| Mr. Raj Nair, an IIT Bombay alumnus, started with the unpredictability factor in life being the name of the consulting game today. He raised quite a few eyebrows by talking about how hope and fear were the major reasons consultants were hired by companies. But by the end of the talk, the students were able to appreciate where he was coming from. Mr. Nair talked about the great impact SMAC technologies (Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud) have on the business world today. |
Innovation stems from consultants leveraging these key technologies to advice clients. Mr. Nair stressed on the importance of being on the right side of innovation instead of being a mere passenger. Also of particular importance is the way the cloud has made a lot of data available at a cheaper cost which results in more informed decision making and better solutions that the consultants can offer. I would like to thank sir for sharing his vast experience with us for it is sessions like these that give us a true idea about the trends in the industry. |
| Mr. Raj Nair started off on the strong note of what trends are capturing the field of consulting and business in general. He gave us an insight into the new framework called the SMAC, which stands for Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud Computing. He spoke about how each of the four of these is contributing in bringing a twist to the converging field of business. He then asked us the very simple question of why do we buy the services of a consulting firm? The answers we gave ranged from getting a neutral perspective from a 3rd party to achieving optimum and efficient results. |
But his answer for this simple question was intriguing yet and unconventional – Hope or Fear is what makes us buy consulting. He went on to tell us that this decision is generally taken at the Chief level and generally the decision is based on hope for the firm to do better/grow bigger or on the fear that the firm may be slowing down against the competition in the market. Some of his insights seemed to be counter intuitive at first but by the end of the session we got the logic behind the insights. This was the power of the personality, experience and wisdom of Mr Nair.
|
|
It feels great to listen to an alumnus of your alma mater who has made it big in life. Raj Nair’s talk revolving around the theme of convergence was an eye opener. He talked about the two basic emotions that actually lead people to engage consultants: Hope and fear. He also introduced us to the abbreviation SMAC: Social, Media, Analytics and Cloud.
|
The major takeaway for us from the talk was his assertion that in 10 years all of us, regardless of the industry that we work in, would be consultants. He went at lengths to make sure that we get this message. He also debunked two assertions on the basis of which a lot of people go about doing business research: a) Data is in short supply and b) Data is not cheap. The growth that his company, Avalon, has achieved has been an inspiration to us. |
|
|
