CEO Insights Magazine

If I wish to go fast, I must go alone... But if I wish to go far, I must go together”. That line almost aptly summarises A Gautam Vasant’s journey with IIM Calcutta. Although he had once assumed that business schools teach only strategy, business theories, and financial models, he gladly admits that he learned some of his most important life lessons during IIMC. Implementing the expertise that he acquired from IIM Calcutta across the transitions of his personal and professional life, Gautam has been able to carve his name as one of the prolific industry stalwarts of the current generation. A passionate team player who loves to seek out creative challenges and learn simultaneously, Gautam displays unflagging energy to do things better and takes great pride in a job well done.

Currently positioned as the Managing Director/Partner for Pitch & North Consulting in India, Gautam is not only leading the firm across the markets of Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Chennai but is also regarded as a senior member of the Pitch & North Consulting’s Think-Tank Council (TTC). He relishes convening CEOs and board members on driving sustainable value creation, and one of his most rewarding experiences was founding and designing the Pitch & North TTC for Future Mobility, which helps business leaders and policymakers lead a change and prepare for a better playing field that is both, autonomous and interconnected.

Gautam engages in an exclusive interaction with CEOInsights.

Share some of the unforgettable moments from your IIM Calcutta days. How did they impact you and mould you as a budding industry leader?
There are many incidents, which are etched forever in my heart and some of them I would like to share here. On our first day on the campus, the 280 of us in my class were asked, 'What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?' I spent the next two years looking for the answer. Today, I’m still exploring but do have a much better idea about how to approach

this question. It’s like what our Prof always said, We are not students at IIMC only to study theories and frame works. We are here to learn how to tell good theories from bad ones, to determine when we can apply which theories, and how to evaluate the circumstances under which the theories will or will not work.

On the last day of the final semester, we were asked to take all the business theories we have studied throughout, but instead of applying them to companies, we applied them to ourselves and I continue to do that.

Define Pitch & North Consulting as an organization. What are the company’s greatest strengths and unique propositions that it offers to its clients?
Pitch & North Consulting is a niche strategy firm that provides management consulting services, exclusively for the sales and service verticals of our client firms. Some of the exemplary projects that we have undertaken so far include providing advice on a major 'goto market' blueprint, developing and executing a plan to restructure a sales and service force and, providing advice on a Key Account Management plan. A firm that has a pronounced emphasis on Talent, Customer- centricity, and Core principles is the one most likely to succeed. We have etched these three into our DNA and took the proverbial ‘Leap of Faith’.

Pitch & North Consulting offers two primary value propositions: Deep Domain Expertise and Innovation. So, we typically have the most tried and tested tools as well as techniques, along with the Best-In-Industry Frameworks, and a brilliant yet frugal team getting assigned to a client project. Laying huge emphasis on ongoing research and innovation, we have an organizational dislike for Off-the-Shelf offerings. Each client Work shop is replete with Case studies, Role Plays, and simulations.

My firm belief is that Cutting-edge Frameworks, Best Industry Practices, Tools and Techniques shouldn’t be only accessible to firms with deep and huge pockets. And this concept has been our primary driving force.

Reflect on some of the major challenges you have experienced in your journey so far?How did you overcome them and what did you learn from them?
I would say that these 'challenges' were more situational. We incorporated in the Oct of 2019, the first client pitch was rolled out in Jan 20, the first client came on board in Feb 20 and then the pandemic struck. I foresaw very early that the classroom impact interventions would need to be tailored for an online clientele and that prediction came true. We had the advantage of an educated and calibrated guess and today we are happy that it worked.

Going forward, what are the goals that you wish to invest in, and how do you plan to take them further?
Our newest initiative 'Beyond Class' caters to the schools, across the boards, to leverage our corporate experience and help the students scale up their 'real-life' performance. Day Trading and Swing Trading in the global stock markets for the school and college students is one unique initiative, that each one of us at Pitch & North Consulting, is particularly buoyant about.

I personally have this urgent urge to demonstrate how school and college students can perform exceptionally well and earn humongous money by sensibly trading bulls and bears. The myth surrounding the stock market has to vanish and each one of our kids must have the necessary where withal to outperform the Warren Buffets and the Charlie Mungers globally. We are reaching out to the heads of educational institutions to get us on board, pronto.

A Gautam Vasant, Managing Director, Pitch & North Con
As a strike force leading his wonderfully brilliant firm, Gautam oversees multiple engagements For multiple clients for his firm Pitch & North Consulting. Remaining involved in daily problem solving, Gautam helps his brilliant teammates to solve the toughest parts of each client challenge. A voracious reader and fitness enthusiast, Gautam takes pride in being a Total-Teetotaller and has a profound fondness for fish.

Awards & Recognition:
•Merit holder from Belbin, UK.
•Top 3 percent of the graduating class @ IIMC
•Keynote Speaker & an aspiring TEDx speaker