The Indian industry witnessed a steep rise after 2000—courtesy of liberalization and addition of a host of services and manufacturing units. These companies have grown over the years and are now planning to be globally competitive and getting ready to compete with the best. Today, it is easier to have access to the latest technology and manufacturing practices. However, companies require the right execution of strategies to be globally competitive.
“We believe that every company has the potential to be successful if they adhere to the right business practices and leverage their strengths,” says Vineet Trakroo (Founder and CEO of Evolution Strategy Advisors). Evolution Strategy Advisors was established in 2013 with a vision to enable enterprise growth. This Indian-based company is on a mission to evolve businesses by offering the best solutions in operational strategy and execution.
Exclusive Portfolio of Services
Evolution Strategy Advisors strive to enable business transformation by providing a bouquet of industry-leading services. It offers insights to grow, supported with data and solutions curated from the internal teams. Several factors distinguish ESA from its competitors. The company identifies new growth opportunities for its clients by looking at their businesses differently. It then reaches out to the business stakeholders, viz. sales, trade, customers, and influencers through its cloud-based platforms with a curated set of questions. These questions provide deep insights into the challenges faced by the clients internally and their solutions.
ESA objectively analyzes data to identify new areas of growth. It is the only company that provides a solution for growth at the operating strategy level for medium and large corporates in the B2C sector. Moreover, ESA is the only company in India that offers a proprietary solution called Business Health Analysis—a business growth solution offered to large corporate where ESA uses data analytics and its proprietary cloud-based platform to understand challenges faced by the organization. Alongside Business Health Analysis, the company provides other services including,
- Business Transformation: It involves restructuring and transforming mid-sized organizations to grow. ESA works with organizations to transform the way they work by bringing in industry-wide best practices in sales, marketing, human resources, and systems & strategy. Digital transformation of sales and marketing is also a part of this service.
- Building Executional Excellence: ESA works with mid-sized organizations that strive to strengthen specific functions like sales, distribution, marketing, brand management, and analytics. Moreover, it takes up brands/businesses that are not performing and turns them around.
- International Licensing: ESA represents some of the leading International brands in India for brand licensing in the durable and technology areas. It has a tie-up with LMCA—a leading licensing house based in the US having more than US$ 6 billion in licensed product sales.
Stellar Client Base
ESA has been working with the B2C industry mainly automobiles, FMCG, durables, building materials, and pharmaceuticals. Its client base includes some of the renowned companies such as Tata Motors, Titan, Mahindra, Camlin, Faber Castle, Saint Gobain, Pfizer, Abbott, Pepsi, General Mills, and about 50 more. “We have done multiple projects with most of our clients and they have seen results within a quarter. Our success lies in our client’s success,” adds Vineet.
An Ardent Professional
As the founder and CEO of Evolution Strategy Advisors, Vineet has performed multiple roles. Presently, he focuses on driving new businesses and establishing alliances to offer more services. ESA’s offering in brand licensing is an area of focus for him. Earlier, he was involved with product development and the creation of a service model that can deliver growth for any industry.
Under his auspices, ESA has created a product based on data and insight with analytics at its core. The company has perfected this model over the past 8 years. Both ESA and Vineet have received numerous awards and accolades since the company’s inception. Vineet, however, considers that the biggest reward for him and the company is when its clients can realize the benefits of its recommendations and grow their business.
Challenges due to the Uncertainty
Presently, the biggest challenge for ESA is getting organizations to invest in its future growth. Companies are uncertain on how the markets will change due to the second pandemic wave, thus there is a wait and watch—although certain organizations were grappling on how to increase production and meet the market needs last year. “All companies have growth challenges with some of their product lines. But mostly they try to solve these internally. It’s only when they repeatedly don’t get the required success they approach us,” asserts Vineet.
Coping with the Increasing Demand
The pandemic impacted businesses in almost every sector. To counter the loss, organizations are now getting ready to leap. Moreover, with the second and third-generation owners interested in professionalizing operations, the interest in consulting and the gig economy (freelance consulting) is increasing.
ESA witnessed a renewed interest in consulting from smaller, family-managed companies besides the larger organizations that have been boosted by experts from the gig economy. Many B2B organisation who have had smaller B2C operations are planning to ramp them up..
With the increasing number of consultants, it is imperative for ESA to differentiate itself as a unique service provider. ESA’s services have been experienced by top corporates and have delivered business results. The company has increased its social media presence. It is also expanding its services to reach out to new customer segments.
Digital Transformation Services
With the increase in remote working, it is important to have the right systems and tools to manage and control the business through digitization. Today, there are numerous tools available in the market, however, several organizations may not have the understanding of leveraging them to their advantage and use them to manage business effectively. ESA has recently launched digital transformation services which relate to the digitization of brick and mortar business in core functions of sales and marketing. “Digitization is a cultural change as it changes the way you look at business, through data as almost everything is measurable” says Vineet.
The Need to Change and Grow
The consulting industry is typically dependent on business from other industries. Thus, it is a symbiotic relationship. A client only calls a consulting company when they feel the need to change things and grow. The first step is to attempt the change themselves. According to Vineet, with more and more people available in the gig economy, industries have more opportunities to try new things. Consumers are also experiencing restrictions in their social activities and human interactions which are affecting consumption and income. He adds that the new order will be known once this social change stabilizes post-pandemic.
Supporting the Clients’ Aspirations
In the coming years, certain sectors are expected to grow significantly than the others. Vineet believes that implementing smart strategies is the key during the pandemic period and will help smarter companies sail smoothly compared to others. Presently, the second quarter of 2021 seems to be similar to 2020 as the second wave of the pandemic is expected to have some impact on businesses. However, the impacts of the second wave in 2021—according to Vineet—would not be as bad on business as 2020 was with a total shut down as businesses are better-equipped to manage the pandemic with the vaccine availability and businesses have learned how to align to the new normal.
Vineet further mentions that 2020 has been a year of lower business for most companies and thus the hunger to grow in 2021 has increased. The projected extensive GDP growth in India is expected to help many companies grow. The government is also planning to increase infrastructure spending—which would bring in more growth and money into the economy. For the last 8 years, ESA has developed its products to operate in a digital world. Thus the company is well prepared for supporting its clients’ aspirations to grow.
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