How Barnik Maitra Steered Adl India Toward Its Growth
Barnik Chitran Maitra was on the advisory and founding board of several early-stage startups, funds and incubators when he was approached by the top management of Arthur D. Little (ADL) to spearhead its second innings in India, early in 2020. The former NRI didn’t have second thoughts about the offer despite the plum positions he held globally.
The India unit of the Brussels, Belgium headquartered company evolved from a status where it had zero employees and no revenues in April 2020, to be the fifth largest tier-one management consulting firm in the country with over 50 employees within a year of Maitra coming on board.
Arthur D. Little India is now pitted against companies like McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., BCG, AT Kearney, etc., which have a similar suite of offerings in the strategy consulting space such as Market Entry, Cost Optimization, Growth Strategy, Business Consulting, et al. “My passion for building the new India is one of my key reasons for taking up this challenging role at this juncture. Also, the coming decades and century belong to India, which is on the cusp of becoming a leading global economy. Furthermore, technology and innovation, fuelled by the vibrant startup ecosystem will be the new engines of growth for India,” says Maitra, Managing Partner, India and South Asia, Arthur D. Little, in an exclusive interaction with BW Businessworld. “Interestingly, our business is and will always be bigger than that of China. The unique value proposition ADL pursues is serving sectors of the Indian economy whose full potential has not been realized and that need transformation to achieve the $5 trillion GDP goal and Atmanirbhar Bharat, most notably water, agriculture, tourism, and healthcare,” he explains.
According to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM), the Indian consulting industry is expected to record Rs 27,000 crore in the way of revenues by 2020. Unofficial estimates suggest that the industry is projected to grow by 25-30 per cent CAGR over the next five years. One estimate also suggests that between 500 and 600 high-value consulting contracts worth $250 million to $300 million are awarded every year by Indian companies, including 30 to 40 projects worth over $2 million each.
A report by the The Ken suggests that BCG India grew 22 per cent to achieve a revenue of Rs 2,325 crore ($315.9 million). McKinsey & Co India LLP grew 82 per cent to achieve a domestic consulting revenue of Rs 1,352 crore ($183.7 million). BW Businessworld could not confirm these figures from either company, though.
Arthur D. Little is an international management consulting firm that has played a key role in the development of business strategy, operations research, the word processor, the first synthetic penicillin, LexisNexis, SABRE and NASDAQ. Since he has been at the helm of the oldest global management consulting firm in the region, Maitra has turned around its performance in just 15 months, making inroads into the government sector and into companies of a host of verticals such as telecom, technology, automotives, utilities, healthcare, agriculture and water, with an additional focus on digital transformation, rural development, tourism, space, and industrials and manufacturing.
Today ADL is a multinational management consulting firm operating as a partnership. Under Maitra’s leadership, ADL India brought in a radically reimagined management consulting offering, which is open-sourced (“open consulting”), outcome-oriented with advisor ‘skin-in-the-game’ and offers diverse client propositions such as strategy advisory, transaction advisory, fund-raising, breakthrough growth and digital transformation. “We have pioneered something called the ‘Open Consulting’ approach, which is like the ‘Android of Consulting’ and is accessible to all of our domestic clients. Secondly, we link part of our fees to outcomes, which we call ‘skin-in-the-game’ and is far more important for smaller companies and startups. The third thing is that we have a very unique proposition wherein we are giving our clients access to international capital by connecting them to select investors. If you put all these three propositions together as an Indian business, you have the proposition of having an advisor who prepares you to build the world of the future and not teach about the business you are in today,” says Maitra, who has also a been a Partner at McKinsey & Company too.
Despite the Covid-induced slowdown, ADL managed to crack deals and forge alliances with varied industries, comprising a leading energy utility major, several telco infrastructure players, auto players across the value chain, a healthcare conglomerate, a generics pharmaceutical player, a global tech multinational, an international water multinational, private equity/ venture capital fund house on EV, sustainable mobility, impact investments, infrastructure players as well as a leading financial institution. Arthur D. Little is also working with important stakeholders in the Union government and several state governments in areas of strategic importance to the economy and society.
“Today a lot of our clients are asking how do we reorient our business in quantum computing, which happens in top-notch research laboratories or in the research wings of big-league companies. Since we offer our clients the opportunity to leapfrog into the future, we did better business during Covid in India. We couldn’t have created this business had Covid not happened. Every single executive we are speaking to is thirsty for a reimagined transformed solution,” says Maitra, asked about the post- Covid business environment.
Meanwhile, ADL India aims to earn a three-digit figure in million euros over the next three to four years. The company also plans to double its headcount every two years to over 100 consultants by 2022 and 200-250 by 2024 and over 400-450 by 2026 and also be among the top two tier-1 management consulting firms in India in this time frame. “While globally we are growing by over 20 per cent annually, our Indian arm is looking to double its revenues every 12-18 months,” says Maitra. “ We want to serve clients globally with some of the capabilities we are building in India, at scale. So, in the next four years, we are earmarking our Bangalore competence centre not just for AI, but also for blockchain, IoT, Edge Computing, Cloud/SaaS, Cyber Security, etc.,” he says.
