Over the recent years, there has been a significant increase in data driven decision making philosophy and KPI-based portfolios management methodologies. A thorough and ground¬ed research services are critical ingredient for facilitating in data based decision making methods. Whether it is about launching a new government program focusing on foreign investment promotion or about constructing a new manufacturing facility for a family office, it is critical to conduct market research and data analysis to be able to produce optimal inferential recommendations. The success of an advisory firm depends on how it fore¬sees the shifting market landscape and how it can impact potential deals, states Mr. Haresh Shukla, who is a Partner & Co-founder at Empact Consulting. Empact Consulting is a GCC-centric and regional management consultancy firm with grounded expertise across several industries.
The firm envisions to become a trusted brand with respect to providing in-depth research and advisory services that can create sustainable impact on the client businesses. Empact works with public and private sector organizations across the region. In the public sector practice, it focuses on Economic Program Design & Implementation, SME Financing, Foreign Investment Promotion, and Cluster Development. In the private sector practice, it focuses on Feasibility and Business Planning, Valuations, M&A Support as well as Financial Restructuring services. With its inception in 2016, Empact has built a team of 25 handpicked consultants across its offices in Bahrain, Dubai, Qatar, Saudi, Oman and India. It also has an in-house digital team focusing on enhancing digital and ICT system capabilities for its clientele.
Empact believes that digital revolution can be an effective catalyst to build transparency and to enhance corporate governance maturity especially with respect to strategy implementation cycles of public and private sector businesses. Talking about Empact's strong business values, director Mr. Haresh Shukla says, “Staying committed and focused on the client is our core business ethic. We are driven by the mission to provide actionable and grounded recommendations in order to deliver client delight and build long-term client relationships. The key driver to deliver on this mission is our focus on developing a team of highly motivated professionals and promoting a culture of accountability, integrity, and service excellence".
A Clear Vision to Transform Businesses across Regions
Every team member at Empact, is aligned to the organizational vision and values of integrity and service excellence, that keeps them aligned on giving their best performance in different phases
of every advisory engagement; right from well-grounded methodology to in-depth market research up to optimal recommendations and implementation plans. Empact’s vision has manifested itself in form of high quality of advisory services, ability to support clients with turnkey solutions, and high degree of flexibility in its client engagements. What differentiates Empact from its competitors is the ability to follow through on the strategic planning projects with rigorous implementation projects. This enables its clients to take up Empact services in managing the pre-operating and even operating business cycles.
On these lines, the firm has started offering outsourced CEO & CFO services that allow client organizations to manage projects within limited budgets in initial years and later move from outsourcing to in-sourcing of such roles within 12 to 24 months. While the journey looks smooth now for Empact Consulting, it was not the case from the beginning. Some of the major challenges that Empact Consulting faced in their formative years included working capital challenges, low recognition of its brand image, talent onboarding, staff training and talent retention. It was a constant struggle to choose between growth and stability.
However, over the years, the Empact team has grown rapidly due to constant help and guidance from its excellent advisory board and Empact remains grateful to them. Haresh mentions, ”Initially, getting business with a little-known brand in Bahrain was difficult especially due to low oil prices and limited government budgets prevailing during 2016. The team strived hard to work in limited price points and created a good name for the firm with a series of financial restructuring, loan consolidation & restructuring, and business planning for greenfield and brownfield projects. With support from its local partners and advisory board, the team has carefully steered the operation into a successful venture".
Journey So Far & Roadmap Ahead
In the past 6 years since its establishment, Empact has scaled up impressively with a clientele of 300 businesses spread across countries like Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Mal¬ta, Cyprus, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, India & Nepal.
Empact Consulting is a GCC-centric and regional management consultancy with an expertise across industries that envisions to become a trusted brand providing in-depth research and consulting services to drive sustainable impact
While the firm is already taking measures to get into internal audit services it has plans to expand its operations in London, Cyprus and Canada. Empact plans to dive deeper into digital transformation by expanding and enhancing its FinTech capabilities. Sharing the future plan, Haresh Shukla says, “During the next two years, the company aspires to strengthen its outsourced CEO &CFO capabilities by adding more manpower, service categories and digital capabilities. It is also developing limited call center capabilities to be closer to its clients by taking in their requirements at any time of the day”.
Haresh Shukla, Partner & Co-Founder
Haresh has over 16 years of professional work experience in the fields of Strategic & Management Advisory, IT Consulting and Capital Markets, Policy Advisory & M&A Support Services. As a Partner & Co-founder at Empact Consulting, Haresh manages the overall operations of Empact across the region and oversees the Private Sector Practice with respect to Deals, Advisory & Strategy. In his recent experience, Haresh has been instrumental in guiding and directing national level projects for revenue generation of government entities, strategy development and implementation, due-diligence and M&A support, as well as strategic acquisition mandates. In the past, he has worked with Tamkeen, Qatar Development Bank, Department of Economic Development – Dubai, Bahrain Islamic bank, State Bank of India, Export Bahrain, Bahrain Tourism & Exhibition Agency, and other strategic clients across its public and private sector advisory practice. As a founding member of Empact, he is also responsible for strategic initiatives at Empact including international expansions.
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