Platforms providing an on-demand specialist workforce are not simply convenient developments: the market has been crying out for new hiring infrastructure for quite some time.
A large number of top-flight consultants are only just beginning to understand how improvements in on-demand platforms will benefit both their black book and bottom line.
It’s somewhat less of a revelation to those who have spent significant time working for, working with and even owning pioneering businesses. Anu Chandra falls into the latter camp:
“After an MBA at London Business School, I joined Bain & Company, where I solved client problems in renewables, telecommunications and retail,” he says.
“During the 90s dot-com boom, I was a graduate engineer working on the world’s first touch-screen smartphone at the FTSE100 technology pioneer Psion.
“Then, as a senior corporate strategist at Nokia, I helped board members turn around $B+ markets, make $10-100M investment decisions and set organisation priorities for large business units,” he says.
“I currently run a growing artificial intelligence software company which partners with a number of e-commerce and media publishing businesses,” he adds.
Chandra is more than comfortable in industries where progress is a relentless, coveted goal; it’s little surprise, then, that since venturing into consultancy he’s cast as wide a net as possible, working across diverse briefs and signing off on numerous high-level projects.
“Recently, I’ve supported a Series B VC-backed mobile app company, determining how and which international markets to enter,” he says.
“I’ve advised a Series A VC backed e-commerce company to expand their product roadmap; I’ve helped an education technology company define their business model and create a plan to raise their first round of investment.”
He adds that this diversification yields dividends outside of another CV ledger line.
“These kinds of experiences are great – I work with exceptional people in the tech industry and gain unique insights, which I can either use to advise others or to build a better artificial intelligence software company.”
Keeping Lean
Along with 60,000 other consultants worldwide, Chandra has found much of his consultancy work through Talmix, and is quick to point out that on-demand services at a specialist level have needed an infrastructure of this nature for quite some time.
“Increasingly, business landscapes are more dynamic,” he says.
“Many industries face, or will face, disruptive forces, and top-level executive tenures are far more fluid.
“This requires businesses to be strategically agile and leaner, more-so than ever, and often companies will conversely have internal standing teams of under-utilised specialists who inadvertently add bureaucracy to decision-making.
“So we’re now see a growing need for external specialists who bring fresh perspectives, with trends such as advances in technology and a desire from individuals to have greater control over their professional futures fueling this shift.”
Raising the bar
Beyond providing a convenient service for those businesses and consultants waking up to a new hiring model, Chandra believes that Talmix have set a standard that applies to the future of employment.
“It has created an environment of trust,” he says.
“Senior business leaders can bring critical and complex business problems to the table and find specialists with deep expertise, who can in turn provide an unbiased and fresh perspective.
“Clients have the assurance that prospective consultants have put forward a viable proposal and have been vetted, while a consultant has a full opportunity to highlight his strengths and be kept up to date by a Talmix team member.”
“In the future, platforms of this nature will lead to leaner organisations, more robust decision-making and greater cost-effectiveness.”
