Strategy has never been more challenging than in today’s environment of global competition, in which corporate strategies must transcend the borders of nations and markets. Too many organizations try to be everything to everyone, wasting resources in markets that may never provide a worthwhile return on investment. More and more organizations with time learn that past experience is not always the best basis for developing future strategies. The exercise of strategic planning, while important, tends to answer the how and when of business planning and rarely captures the essence of what it means to think strategically. That’s where strategic thinking comes in.
At present, business organizations are in a constant flux. Whether the catalyst is provided by tightening environmental regulations, emerging IT innovations, stagnating profits, a decreasing market share, or any other contemporary or classic business interruption, companies keep changing. It is this constant change that has enabled the proliferation of one particular form of business – management consulting that provides strategic planning. While clients are supposedly experts in what they do normally, management consultancies claim to be experts in different types of organizational ‘anomalies’ – instances, where the organization is shifting direction or changing pace in one way or another.
Delhi based EconStra is one such global management consulting firm that provides strategic planning to leading nongovernmental organizations, businesses, governments and not-for-profits. The company assists clients to make continued progress to their performance and apprehend their most essential goals. Over almost 10 years, they have created a management consulting firm solely fitted for this task and since then have been helping businesses to find the right way.
The First Phase of Success
The story behind EconStra takes back to a time when Arunavaa D Bajpayi graduated from Harvard with a business degree in 2008. Prior to this while he was studying in Canada, he had began his own venture. This was the time when he noticed how businesses require a strategy that is a coherent, unifying, integrative framework for decisions especially about direction of the business and resource utilization. Later while working as a strategic consultant in New York, he felt the need of assisting companies with bit of guidance that would in turn improve their business processes, reduce complexity and build new capabilities for long-term success. This very though motivated him to venture into a management consulting firm through which he could help clients adopt responsive solutions, adapt to change in a compressed time frame. Thus was born EconStra in 2010.
At the start, there were setbacks pertaining to convince the clients. Throwing light on the snags, Arunavaa speaks, “When I started this business, I was young. It was indeed a great deal to go beyond the stereotype that Indians have about consultants. Mostly, they prefer to be advised by ‘grey hair consultants’ – deeming to value their knowledge and experience. However, once it so happened that I got an opportunity to meet a client but he was taken aback when he found out that he was going to discuss business with a young consultant. It took time but somehow I took him into confidence and ensured to deliver innovative solutions”.
Over the years, EconStra has grown tremendously. From a meager three member team, at present, the company has grown to be a136 people team altogether and has expanded two delivery centres in Kolkata and head office in Gurgaon. Speaking on the journey, Arunavaa asserts, “We have tasted success in terms of clients and revenue. We have repeat clients who avows on us. We stand by our clients to purify their company’s strategic intent because it offers long-term firmness and stability to a sequence of two-to-three-year transformations.”
Looking beyond Standard Solutions to develop New Insights
A trusted name in business consultancy, EconStra does smart cities projects and solar cities projects. “We mainly do detailed project Report (DPR) and project management consultancy, feasibility report for them but we only focus on strategic part of this. For the detailed Project Report part, we have done 30-32 Govt. projects till date in the last six years. At times as a boutique firm, we bid for those projects as a consortium with other top consultancy firms or even if it is related to small projects then we take it on our own,” he mentions.
EconStra looks beyond standard solutions to develop new insights, mobilize organizations, drive tangible
results, and help companies grow with
maximum profit
Set up as a miniature form of MNC, EconStra has all functional divisions for different industries. “We have taken miniature forms of all services together and believe me it has helped us a lot. We understand and provide sstrategic thinking for organizations as a whole and for each department or division within the organization. The goal is to out-think, out-plan and out-maneuver other forces or competitors,” he adds.
Needless to say, the company envisions being a progressive organization and the most desirable brands among the lot. They work as a knowledge partner with their clients to deliver customized solutions that resolve their most significant issues and create lasting competitive advantage. Utilizing many years of industry experience, functional areas expertise and a extraordinary talent base, EconStra looks beyond standard solutions to develop new insights, mobilize organizations, drive tangible results, and help companies grow with maximum profit. The company’s core purpose is to foster innovative development and excellence of services for the benefit of humanity through excellent performance, creating growing value for the economy of Bengal and the company's stakeholders. “We seek to provide the best solutions for our public and private clients. We have been successful by focusing and solving extremely complex challenges. Obviously, we execute our mission in the most possible socially accountable way,” he further adds.
Success is the Ultimate Destination
Currently, EconStra is working with Singapore and Dubai based companies. The company derives 70-75 percent of its businesses from North America, US & Canada and primarily focuses on quality resources. “We strongly believe in making clients happy. Sometimes clients gift us beyond something which is more precious not in terms of cash value but in terms of happiness/ satisfaction that they have. So our milestone is not what we have achieved, our milestone is what clients have achieved,” speaks an enthusiastic Arunavaa.
Recently, the company has developed a product named GyaanMart, an online consultancy directory for SMEs. Further, they have plans to launch an app named ‘Advicegate wherein clients can come and register and discuss about their current business issues. “Through such interactive sessions we can help our clients in matters related to operating a business, handling clients, and so on. It will definitely help us because since the lead which will generate for GyaanMart & Advicegate will be passed to them for free,” he adds.
Additionally, EconStra has launched another product named EconStra Pro which is primarily a training program. Throwing light on EconStra Pro, Arunavaa says, “Many people aspire to be a consultant. However they lack the training. We work with many other vendors, we give the job to them like CA firm, Law firm and CS firm all with single -medium consultancy firm”.
With a well versed team and end to end quality services, it would be really worth to look forward to see how EconStra creates wealth for all their stakeholders by building highly successful businesses based on a customer-centric approach, and to contribute to the community.