Schlumberger RMS India and then Actaris which was a MBO from Schlumberger. He was also Managing Director at Cooper Industries.
Reena Ahuja, a Partner and a key member of the firm’s leadership team has over two decades of experience across a range of industries such as telecommunications, oil & gas, banking and education. Reena leads SmartHead’s People Management Practice. She has been an advisor to organizations’ chief executive officers, senior executives and boards on issues of executive leadership, team effectiveness, organization design, culture transformation, and large-scale people-related change implementation.
Prior to SmartHead, Reena was the head of human resources at Hughes Communication India Ltd. She has also served as the Country Personnel Manager for all business lines of Schlumberger, the only HR manager across that company’s global organization to have held this prestigious position. She has also worked with Citibank Credit Services and NIIT.
Ashok Chordia, who heads the Financial Services Practice, has over three decades of industry experience in corporate finance, including financial advisory services, IPOs, funding, treasury and taxation. Ashok has proven expertise in re-structuring and re-organizing the financial reporting and balance sheet— exercises that focus on leveraging and unlocking the latent potential through finance best practices, helping to overcome organizational challenges. His vast experience spans a range of industries and functional areas.
The CFO and Partner of SmartHead, Sanjiv Nanda has a rich industry experience of more than three decades across various Industries. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Sanjiv is also a Chartered Accountant. His strength lies in crafting impactful legal structures, developing efficient business, finance and tax management practices, tax planning & strategic restructuring, financial & legal due diligence, merger & acquisition advisory, risk management and Legal & Corporate documentation are also a part of his forte.
The Business Intelligence Reporting & Analytics Practice at SmartHead Consulting is headed by Shubh Mangal. He is one of the leading Business Analytics Consultants in India. He brings strategic and creative flavour to technology consulting experience. Shubh has successfully implemented various information technology solutions for global fortune 500 companies for over 15 years. Shubh is armed with master’s degree in MIS from Case Western Reserve University, USA, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Delhi University. He nurtured his leadership skills at Kellogg School of Management.
Working with a Smarter Approach
Considering the background of most of their consultants who themselves come from various corporate backgrounds SmartHead Consulting have faced these issues themselves and understands the pain areas. During the conceptualization stage of SmartHead, the partners made sure to offer a unique model different from those offered in the consulting space. SmartHead assists companies in finding solutions to their complex problems using its model of “Diagnose”, “Engage” & “Deliver”. Its proprietary “Saral Samadhan” methodology has been used for turning around various inefficient businesses by improving their working capital management, supporting vendor management for improving the supply chain, handling change management to grow / multiply their business’s top line, creating appropriate organizational structure, implementing effective performance management systems &generating various business intelligence Dash Boards etc.
SmartHead believes in sharing their best practices with its clients. They strongly advocate that applying and enhancing best practices are more important than keeping them under a “Lock & Key”. In fact, SmartHead offers flexible revenue models to its clients to suit their needs. SmartHead’s experience across various industry segments has translated into a differentiated value proposition and powerful solutions that meet present as well as future demands.
In a short span of seven years since its inception, SmartHead Consulting has touched many triumphant milestones. Within the first year of its inception, they managed to win a contract with a Large Blue Chip company. In 2015, they set up their first overseas office in Dubai to serve Middle East clients. They also had an opportunity to lead the India-UK SME business summit in London thereby successfully signing multiple cross border JV’s and technology licensing agreements for Indian clients. SmartHead has also mentored many startups.
Strong Beliefs to be the Change
SmartHead’s team has got a good mix of vibrancy and maturity which brings a lot of operational know-hows with it. SmartHead believes in gainfully engaging women with celebrated backgrounds having worked at key positions with well-known organizations, however were on sabbatical for some reason. Most of these women are looking for independent work schedules to achieve work-life balance and SmartHead is happy to provide them that platform. It believes that if these women are given the opportunity they can prove to be better contributors than that of a permanent oversized workforce.
Under the aegis of such distinguished individuals, SmartHead Consulting is bound to grow and attain new heights. Nurtured by all the right values such as passion, dedication, and ethics, SmartHead clients are in the right hands!
Future Footsteps of SmartHead
Talking about the future plans with Pramod Bapna, he said that SmartHead has developed solutions around diverse GOI initiatives including ZED, Smart Cities and is now in research phase on developing solutions relating to Women & Elderly people’s safety due to increased exposure with e-services work force (Cab Drivers, Delivery Boys, Home service technicians etc.). When asked about how he has approached change, Pramod said, “Change dawns on us gradually. It should be handled step by step with a cool and stable thought process. It has to be a well thought out process involving communication with the stake holders and clear time lines with realistic goals.”
SmartHead Consulting: Delivering Outstanding Strategies that Makes Complex Business Problems Appear Simple
