Greetings from SIMCON - SIMSREE Consulting Club ! Attached is the February Edition of BEACON (Monthly Newsletter from SIMCON). We request you to kindly go through the newsletter and provide your valuable feedback and suggestions to help us improve ! Contents: Consultancy Conclave Held by SIMCON on 23rd February 2013, Knowledge Article about Consultancy Firm: Bain and Co. Consultancy World News Mini Quiz for brainees

1. Mail to:
simcon.simsree@gmail.com
INDEX
On 23rd February 2013, SIMSREE campus was full of talks about on goings
of Consulting as SIMCON – SIMSREE Consulting Club had successfully hosted its first
‘Consultancy Conclave’. Eminent personalities visited the campus to contribute to
panel discussion on the topic ‘Future of Consulting: Challenges and Opportunities’.
The first Consulting Conclave was a huge success owing to joint efforts of all
SIMCON members under the guidance of faculty members and Director Dr. M. A.
Khan. We are also thankful to all students who were present and made it a success.
Discussion started from Mr. Ashish Ambasta who is currently Director - India
& Middle East at People Business (PB) shared some of his past experience as a con-
sultant. He tried his best to keep the mood of the discussion light and informal by a
touch of humour and also communicating with students in their own language.
Mr. Ashish Ambasta guided the discussion on right track with occasional
sense of humour and asked the panellists relevant and most common questions in
the minds of students aspiring to become future consultants.
1 . P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N W I T H C O N S U L T A N T S
C O N S U L T A N C Y C O N -
C L A V E A T S I M S R E E
1
C O N S U L T A N C Y C O N -
C L A V E C O N T D .
2
K N O W U R C O M P A N Y :
B A I N A N D C O .
3
C O N S U L T I N G W O R L D
N E W S
5
F E B R U A R Y ’ S Q U I Z 6
C O N T A C T U S 6
A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FROM SIMCON - SIMSREE CONSULTING CLUB
Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education
February 2013
B E A C O N BE-A-CONSULTANT
S I M S R E E C O N S U L T I N G
C L U B
Issue: 4

2. Industry stalwarts who graced the occasion as a panellist
for the event were Mr. Malay Shah, Senior Principal Consult-
ant Strategy at Infosys Management Consulting Services
and also alumnus of SIMSREE from 2000 finance batch; Ms.
Radhika Mittal, Director at Oracle; Mr. Munjal Kamdar, who
is Senior Manager, Enterprise Risk Services at Deloitte and
he is also an alumnus of SIMSREE from 1996 marketing batch
and Mr. BipParmar, Founder, Director at Lifezone Training
and President at TKPL Logistics. Students had a pleasure of
having Mr. Ashish Ambasta, Director - India & Middle East
at People Business (PB) and also alumnus of SIMSREE from
2002 batch as a moderator for the panel discussion.
Each of the panellists initially gave his/her view on the
topic of discussion and also talked about their area of expertise.
Mr. Malay Shah explained in brief the history of consulting
industry in India, leading companies in different business
domains and also scope of consulting industry. He illustrated
how nature of consulting has changed since first generation of
consulting firms to more recent consulting firms like Infosys
and TCS and also growth of consulting in services sector like IT
and KPO. Ms. Radhika Mittal gave insights about IT consulting
and also about new trend of internal consulting in which, a
organizations rather than hiring outside consultants, they prefer
developing an internal team of consultants who are domain
experts in different strategic business units.
Mr. Munjal Kamdar shared his view on consulting in
risk domain. He also talked on pros/cons of being consultant
in a very interesting way. Mr. Bip Parmar enlightened students
with some of his experiences in global business. He stressed
on some of the key qualities that are necessary to be inculcated to
become a successful consultant such as credibility, trust,
confidence and networking. He also touched upon importance
of work culture for any organization as it is one thing that can‘t be
copied by competitors easily.
