Lessons Learned: Consulting in India

Consulting has long been a profession that has interested me. I am attracted to the diversity of projects and exposure to different organizational settings it offers and as a consultant I would not be charged with the responsibility of implementing, just kindly crafting recommendations, courses to follow and insights.

Needless to say, I was overjoyed to get actual experience in an area I have a professional interest in. I was assigned to work with the LSN Foundation in Hyderabad, India. LSN Foundation is a non-profit organization that seeks to meet the unmet needs of the vulnerable with compassion and courage. My group was charged with the responsibility of working on a project surrounding their Abilities Fair. The objective of the Abilities Fair is to link suitable individuals with disabilities with job opportunities in the corporate sector and organize and display products made by people with disabilities. My group was to look at this micro-enterprise piece of the Abilities Fair and offer recommendations on how the micro-enterprises, Self Help Groups (SHGs), and individuals with disabilities that sell at the Fair can increase quality control and ultimately become successful at selling their product at the Fair and elsewhere.

In such a short time frame, with little access to LSN clients, this task proved to be quite difficult. As in any group environment, communication lines tend to get crossed and messages can be confused and/or misunderstood. This phenomenon is obviously more likely to occur when working in a foreign country. Whether you were told that you are going to an isolated leper colony and ended up somewhere else, or realizing on your first day of your assignment that your supervisor will not be out of town, it can get confusing, frustrating and difficult to set an agenda with so many unknown variables.

The rewarding aspect of this experience for me was realizing that consulting is more than meets the eye. I learned that in order to be successful in this type of work there are a multitude of soft skills that need to be fine tuned, such as: patience, understanding, and interviewing techniques in order to solicit the right kind information. It was also a lesson in leadership for me and I became aware of how differently I work when I am in an international environment. Even though my first experience with consulting was somewhat daunting, it didn't scare me aware! I am excited to put my new found experience to work.