My roots are in engineering. I earned my master’s in structural engineering with a minor in electronics in India. About a decade ago, I joined McKinsey as an analyst and continued on that path until 2015, when I left the firm to launch my own startup in India. It was in the EdTech space in India; we offered vocational education for blue collar women workers. I ran it for a couple of years, and then came back to the firm in 2017.
At the time, the concept of business building as a service was still niche at the firm, but I got staffed on a project with a bank for about a year, and I saw the end-to-end journey from strategy to launching a product. It got me excited about business building, and that is how I got my start in Leap.
Growing innovative businesses in EEMA
Leap by McKinsey helps support forward-thinking organizations imagine, build, and scale new and early-stage businesses to create significant value. EEMA’s large youthful population, appetite for investing as well as creating jobs and diversifying make it an ideal location for business building. The top Leap programs in the region have focused on consumer and financial organizations, and we are doing more and more work with energy clients and green business building.
In the next 10 years, most of the growth in this region is going to come from new businesses, so we want to help enable our clients to leverage opportunities by expanding their base and making the right capital investments. While we work with established organizations to build and grow new digital, physical, or sustainability-focused businesses, we are going beyond the traditional McKinsey clients, which are typically corporations, and focusing on what we call the “unicorn firms” that have the potential to be the next big thing.
My role at the firm
I'm an associate partner, and I co-lead the Leap by McKinsey consumer work in the region. One of the reasons I love my role is because I get to support Founder’s In Leap by McKinsey engagements, we work in an agile fashion with clients, very much operating as part of one team. We become part of our client’s team for a while. We’re much more than advisors. And personally, in my career, it’s like having the best of both worlds: the resources, and capabilities of a global firm – McKinsey – plus the excitement of a startup.
Going beyond planning to execution
I decided a long time ago that I wanted to build things, not just develop five or 10-year plans but execute the vision, and Leap enables me to do that.
One project stands out: launching an advertising business with a retailer. The client wanted to create capabilities that would augment its core business. They came with the data architecture and a strong IT team, but they needed support on advertising knowledge to launch the business. We supported the client in building everything from scratch, including the tech platform, analytics model, and sales and ad operations teams. Ultimately, the client developed a standalone business that is now one of the company’s fastest growing verticals. The project took a year, and I was with our clients almost every day. I am super proud of what we built together.
I am also very proud of the work we are doing with green business building. We’re working with major organizations in the region to help them build a path to net zero and play a role in sustainable, inclusive growth.
What I love about working at McKinsey
McKinsey offers a great deal of diversity, in terms of culture or ethnicity and in knowledge and experience. I realized quickly that what I brought to the table was only one way of doing things. There are so many different approaches to solve the same problem, and being surrounded by great minds has pushed me to think much more broadly.
More narrowly, Leap enables me to help support the next 10 potential unicorns. I have everything I need: the best people, access to the movers and shakers in the world, and the right to play and create. I don't think it gets better than that.
More about me
I work with the learning team for new joiners, help on the advanced analytics learning side, and am involved with the Data & Analytics Guild here at the firm. I live with my wife in Dubai. On the weekends, when the weather is good, I go to the beach or sometimes fishing. I'm a tech nerd, so enjoy my time with board games or Lego blocks and brushing up on my coding skills in my free time. I also work with NGOs involved in education in India.