On the other side of the Great Disruption – A Personal Note
I am very pleased to bring to you our 5th Annual NewsLetter. Like most businesses- large and small, FY20-21 has been the most challenging year of our short 5 year history. We have survived the series of crushing economic lockdowns, life and work with masks, sanitisers and WFH. Even as we were looking forward to “Return To Office” – we are now faced with a much more intense second-wave. Yet, as we reflect back over the last 12 months on the many lives and businesses that have been lost and over-turned, our primary sentiment is that of Gratitude. At having survived, prevailed and possibly grown in strength and resilience through this crisis.
Being a gig-economy focused venture, we have aligned our operating model with its principles but not without some pain. We downsized our team, let go of our office-space, and shifted to a 100% WFH model. Yet, thanks to the dedication and support of our Core team of Payal and Cyrus and the faith of our network and clients – we have actually grown our impact and key operating metrics. Our network has grown by 20% to 600+ expert consultants. New project opportunities sourced on our Platform grew marginally on an annual basis – the heartening trend has been that in the last 4 months we are averaging 10-12 new projects a month, double the monthly-run rate compared to the start of the year. Today, we are in a position to reinvest for growth.
We recently launched our 1st Consultant Feedback Survey to get feedback from our Expert Network on how we can improve the quality and value of experience we bring to them. Thanks to all of you who have shared your feedback. One the consistent feedback areas is for us to provide more frequent and proactive updates on opportunity status. Our Team has taken this feedback on board and we are now implementing a more rigorous process of project Updates. Another important feedback is to enable Collaboration mechanisms between individual members of our independent Network – we will soon be sharing our Consultant Collaboration and Referral Model.
Last, but not the least, I am also very happy to share that we have strengthened our team to build for the future. My Partner and Co-Founder, Deepak Malkani has joined our IndusGuru Team from Feb-2021. Deepak has worked in the consulting industry over the last 25+ years, in leading organisations like Accenture and PwC. He has wide experience across a range of consulting domains and industries and in setting up and growing consulting practices.
We look forward to growing our Platform in scale and quality, together – so that it becomes deeply relevant to our clients and expert consultants alike.
Shanu Malkani
My aspirations for IndusGuru – One Network, Many Possisbilities
I am delighted to join the IndusGuru Team and Network. When Shanu and me first thought about a new venture…the Gig economy was picking up steam in India and Digitisation was already a buzz-word, but IndusGuru was only a gleam in our eye. Since then – with temporary speed-breakers like demonetisation, economic volatility and a once-in-a-century pandemic – these 2 trends have become like forces of nature – inevitable and all-powerful. And the IndusGuru Platform has grown year on year to a strong expert network – that is now working with a diverse range of organisations, to provide them access to exceptional professional Independent talent – and providing a diverse range of project opportunities to our expert. For our clients and consultants, we are – One Network – Many Possibilities!
We have stayed true to this original intent, while expanding into different spaces. We are expanding from our core-franchise with SMEs to engage meaningfully with other key client segments – the large companies and consulting & PE firms.
We believe in and want to retain our core promise:
- We are a curated Platform: Our team takes great effort to meet, understand and qualify through references – each of the Expert Consultants empaneling in our Network. Our empanelment is by invitation or referral. 51% of our current consultants, have referred other experts into our Network. Our latest feedback survey indicates that ~68% of our expert network will be happy to recommend our Network to others in the future.
- We focus on experienced senior professionals: 95% of our current expert network has more than 10 years professional work-experience, the average experience range is 22+ years. We are a still-young start-up, yet our 600 consultants represent ~ 13,000 person-years of experience!
- We will provide a “high-touch” user experience: we hand-hold the process of identification, selection and engagement of Experts by Organisations, working closely with both. We do not compromise on in-person interactions – we rely on the ‘native intelligence’ of our team, rather than the AI of algorithms.
As the world changes, and the “liquid workforce” trend gathers momentum, we are aware we will need to keep pace. In order to tap more and newer opportunities, we will need to change some strategies, while keeping some core principles constant.
We look forward to your continued support, feedback and partnership in this journey.
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