“We want to play the value game, not the volume game”

Headstrong, a major consultancy, was earlier known as James Martin. Aiman Ezzat, its senior vice president, talked to RAHUL NEEL MANI about its plans

What brings you to India?

This year Headstrong is going to increase all the offshore components of its international business. We are seriously thinking of consolidating our operations in Europe, Japan and APAC in India.

What does Headstrong offer its customers?

Headstrong was originally known as James Martin, which merged with Techspan last year. The company now employs nearly 900 people worldwide, and has proven expertise in the areas of strategic consulting, business consulting, implementation, application development and outsourcing. Having a global presence in Europe, Asia and the US, the company has special domain expertise in financial services. It is one of the key verticals for Headstrong. We have also made inroads into manufacturing and the public sector. Coming from James Martin, we have very strong methodologies and processes. We have a recognised large-scale programme for management capability. Today, in India, we probably have the only centre working on the investment banking industry.

What is the point of difference between Headstrong and the likes of Accenture, PwC and KPMG?

The difference lies in the core focus areas. Some companies cover the same span of activities as we do, some have a smaller span. Consultancies like PwC or Accenture would basically help the user define the business strategy, focus on the opportunity, and help align the senior executive team to ensure the success of the plan. IBM can also potentially do that, but it is not their core focus area. We have a larger footprint encompassing areas such as programme management, business process re-engineering, capability enhancement, defining the business requirement and then moving to the technology part, including application development, testing and maintenance. We do that in a high-quality manner. Instead of doing everything for everybody, we focus on very niche areas. We are not in a capacity game. Instead, we provide value addition to our customers.

What are the focused offerings that you provide to customers?

We do a lot of work in investment banking and the CRM consulting space. Headstrong is very strong in the CRM area—across the value chain of CRM. We have immense expertise in fixed income, order management, securities landing, analytics, etc. These are the capabilities in which we are second to none. We also do a lot of work for banks that offer services to smaller banks. We define the client models and also define the strategy to make that integration model work. In manufacturing we do a lot of work on the supply chain to help companies optimise their operations. We also do a lot of work in the business collaboration area, both in terms of manpower and technology implementation.

Does Headstrong do only consulting or does it also take care of implementation?

We do a lot more than just recommendations. A lot of our work is in the implementation of our recommendations. For example, on the CRM implementation front, Headstrong has worked with six of the top 10 investment banks in the US.

What do you think of the current outsourcing/offshoring model in India?

In some sense it is the most popular trend. It has very strong economic and value bases. There’s going to be even further sophistication and value addition in these areas. In terms of the reaction of people, there are some negative vibes but that’s very normal. It is an irreversible trend now. It makes absolute sense to offshore these functions to India where they can be done more efficiently and with great value addition.

What are your plans for India?

Headstrong is going to scale up its financial operations team from 90 to 150 by the end of this year. Overall, we are committed to enhance our presence in both India and the Philippines for offshore operations. We will continue to build our capabilities in the focus areas mentioned earlier. We want to get into the value game and not the volume game.