Journey of The Strategy Boutique

With growing economies and entrepreneurship at its peak, more and more businesses need consulting to help them turn their dreams into actionable plans and reality. However, back in the early 2000s, with a handful of big consulting firms, one was left with little choice – that is, to either spend a bomb hiring one of them or working with individual consultants. While this was prevalent and the out was decent, these arrangements were rarely sustainable. 

Realizing this gap and wanting to contribute, a team of dedicated individuals from the world’s top institutes envisioned to create a breakthrough in the boutique consulting space. Thus, laying the foundation of The Strategy Boutique (www.thestrategyboutique.com). The idea was to make unique, pragmatic and professional consulting services available and affordable for all. 

MBA and Ph.D. professionals from Universities across Europe and Asia formed a robust team. Each partner and advisor come from a remarkable background of industry expertise, global experience, and immense value addition to enhance all aspects of The Strategy Boutique. 

How it Started:

After completing his MBA from Warwick Business School in 2006, post a Masters in Economics from the University of Leeds, and undergraduate from Hindu College, University of Delhi, Abhinav Srivastava, one of the co-founders, came back to India and initiated the operations of TSB with a head office in Delhi.

Consistency, quality work and keeping the clients satisfied have always been the key priorities of the firm. Abhinav’s consulting clients include some of the biggest names across a plethora of industries, many of whom he has serviced and continues to service for over 5 years now.

Apart from being a highly skilled management consultant, having previously worked with organizations like FICCI, McKinsey and Co. and Grant Thornton, Abhinav is also an expert in development economics.

He has previously been a speaker at the American Economics Association’s annual economics convention at San Francisco and has also authored a book on Micro Economics with a colleague and partner.

As part of the growth plan, Richa Agarwal, who joined the firm as an intern in 2016, is now heading operations at TSB and brings to the table a significant dynamic of development consulting. With innovative technologies and initiatives that drive social change, Richa strongly believes in generating impact and making a difference in people’s lives through her work. 

Richa has been instrumental in spearheading projects related to Healthcare in Africa, menstrual health and environmental sustainability across Asia and the Middle East as well as key initiatives in the Diversity and Inclusion domain.

Apart from Delhi and Mumbai, TSB holds a lateral office in London, the UK also called BlueCloud Healthcare headed by Steven Adjei, an experienced British-trained healthcare and pharma expert as well as a qualified pharmacist in 2 countries.

Being an expert himself, Steven brings to the table a host of healthcare incubation and strategy execution projects across the European mainland as well as the Middle East and developing countries, particularly Africa.

BlueCloud has been instrumental in providing pharmaceutical consultancy in all the big pharma retail chains in the UK, as well as in Africa and has advised and led multimillion-dollar projects in over 10 countries across 3 continents. 

Further, the teams at TSB and BlueCloud have jointly developed a fund called the ‘Afya’ fund which means ‘health’ in Swahili. It will specialize in investing in small or medium-sized healthcare companies in Africa and into medical technology and health services in the continent; a sector that yields 14% more than the rest of the world.

This will be an opportunity to earn outstanding returns whilst changing lives for the better, and social impact beyond a financial return. With the rapid growth and a focused approach, TSB hopes to keep exploring and generating a greater impact each day.

With maintaining close relationships and goodwill with all past clients, TSB continuously endeavors to broaden its horizons to a wider range of projects across multiple sectors with an increasing number of clients from the USA, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

One of The Strategy Boutique’s first client was a mid-tier USA based equestrian firm wanting to expand into Asia and the Middle East. Not only has that client successfully achieved its objective with TSB’s services, but it has also continued to work with TSB for over 6 years now. 

TSB has conceived, managed and advised on the construction of a $16 Million brand new diagnostic center as well as a $5 million medicines distribution center in Luanda, Angola. The project has been approved by the country’s Health Ministry, and construction commenced in mid-2019. The medicines distribution center commenced business in April 2019, with the first shipment arriving in the country earlier this year.

This facility will be Angola’s biggest and most state-of-the-art facility. TSB consultants were involved in an in-depth analysis of the Angola market, partner selection, raising finance for the project, earmarking land and securing regulatory permits for the project.

With the aim of expanding its services to more and more firms, TSB recently formed a sister entity in Dubai, UAE, and set up an individual office there under the name Emerald Management Group (www.emerald-mg.com).

With a presence in Dubai, Oman, and parts of the Middle East, the idea is to also bring cultures and varied organizations together and bind humans with the power of storytelling and art as a part of TSB’s other initiatives.

TSB’s approach is to use our expertise, experience, networks, and diversity to bring simple but powerful solutions to businesses, on issues pertaining to market entry, strategy, modeling, resourcing. Over the last 6 years, TSB has successfully helped small and medium firms seek expert advice and flourish in their businesses making consulting services accessible to all – including Pharmaceutical and healthcare, sports, luxury products and services, technology, F&B, real estate, banks and financial institutions, international trade among other sectors. 

The business world is a difficult and risky place. The consulting space, a world heavily controlled by a few multi-crore companies with big teams of MBA clad consultants, is no exception. The Founders took on a challenge to bring to this space a client-tailored service that aimed to create its own niche in the market. The beginning was not easy, convincing people to hire consultants from a small firm than going to a big 4.

However, hard work never goes to waste. With dedication and seamless service, The Strategy Boutique eventually gained respect and a reputation. The dream has developed into a successful venture with a turnover of over Rs.1.5 crore from their India businesses alone, and the team has grown across geographies and sectors. TSB continues to treat each client with the utmost dedication and lives by its motto, ‘Honest Consulting’. 

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