From Global Playbooks to India-First Thinking- The Rise of Homegrown Consulting Firms
- Insights from Sameer Singh Jaini, Founder & CEO , The Digital Fifth
For years, the Indian financial ecosystem looked outward for validation.
If something worked at the Singapore FinTech Festival, we tried to replicate it. If a global consulting giant endorsed a model, it was considered credible. Strategy decks were filled with international case studies. Local context often came later.
But as Sameer Singh Jaini reflected, something fundamental has shifted.
India is no longer borrowing playbooks. It is writing them.
- From Seeking Respect to Earning It
Nearly a decade ago, the idea that India could become a global fintech nerve center was dismissed. The narrative then was predictable:
- Policies won’t allow it
- Infrastructure is weak
- Global markets are ahead
- Indian firms can’t scale at that level
Fast forward to today India is at the center of global digital financial transformation. From payments to digital public infrastructure, the direction of learning has reversed.
The world is now studying India.
This shift is not accidental. It is ecosystem-led, relationship-driven, and built on deep market understanding.
- Why India Needs Its Own Consulting Champions
One of the strongest themes from the session was this:
Why does India have world-class banks and fintechs — but still depend largely on global consulting firms for strategic direction?
The ambition is not to replace the global giants overnight. It is to build credible, rooted alternatives that:
- Understand Indian regulation word by word
- Engage deeply with local customer behavior
- Build within the constraints and opportunities of Indian pricing models
- Design for scale at Indian volumes
In BFSI, context is everything.
Regulatory nuance matters.
Distribution realities matter.
Customer empathy matters.
A strategy copied from another geography, without ground immersion, will eventually fail.
- The India-First Consulting Model
The traditional global consulting model often emphasizes:
- Large team deployment
- Standardized templates
- Replicable global frameworks
- Short-term project cycles
An India-first model, according to Sameer, looks different.
It is:
- Deeply adaptive — because regulation changes frequently
- Relationship-led — not transaction-led
- Outcome-oriented — not slide-oriented
- Built ground-up for each engagement
In fact, one striking point was this: even after years of operations, no rigid templates are reused blindly. Every mandate begins from zero.
Because markets evolve. Policies evolve. Customers evolve.
Static frameworks cannot solve dynamic ecosystems.
- Technology Is Not Support It Is Strategy
Another major shift highlighted was the repositioning of technology.
There was a time when banks outsourced tech, believing it was “non-core.” Today, technology is the core. It defines the institutional future.
This means:
- Tech decisions are business decisions
- Architecture is competitive strategy
- Digital infrastructure determines revenue scalability
And if business leaders do not understand technology deeply, institutional risk increases.
Consulting, therefore, must bridge business and technology not operate in silos.
- The Hard Truth About Consulting
Consulting, especially in complex sectors like BFSI, is not a SaaS model. It is not venture-scalable in the traditional sense.
It is:
- People-intensive
- Credibility-driven
- Slow-compounding
- Relationship-built
Credibility cannot be accelerated by funding rounds.
It compounds over time like a reputation.
You build someone else’s business before perfecting your own.
You sometimes say “no” to revenue.
You get rejected by boards before being trusted.
Patience becomes a strategic asset.
- The Structural Shifts Ahead
India’s policy environment is also evolving.
Recent signals from government and policy circles indicate growing openness toward encouraging domestic consulting capabilities especially in public sector ecosystems where high entry barriers have historically favored global firms.
If this shift sustains, we may see:
- 3-4 large India-origin consulting firms emerge in the next decade
- Increased specialization by sector (banking, e-commerce, healthcare, etc.)
- Greater export of India’s fintech expertise to Africa and other emerging markets
India’s digital public infrastructure and cost-efficient scaling models are relevant to many developing economies. And those markets are increasingly seeking alternatives to high-cost Western advisory models.
The next wave of Indian consulting may not just serve India it may travel outward.
- Ecosystem Over Ego
Perhaps the most powerful underlying message was this:
Growth will not come from individual ambition alone.
It will come from ecosystem collaboration.
Events, partnerships, peer engagement these are not networking formalities. They are strategic assets.
- Markets move too fast for isolation.
- Relationships create institutional memory.
- Trust creates repeat engagement.
And in consulting, trust is everything.
- A Decade From Now
If the last 8-9 years were about India proving itself in fintech, the next decade may be about India exporting not just products but thinking.
Moving from:
Global Playbook Adoption → India-First Design → Global Knowledge Export
The question is no longer whether India can build world-class consulting firms.
The question is:
Who will build them and how patiently?
Because in this business, scale is earned.
Credibility is compounded.
And respect, once built, travels far.