The panellists discussed about day to day challenges
faced by a consultant in today‘s competitive world and troubled
economies. They also emphasised on importance of keeping
work-life balance for a sustainable career in consulting industry,
considering the fact that this job involves not only a lot of stress,
working under deadlines, preparing last minute presentations,
but also a lot travelling & visiting different people worldwide.
However, all panellists were of the opinion that a consultant must
be passionate about his work and advised students to enjoy
their work.
The panel discussion was followed by a brief questions
and answers session in which students got a chance to interact
with the eminent personalities and get their doubts solved. The
panellists were impressed by the quality of questions asked by
students and answered their queries with equal enthusiasm.
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B E A C O N : C O N S U L T A N C Y C O N C L A V E A T S I M S R E E

3. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd, commonly referred to
as Deloitte, is one of the Big Four professional services
firms along with Ernst & Young, Pw C
(PricewaterhouseCoopers), and KPMG.
Deloitte is the second largest professional services
network in the world by revenue and has 193,000 employees in
more than over 150 countries providing audit, tax, consulting,
enterprise risk and financial advisory services. In FY 2012,
Deloitte earned a record $31.3 billion USD in revenues.
In 2012, it is reported that in the U. K. Deloitte has the
largest number of clients amongst FTSE 250 companies.
Its global headquarters is located in New York
City, United States.
* Services offered by Deloitte
Deloitte member firms offer its services in the following
functions, with country-specific variations on their legal im-
plementation (i.e. all operating within single company or
through separate legal entities operating as subsidiaries of an
umbrella legal entity for the country)
B A I N & C O
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K N O W Y O U R C O M P A N Y
It has its headquarters: Boston, MA, Founded: 1973, No
of Offices: 42, Central Locations: North America, Western
Europe, India, East Asia
Website: www.bain.com
Positives
• The level of entrepreneurship still embraced even given their size
• Continuous opportunity to grow and learn
• The smart and fun people drive a thriving and dynamic culture
• Results-oriented culture
Negatives
• Intense, unpredictable and gruelling, at times
• Difficult to predict what the client will want and when
• Can be better when it comes to diversity
• Lack of control in scheduling
Life at Bain
Those with strong conceptual thinking will do just fine,
according to younger associates, But they will need to ensure that
they can find concrete direction with their analysis. Others have
noted that the best applicant, whether entry-level or in the middle
of one’s career, will find that humility is a career attribute of all
management consultant applicants that are successful at Bain.
Areas of Focus
The firm's 5,000 consultants are experts in a number of
industries, including the automotive, consumer products, energy
and utilities, financial services, health care, industrial machinery,
media, mining, non-profit and public sector, retail, services, tech-
nology, telecommunications and transportation services sectors.
Consulting Projects: Banking Sector — Bain &Company
Bain and Company did a project for Piggybank, which
wanted to improve its poor bottom line through better customer
management. Historically, Piggybank had treated customers de-
pending upon their relative economic position i.e. the wealthier the
client, the more profitable he is for the company. Bain conducted a
customer survey to understand the reason why people liked/
disliked the bank and its services, get an idea of its current useful
products for customers and how it can earn more customer busi-
ness. Bain also conducted a competitor research to understand the
common products, services, pricing and relationships in local and
global markets. Bain gave them recommendations to club different
products to lure customers, offer sweep accounts (giving better
rates to the customers), separate tele-service line to expedite the
process to service customer needs, offer financial planning ser-
vices to customers , assign a personal banker to each customer to
help them understand products better. By taking steps advised by
Bain, Piggybank increased its profits to 38% and increased its cus-
tomer retention to 90%.
