Guest Lecture By Mr. Gulzar Karim

SIMCON (SIMSREE Consulting Club) blazed its trail by helping students get a better perspective of consulting as a career options its opportunities and expectations. Mr Gulzar Karim, consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP, USA also our Alumni from the batch 2008 proved to be a great harbinger. He threw light on the evolvement of consultancy as a career option. How the well known audit firms recognized the needs of companies requiring consultancy  mainly in the four main domains viz. Strategy, Operations, IT and HR and therefore leading firms to develop individual knowledge centres

Further the working of consultancy firms was elicited as a two dimensional “Grid Structure” depending on domain function and Industry. Consulting firm’s prime resource is Manpower and Time, so he stressed on Consultants having a perceived skill set such as Team dynamics, analytical skills to name a few. These skills are required in all the roles spanning from analyst to senior consultants, thus giving an overview of the hierarchy involved in a consulting firm. Therefore explaining career path and learning curve for a MBA graduate who looks forward for a future in consultancy firms.

Expectations always go in synchronisation with opportunities; Mr. Gulzar Karim’s showcased the perks and perils associated with working in a consulting firm. One important aspect that was discussed from the point of career option was that Consulting is not just limited to those pursuing Marketing, but many  fractions like Public Private Partnership which has gained impetus in recent times gives students having Finance as Majors a new opportunity.

A real touch was added by Mr Karim sharing his experience in this arena, leading to interesting concepts like shadow costing, feasibility study and Competitor analysis. While we reflected upon the amount of study that goes behind consulting, our discussion briefly touched upon the difference in  working of Consulting firms because of different economies, in USA and India. This is now what we call Out of Class learning without actually moving out!

The highlight being that it was an interactive brain storming session helped each one of us to have a candid picture about Consultancy as a career option. It was indeed a great start by SIMCON and we Thank Mr. Gulzar Karim for making it possible. Looking forward for many more insightful sessions in the future