TALAASH RESEARCH CONSULTANTS: FOCUSES TOWARDS CREATING AWARENESS ABOUT HIGH-QUALITY RESEARCH IN INDIA
Research and development is one of the crucial segments in every organization. Despite being high in demand, quality services are not readily available in India. Talaash Research Consultants has filled this gap. The company was started in 2010 and remained one of the renowned firms for its customers in offering research consultation services. This unique organization promotes high-quality research and facilitates Women empowerment.
In a conversation with Business Connect, Dr.Rajalakshmi Subramaniam, CEO of Talaash Research Consultants shares her experiences and insights into the research industry.
1. Please walk us through your company profile and its services
There is a massive gap in terms of quality of research at the academic and doctoral level in India. Talaash Research Consultants aim towards fulfilling the gap through offering professional research consultation and mentorship services. In India, there isn’t any specific organization that exclusively focuses on creating awareness towards conducting high quality research. Hence, we work towards fulfilling this gap by helping researchers to carry out high quality research in a ethical manner.
2. What services do you offer as a consultant?
Our services branch out two major categories of people – corporate companies and academicians.
There are seven major types of services that we provide.
- Consultation Services
- Software Development Services
- Data Collection Services
- Journal Publication Support Services
- Statistical Analysis Services
- Editorial Services
- Writing Services
Recently we have shifted towards providing UX research services as well, as there is a significant uprising demand for this service in SMEs and the corporate sector.
3. Give us an idea of your clientele and the types of customers you serve.
The primary customer segment includes higher educational institutions, corporate companies, and startups. The customers include people who conduct research for academics, market analysis, and scientific analysis and social welfare.
We also offer training to students at various colleges in India on research methods and research publications. Talaash has worked with organizations like CRY India, The Research Council (sultanate of Oman), Salem People Trust, Tamil Nadu, and many more. We have made our contribution to helping them conduct their research work successfully.
4. What is unique about your business as compared to your competitors?
TRC is the first company in India to adopt the concept of a virtual office. It is a purely a female-run organization. We run a free social media page in the name of Research Methodology Tutor for teaching the basic concepts of research methods for zero charges. The page is working successfully with 12000+ followers from across the globe.
5. Tell us about your key achievement.
I was awarded “Homepreneur of the year 2018” in the education and literature category of Tamil Nadu.
TRC is the first-ever consultancy in India to have gotten an opportunity in the year of 2018 to train Post Graduate Omani Students on the Internet of things (IoT) for a research project under FURAP, funded by The Research Council, Sultanate of Oman.
The consultancy has been a part of the state-level project conducted by the Child Rights and You (CRY) and Samakalvi Iyakkam, entitled “An Explorative Study on Forced Early Girl Child Marriages in Tamil Nadu” in the year 2019.
6. How do you ensure the faith of the customers?
Word of mouth is exceptionally vital in any field of profession. Your clients need to trust you for a more comfortable workflow. Hence, my promises are limited to my offerings. I never over-commit to my clients. I believe communication is the key to form a long-lasting professional experience. Therefore I ensure personal interaction with the clients or client’s team. The 5-star ratings on our social media page is a direct feedback of our consistent customer service
7. What are ethics and values as a consultant?
I feel the extraction of the root cause of a problem is more essential than giving a solution. This helps our client in avoiding the error in the future. Monetary benefits come as secondary at our firm, whereas our priority is always to provide the highest satisfaction to clientele. Moreover, we follow a 100% refund policy if we fail to deliver the desired results of our clients.
Our practices believe in securing trust between our firm and the customers.
8. Everybody goes through a period of struggle, as a consultant, what were the struggles you faced, and how they shaped your entrepreneurial journey?
On a personal level, I couldn’t even take a maternity leave. I had to come back to work just in three days after my cesarean due to our commitments to our clients.
On a more professional front, we suffered through a challenging period during the introduction of GST. We indeed faced a financial crunch. This has been to some extent resolved after the government provided some relaxation. However the impact is still reflected in our day to day business operations.
9. How do you see success?
Success, according to me, isn’t about the turnover. It is all about the hearts you have touched, and people that have benefited from your services. It is all about giving back to society as generously as possible.
10. How do you serve the community?
The two primary CSR objectives of our company are on women empowerment and enhancement of the quality of higher education.
Indian women, despite of being highly educated and qualified, are prone to witness a break from their career, especially after having children. Hence, I adopted the concept of a virtual office where I give my teammates the freedom to work from home. This ensures a balance in their work and family life.
For our second objective, we conduct trainings and workshops for people in rural India to educate them about high-quality research. We offer consultation and concession fees for people from remote villages.
11. What do you like to do on the weekends for fun in your spare time?
I have a great passion towards Tamil literature and I am a poet as well. I write Tamil poems whenever time permits and many of them have indeed been published in reputed Tamil Dailies and magazines. I am passionate about food as well. Weekends I love to explore new vegan cuisines with my husband Mr.Rahul Dhinakaran and little son Adithya Rahul.
12. Would you like to share some advice to young entrepreneurs?
Every entrepreneur should aspire to motivate more and more people to become entrepreneurs. Keeping this in mind, despite my busy schedule I manage to offer guest lectures on entrepreneurship development to the students pursuing their MBA at the School of Management, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai. I want to offer three tips for future entrepreneurs.
- Start a company in the area or business segment that interests you the most. It is essential to do your research before you start your venture.
- Start your operations on a small scale and allow the enterprise to evolve itself over a course of time
- Challenges are a part of entrepreneurship’s everyday life. You need to keep your faith and work ethics, believe in yourself, and work hard.