Bain & Company
Parent Company The Bain & company
Category Strategy and Financial Services
Sector Consulting
Tagline/ Slogan People, Passion, Results
USP Expert in Private Equity and Leveraged buy Out
STP
Segment Businesses in urban areas in various countries
Target Group Most clients are major private investment firms
Positioning They are experts in financial services consulting
SWOT Analysis
Strength
1. They are expert in PE, Mergers & Acquisitions
and financial services consulting firm
2. Skilful workforce of over 5000 employees
3. It has nearly 50 offices in over 30 countries
4. It has a strong brand presence in the field of
consulting
Weakness
1. Their geographical reach is weak in emerging
economies
2. Alleged controversies in Value partners and
Guinness affected image
Opportunity
1. They have more opportunities in Asia and
growing economies
2. Diversification in the fields of consulting to
increase reach
Threats
1. Stiff competition from industry players
2. Fluctuations in currencies affects projects
3. Competitors with own knowledge centres
Competition
Competitors
1. McKinsey & co.
2. Booz & co.
3. The Boston Consulting Group

4. Financial Services — Bain& Company
Bain and Company provided Financial Services to FinServe, one of the major global players in
commercial and consumer lending. FinServe was facing pressure from their shareholders due to stalled
growth. The company had already implemented cost-cutting measures which had stabilized their income
statement. But in order to promote future growth, they consulted Bain and Company (referred as Bain from
now).
Bain evaluated the company‘s portfolio and assessed the long term aspects of 20 subscale busi-
ness units. They helped the client to share resources by grouping them by geographical location and com-
mon business attributes, to market products effectively and to benefit from economies of scale. After the
planning stage, Bain helped FinServe to lead training sessions, efficiently make decisions, make organiza-
tional changes and in turn expedite and streamline execution. Result: Helped FinServe to increase profits
by 15% annually and increase the market capitalization by 30% in app 1.5 yrs.
Note: this is a different project and not related to finserve above this
In US, every 26 seconds a student drops out of high school. To curb the alarming dropout rate,
‗Urban Youth Co.‘ has created the pre-eminent volunteer youth service organization in America. It unites
young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service in the underprivileged communities across
20 cities, working as a tutors, mentors and role models to help children stay in school by improving atten-
dance, behaviour and course performance.
Problem:
UrbanYouth Co was under pressure to expand its successful Boston program to other US cities.
Bain helped them tackle two critical challenges: 1. developing a clear growth strategy and well-managed
finance and 2. fundraising operations.
Recommendations:
* Doubling the number of its US offices over five years.
* Clearly structuring the relationship between Boston and expansion sites.
* Developing five-year strategic plans for both Boston and Los Angeles.
* Transforming financial operations to boost revenues.
* Focusing operations and fundraising on its core—reducing the number of high school dropouts.
Results:
* UrbanYouth Co. expanded operations to 18 US cities and abroad, and strengthened its position in the
deemed important areas.
BAIN & CO.
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5. Cognizant announces record Q3 2012-2013 results
Cognizant Business Consulting has achieved year-on-year growth in Europe of 40% and this in turn has fed into wider
recognition among clients and consultants alike.
“Analysts are saying we are getting our consultancy model right and people want to be somewhere exciting,” ex-
plains Mike Hunter, CBC‘s head of European consulting. “We’re going out and hiring a lot of talent at partner level.”
―We‘re not like our competitors where IT services have moved into consultancy and clouded the dividing line between busi-
ness and IT. That‘s been very good for attracting great clients; we‘re more able to achieve thought leadership through
the types of people we‘ve brought on board.‖
“The consultants I really respect are the ones who can tell me tomorrow’s problems, what tomorrow’s business
will look like,” he says. “We call this the Future of Work—it‘s the way we look at the future of things like retail, banking,
what‘s driving certain industries, who are the people who want to be radical, the people like Google and Apple.‖
This feeds into what Hunter describes as business without boundaries which in turn calls for advice without boundaries.
“The client doesn’t care—within reason—where they are getting their though leadership from—there‘s much more
virtualization, people are more mobile,‖ he says. “The boundaries have broken down.” A recent client was part-way
through a transition program but wanted to talk to someone about where the business might be in three years time.
