Not a single chartered accountant firm or law firm in India has that outstanding brand status as a McKinsey & Co, PWC, EY or KPMG. Just a PM announcing before a state election to fill Page One in media newspapers will not help matters
By Debasish Roy
CEO, Royalle Corporation (www.royalle.in)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to flaunt Indian consulting firms as big, influential, impressive and powerful as the Big4. However, this could be another unfinished promise just like the Smart Cities mission where we do not have a single smart city since the PM announced the programme from Pune. The call for Indian Big4 comes three years after the deadline that PM Modi had set, again in a speech from a election state, when he first broached the subject in 2017.
Just like the Smart Cities Mission, the Big4 mission lacks any clear standard operating procedures, any clear definition and any clear goals. If Indians could build Big4 like companies they would not be waiting for any prime minister to make an annoucement from the rostrum. If it made good business sense along with the expertise and the process ability, Indians would have trounced the American Big4 long back. That has not happened.
Is there a committee of professionals from the private sector set up to oversee this process – hand holding formation of such partnership firms / companies? There is none. This hand holding process should be free of IAS officers who only seek retirement benefits after their ministry postings through these allied organisations such as Smart City organisations, which run parallel to the municipal corporations doing nothing spectacular.
One man stating a media byte about Indian Big4 will not do. That will only fill up Page One and nothing else. What do AT Kearney, Bain & Co, Roland Berger, Boston Consulting Group, Capgemini and Simon-Kucher and Partners have that our Indian companies do not? Again, process, brand and discipline. Standardisation in compensation. Good benefits to their professionals. We could implement all that too but do we wish to?
Can our accounting software companies turn into consulting firms? Tally has successfully launched an ERP. Can it take one step further? I doubt it. Tally does not have the brand or the process.
What about our media houses? They have the readership, the brand but not the knowledge or the process. Can they take it further? Lack of conviction on that account too. What do we know Tata Consultancy Services best for. Yes, right. Passport Seva. So, please comment on what path you think is the best to curate Indian consulting firms which can turn into global giants.
