Spotlight

The smart KPO

The Smart Cube started from scratch five years ago and the KPO’s founders believe in their core values and are determined to abide by them, writes Varun Aggarwal

Most management consultants dream of starting a new venture of their own. Few, however, are able to accomplish this task. Sameer Walia, Gautam Singh and Omer Abdullah were three management consultants with 40 man-years of experience between them at global consulting firms Accenture and AT Kearney. They came together to realize a common dream. Singh and Abdullah worked in the UK and US respectively with AT Kearney, while Walia was with Accenture in India.

The trio was eager to create a new kind of firm. A firm that would change the way in which clients sourced their research needs; one that would bridge the gap between the data-rich, insight-poor research firms and the prohibitively expensive professional services firms; a firm that would deliver value at superior economics; one that would make a perceptible difference to both its clients and its people.

In 2003, The Smart Cube started off with its first office in London and soon it had another in New Delhi harnessing the Indian talent pool.

The three co-founders decided to take equal positions in the company, handling different aspects of the business. Walia, with 15 years of strategy consulting, securities trading and industry experience in India, manages delivery operations in India and is the financial controller for the company. Singh manages business development in Europe and the Asia-Pacific. He has 14 years of management consulting, venture capital and industry experience in Europe and the US. Abdullah manages business development in North America and is the marketing director for the company owing to his 15 years of management consulting, global corporate and industry experience across North America, Europe and Asia.

Within a year, in 2004, the firm received an Innovation Award from the Telegraph in the UK for being ranked the Second Most Innovative Company to have emerged in Europe in 2004.

The business model

The focus of The Smart Cube is to provide high-value research and analysis services to clients globally by tapping a highly qualified and yet economically preferable pool of analysts. “This forms the foundation of our business model. We provide top banks, consulting firms and global corporations with research and analysis support that is as good, if not better, than what they can get locally in London,

New York, Boston or Hong Kong. Moreover, they get this at a cost that is a fraction of what they would pay locally. Hence, we take outsourcing and offshoring to its most sophisticated level,” explained Sameer Walia, Co-founder and Managing Director, The Smart Cube.

Service lines

The Smart Cube has three distinct service lines namely Strategic Research, Financial Research and Data Analytics.

Strategic Research includes Corporate Strategy Formulation, Marketing and Supply Chain work. This includes industry and sector analysis, competitive landscaping and strategic positioning studies, country and macroeconomic analysis, new market entry assessment, new product launch / extension, competitive strategy, M&A support services and business planning support.

Financial Research is where it provides customized investment research and analyst support to investment banks, corporate banks, asset managers, hedge funds, private equity teams, and corporate finance firms. The company’s analysts support equity research, fixed income, credit research, quantitative analysis, advisory and private equity teams on a global basis.

In Data Analytics it takes data from a client’s ERP system, marketing campaigns or market research studies and then plays with the same using sophisticated statistical tools and programs. This work is typically conducted for retail and CPG companies.

“We have sales and business development offices in London, Chicago, Detroit and Hong Kong. We have our delivery center in New Delhi and are in the process of opening another delivery center in Romania,” informed Walia.

The Smart Cube has completed about a 1,000 projects to date. “For 15 consecutive quarters we have studied and analyzed the customer experience, from pre-sales to post-sales, for one of the largest cable and satellite companies in the world. This involved heavy primary research and high-end data analytics. Each quarter the conclusions and recommendations were presented to the top management of the client in the UK. We have conducted work for about 80 clients of whom about 25 are regular, long-term contractual relationships. Our ability to study any market, industry, sector or trend in any geography is our single largest capability accounting for the largest portion of our work,” said Walia.

The work atmosphere

The Smart Cube is a vibrant, informal and a multi-cultural organization. The emphasis is on promoting a responsible, self-motivated work environment rather than one dictated by rules and regulations. Walia said, “We manage to combine serious work with an easy work environment. Outsiders think it is perhaps a bit too easy for a serious research and analysis firm, but we can’t think of The Smart Cube in any other way.”

The company has a mentoring program that plays an instrumental role in mapping and following the career path of every person in the organization. Career progression is facilitated through a Personal Development Program at the beginning of the year and monitored on an on-going basis. Growth opportunities are both horizontal and vertical, with immense focus on the former.

The Smart Cube hires MBAs, BBAs, engineers, economists, chartered accountants, statisticians, programmers and mathematicians. The company currently has 110 employees and expects to attain a headcount of 180 in India by end of FY08-09.

Understanding social responsibilities

“We believe we have a commitment to the world we live in and we must give back to society. We do not view this as charity, but a duty and obligation that we need to fulfill as individuals, and collectively as an organization. We strongly believe that we do not have to be a billion dollar organization to make a beginning and that every small contribution makes a difference,” said Walia.

Walia believes that The Smart Cube is fortunate to have the wherewithal to assist the disadvantaged sections of society and the company works with non-governmental agencies globally on an ongoing basis. The initiatives take the form of financial, material assistance as well as time and effort of The Smart Cube people; some of these include:

• Education and vocational training of street children
• Medical treatment and rehabilitation of handicapped children
• Assistance to leprosy patients
• Pro-bono research work for charities and organizations in the US and UK
• Recycling of all office waste paper into hand-made paper
• Blood donation for thalassemia patients
• Clothes collection drives

“Our core beliefs are not mere clichés. The firm’s outstanding reputation and its recognized role as a leading player in the knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) industry are a result of the strict adherence to this belief system,” concluded Walia.

varun.aggarwal@expressindia.com