With CBC‘s delivery of consultancy also becoming more virtual, so that it can make better use of its global roster of
experts, Hunter believes the traditional dynamic of consultancy is changing.
Global consulting spend set to increase but consultants are trapped in the back office -2013
The most comprehensive report ever conducted into clients‘ use of management consultants has found that almost half
(49 per cent) of consulting clients expect their spend on consultants to increase in 2013, with a quarter expecting
double digit percentage increases. In particular, companies operating in the energy and natural resources sector are
expecting to call on the services of consultants, with a tenth expecting their spend to rise sharply.
Source claims that this is one of the most positive readings of the market it has taken since 2007, suggesting that
there‘s genuine cause for optimism, with only 16 per cent of those surveyed expecting a fall in spend.
Technology consulting under demand
In overall terms technology consulting looks set to enjoy the strongest growth. Organizations surveyed stated they are
four times as likely to expect their use of consultants on technology projects to increase, as decrease. Only 14 per
cent of the organizations surveyed said their expenditure in this area will fall – compared to 56 per cent who thought it
would grow.
Opportunities still exist in the buoyant energy and natural resources sector for conventional, large-scale IT projects
driven by the need to replace increasingly obsolescent systems. Elsewhere, more specialist advice is being sought in
areas such as cloud computing where the IT and telecoms service providers lack the consulting skills to articulate and
adapt their proposition, and the ability to discuss technology issues with functional heads outside the IT department.
Operational improvement and strategy consulting
Demand for operational improvement consulting also looks set to grow faster than average in 2013, with 54 per cent of
end-users expecting expenditure in this area to increase. Strategy consulting will also grow in 2013 but at a slightly
lower rate than the market average. Source says that the immediate focus here will be efficiency, but growth is never far
from thought. However, in stark contrast there is less growth in demand for advice on financial management and control.
The need to improve technology, increase sales and reduce expenditure continues to drive a lot of organizational
activity and expenditure on consultants.
Consulting World

6. 1..Audio products from the House of Marley
2. Due to Defects these products were recalled
3. Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry group.
4. Otto Bock and Sainsbury’s
5. Woodward’s Gripe Water by TTK
Pharma
Mail Answers To:
simcon.simsree@gmail.com with
Subject= simcon_quiz_feb_2013
First Received All Correct Answers will
be published in next month’s Edition.
C O N G R A T S ! ! A N S W E R S T O V O L - 3 . J A N .
1 . What is common to Queen Elizabeth I, Charles Dickens, Greta Garbo, Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon and recently
Mark Twain?
2 . This Canadian was called Mr Fix-it during his school days when he made buzzer boxes for
school game shows. He got a big break when he responded to a General Motors RFP to develop a
network computer control display system just two months before graduation. Name him, the com-
pany he founded and the brand he owns.
3. Identify the lady in the pic
4 . It is an over the counter antiseptic perfumed cream sold in India. The brand was launched in
1929 in Kolkata by gourmohan dutta , a Bengali merchant .It is a combination of the antiseptic
boric acid, the astringent and sunscreen zinc oxide, and the emollient lanolin
5 . Which CEO has set up a practice of inviting only one senior leader out of the 200-odd leaders in his company to his
house for the weekend which is dubbed as a sleepover?
QUIZZ TIME !!
Contributions invited: To make this feature a successful effort,
we seek continued involvement and contribution from our readers, that
is YOU. We invite articles and trivia on themes related to consulting. Be
it industry news, consulting trends, a joke, a cartoon or feedback, we
are eager to hear from you. So go ahead, do your research, pen down
your thoughts and mail your entries to simcon.simsree@gmail.com.
Best Regards,
SIMCON –SIMSREE CONSULTING CLUB
SIMSREE, B-ROAD CHURCHGATE 400 020, INDIA.
Mail To: simcon.simsree@gmail.com
QUIZZ FOR FEBRUARY 2013
Mr. Vernon Fernandes
MMS 2012-14 SIMSREE