Valenco case study #7 - Ashok - Advisory only or full lifecycle consulting and delivery

Background

Ashok grew up in Mumbai, the financial capital of India.

Members of his extended family worked in banking and brokerage companies. When they would visit, the conversation was about money, LIBOR, and stock movements. Though he understood none of this, he set his mind to become a banker.

With an undergraduate degree in commerce and accounting, he was recruited by one of the larger multi-national banks.

Started his career working in the front office and moved up to lead operations for a branch.

Shift

Two of his childhood friends were working in the IT services industry. Both had lived and worked in Scotland and relocated back to India recently. They travelled overseas regularly for meetings with large financial institutions. One of them had gold status with an airline and was upgraded to business class on his last trip to Europe.

And here he was, running operations for a bank branch in New Mumbai.

A top tier technology firm was scaling up its banking industry consulting unit. For this, it was seeking professionals who had worked in banks and understood the processes, challenges and opportunities.

Ashok took the plunge, moved into this consulting stream and applied for his passport.

Today

In the last decade, Ashok has expanded his knowledge and understanding of the processes and systems which run the global banking industry. Is now an active contributor to the discussions about global finance in family gatherings.

He has built a handpicked team. It tracks emerging technology adoption trends in banking, disseminates that information to clients, and makes recommendations on where they should be looking to make investments.  

Ashok leads conversations with the C suite of his employers’ clients to discuss these recommendations.

These meetings often lead to approvals for pilot implementations which are then entrusted to a delivery team from the banking group.  Ashok and his team work closely with them to ensure that the recommended benefits are demonstrated.

Successful pilots lead to larger programs.

During the larger implementations, the delivery team is in charge and runs the show. Ashok and his team participate in milestone checks, periodic governance calls and executive reviews. Aside of that, they have a limited role in the regular cadence of the program implementation.

This is starting to gnaw him. He sees that he is at the start of transformative work but shut out from the downstream implementations and the outcome of those.

Now what

He talked about this concern with the leader of the delivery team for the banking group and with his own supervisor.

Empathizing with him, they suggested two alternative roles.

He can move into the mainstream delivery organization of the banking group or be part of a PMO team which leads large programs for its clients. In both cases he will be able to participate in the entire lifecycle of any large implementation.

While these are tempting options, Ashok realizes that in taking either he will need to give up the consulting activity in which he has built significant expertise. His role will be dedicated to the delivery of large programs downstream after they have been seeded and approved.

Biryani chat

A friend from his school days is to a senior manager with a Big 4 consulting organization. Those in senior manager and higher roles are dedicated to one or sometimes two clients. They carry responsibility for winning new business for their practice stream and also of providing oversight to ensure that the business is delivered well.

This got Ashok interested. A role like this will give him ownership of consulting, business development and pilots, as well as the through the complete lifecycle of program delivery. It is also an opportunity to build a deeper understanding and relationships with one or a few select clients.

On the flip side though, he will give up the opportunity to be advising multiple prospects and clients on their future technology options and journey.

Ashok’s family hosts a large gathering on the Ganapati festival. As neighbors you are always on the invitee list. Knowing that you have been in the industry for many years, Ashok caught up with you over a plate of veg biryani and asked for your advice. Should he;

1.       Stay with and grow in the current consulting / advisory stream

2.      Move to the delivery / large program group

3.      Aim for one of the Big 4 companies for a senior manager position

The advice he received

What he is intending to do

Ashok is grateful to all who shared their input on what he should be looking at as his future career.

Reflecting on his career, he realizes how much richer it had become after he moved from the bank branch into the consulting and advisory role. It helped him expand his knowledge, meet with prospective clients across the globe, and build a wholistic picture of global banking trends.

On any given day, he discusses current and emerging options for banks to run their businesses more efficiently and competitively. It always brings back memories of the conversations he had heard his father having with friends.

Moving to a delivery / program organization he would still be aware of emerging trends, but spend more time in implementations of technology, features and defect management.

Moving to a big 4 consulting firm, he will be actively involved in the upstream consulting activity, be on top of emerging trends, and yet have opportunity to participate in the realization of the recommendations during the downstream implementations of business won.

The lure of the full lifecycle experience has gotten to him and the advice he has received also points to it. He has applied to the big 4 firm in which his friend works and also to one more. At the time of writing, he is in the early rounds of interviews with both of them.

You may also want to read Sridhar - Business development or hands on tech