1Why did you join Berkeley?
My primary motivator for joining Berkeley and consulting was to work on a variety of problems across a broad range of clients and industries. I found getting that variety became increasingly difficult at large established consultancies where the model favours declaring and pursuing a specialist industry or capability area once you are senior enough.
I was really attracted to the Berkeley model which not only supported, but actively encouraged me to round out my skills as a consultant. They prioritize providing me with stretch opportunities to work on industries and projects I haven’t worked in before. At Berkeley they trust me and my experience to deliver and do right by my clients whilst still providing me the support (when it is required) to tackle the most challenging and complex problems across the spectrum of industries and clients.
2What’s the most surprising thing you learned at Berkeley?
What surprised me most was realizing that a consulting firm could survive and even thrive without forcing its people to specialize in a specific industry or capability. I was also surprised that you could progress in your career as a consultant without shifting your focus away from client delivery to generating and pursuing sales.
Remarkably, in choosing to focus on client delivery and personal development for its consultants, Berkeley has been able to foster a culture where internal competition between consultants and partners is non-existent; people are happy and feel valued and able to focus on delivering their best work - which then means sales basically looks after itself!
3What might people be interested in knowing about you?
My life so far can be neatly divided into three acts; spread across India, Malaysia and the UK. I was born and spent the first 10 years of my life in Mumbai before my family moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I then moved to the UK aged 18 to study PPE at the University of Oxford and have been here ever since!
Outside of work I enjoy running (which started out as a way to take a break from my screen during the pandemic), travel, Asian food and taking part in pub quizzes.
