"My experience at LFC has been filled with learning & finding solutions."

“Dreams are not those which you watch during sleep, dreams are those which don’t let you sleep.”

I always dreamt of becoming a cricket player in my childhood. When I grew up, I dreamt of getting into a prestigious engineering college following by earning an MBA degree. When I stepped into the industry, I dreamt of joining an automobile company and settling down in my personal life. All these dreams have never let me sleep. I consider myself lucky that I was successful in achieving all those dreams. However, I reached a stage in my career where I thought, what next? While pondering over the thought, I remembered what a professor told me during my MBA, “A Management Consultant takes your watch and tells you the time.”This intrigued me and led to the rise of a new dream, getting into a management consulting firm and living the life of a consultant. That is how Levers for Change, or as we call, LFC happened. I have been associated with LFC for the past 2.5 years and I have seen very strange methods, enraged reactions, shocked pauses and cold rebuttal. But the journey so far is enriching, and full of surprises to say the least.

So what do I do at LFC?

We the management consultants at LFC can take up virtually any business role. We 'help' organizations answer all sorts of critical questions, backed up data/proof/market research. We bring in a variety of experience which is almost impossible to find within a single organization. We consider ourselves as a library where you go to find answers. Each one of us can be a shelf, a book, a chapter or even a page, based on our career level/experience. We advise the client on which market to enter, which products to focus upon, where to build their next manufacturing unit or how to increase efficiency in their organization. After crunching tons of data, often the deliverable is provided in the form of a 'deck' (multi-slider power point presentation) which attempts to showcase and tell the story. We bring in an external “outside-in view” into the game which is difficult to visualize sitting within the organization. We question the status-quo and 'tell' what the best-in-class practices are.

How tough the work is?

According to me, the work is tough. It’s not for any regular “Tom, Dick and Harry”. It is always expected of me to be 'ready' and functioning 'more efficiently' than the existing system. From my experience, an average week usually doesn't end on Friday and daily work hours easily exceed 12 hours. Having said that, I also feature on the 'bench' for a while (without a project), where I relatively relax and balance my work-load. I have worked in places with no 4G internet, poor telephone connectivity, no Uber and no shopping malls. Assignments (specifically those related to 'Operations Consulting') have taken me to the suburbs, industrial parks, manufacturing units etc. which might not seem to be very exciting. My laptop has become my partner. From the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep, I stare down at the screen for hours together. Unless I deliver what needs to be delivered, I forget about what's happening beyond the rectangular screen in front of me.

What are the perks?

• The learning curve is very steep. Based on an individual’s capacity, the learning will be limitless.
• I get to interact with the “Who and Who” of the business. They don’t hesitate to take advice from me or consider me as a child owing to my limited years of experience.
• I have become “fearless”. I am not worried to offer my advice on whenever I feel necessary.

  My journey at LFC has been enriching and fulfilling till now. At LFC I have a team, whom I can bank upon at any time. The seniors play the role of friends, philosophers and guides simultaneously, which is an added benefit. An ideal team and ideal seniors at work only existed in a fantasy world for me. But that was until I joined LFC. So, my dream at LFC continues.

  “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”