TOP-TIER CONSULTANCY SERVICES: LIO CONSULTING
Written by: Kriti Anand
Company Overview
LIO offers comprehensive capabilities and deep industry knowledge necessary to help solve the most complex issues of an organization. It works across varied sectors and industries, providing business advisory services to mature organisations as well as startups. LIO provides business advisory services and covers services such as ideation, partner identification, project identification, strategic planning, feasibility, market entry, engineering design, project management and implementation, growth acceleration, etc in various sectors. A unique or a
differentiating service that it provides is engineering consulting along with management consulting services. The company has two full time engineers, along with the Director himself, Mr. Sidhant Singh, and has a tie up with a Hyderabad based engineering design firm to carry out projects in this sector.
Profitability of a business is equatable to the time allotted to a particular task. LIO’s motto is delivering exceptional services through a solution-oriented approach and high performing teams. It is imperative for the team and Sidhant to understand the brief of the client to the T. Understanding the needs of the client and getting all the available facts are key: from there they design a solution. They don’t use a ‘one fit for all’ strategy. Having access to the right stakeholders and experts assists them in providing quality and efficient service at reasonable prices.
LIO’s vision is to provide actionable tailored services that unlock growth for businesses. The company aspires to provide more and more value to the clients. They are sector agnostic and have clients in sectors such as infrastructure, renewable energy, electric mobility, packaging solutions, fintech, health and wellness etc.
LIO was launched by Sidhant after he finished his MBA in Imperial College, London. There he had the opportunity of pursuing a career at one of the Big Four, or starting up a consulting company in India. He chose the latter, as India’s position in the global business landscape was growing rapidly.
Prior to becoming a Minister in the current UP Government, his father had set up two international engineering companies in India. Sidhant studied Civil Engineering in undergrad to have the foundation to enter into my family business, but after six months of working in an engineering company, he realised that designing on a desk was not his cup of tea. He was happier networking and selling an idea or a project, and that’s how he joined consulting at Grant Thornton India and then went on to work with the International Finance Corporation. The
thought of starting his own company had germinated by then, but it was important to understand the workings of the industry and to expand his horizon.
Work Culture
According to Sidhant, the team at LIO is its biggest advantage. The team mirrors the vision and principles of the company. The team has weekly discussions on what they have learned and see if this knowledge can be applied to our company or client. A differentiating aspect of its service is engineering consulting along with management consulting, which are two very different fields of consulting.
As mentioned, LIO works on four principles, and their vision defines them:
1. Quality
2. Efficiency
3. Integrity
4. Accountability
These principals resonate the values and missions of their clients and enable them to form a synergy with them.
At LIO, they have adopted business tools such as Microsoft Teams and Notion to increase the productivity amongst team members. There are bi-annual training sessions on new softwares and technologies. Big Data is playing a big role in how companies are marketing products and LIO is making progress towards adopting data analytics and content creation as services in its offering. The entire team has weekly review meetings of projects that they are working on and on a monthly basis they provide progress and action reports to the clients. There is also a layered review approach to all deliverables and the onus of the deliverable lies equally with all members,
including the top management.
A key aspect of providing quality service is delegation. Task delegation is important, and
delegating tasks correctly, which includes both the right person as well as communicating the
description of the task, is even more important. It ensures high standards of quality in the work
of the team members and efficiency.
LIO has a Friday lunch policy, where food for the entire team is ordered and everyone gathers around to eat and discuss the week and any new developments. The work culture at LIO is like a family gathering, where they applaud and criticize each other, but at the end of the day, they are all on the same page and working towards the same goal, i.e. to deliver exceptional service to their clients.
Sidhant believes that leading with empathy is extremely important. EQ is something that’s not discussed enough in business and companies. The freedom for an employee to express themselves in their work and personal life at work is promoted at LIO. They also have a micro-reward program, where achievements for tasks are rewarded through small gestures such as gift-cards, etc. Also, having a structure in the company where affirmations and criticisms are equally welcomed, drives not just the team but him, as well.
Goals For The Future
LIO is always looking towards deriving more value for clients. It's an endless pursuit of giving more and more. They have identified Big Data as a potential addition in their service offering, Sidhant is most assertive about electric mobility, fintech and e-waste management.
In electric mobility, the most important component is the battery and the evolving technology behind it. Battery accounts for nearly 50% of the cost of the electric vehicle. China is the global leader in battery manufacturing, accounting for nearly 60% of the global battery market share. India is expected to need 600GWH of batteries in 10 years starting from 2020. With the recent difficulties in trade with China, both for India and for other countries, there is a massive opportunity for local battery manufacturers as well as foreign companies to set up units in India. LIO is in talks with various electric car manufacturers and battery manufacturers to open shop in
India.
“My advice to entrepreneurs is to be patient and persistent. Whatever you choose to do, do it for the long term. Aspire to create value for your client/ customer and not your P&L, and don’t be afraid of failure – micro failures are better than any win, because you learn a lot more. And also enjoy your wins – sit back and soak in the achievement for a day or two, so that you are rejuvenated for what’s coming next.”
– Sidhant Singh, Director
