Simpsy Teckchandani: Striving To Steer Her Family Business To The Pinnacle
Simpsy Teckchandani
CEO
Simpsy Teckchandani completed her graduation from Delhi University and did her MBA in Finance and Strategic Management from Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago. She started her career as a Senior Associate and went on to work with major MNCs in various leadership roles such as Morgan Stanley, Huron Consulting Group, Mesirow Financial, and PWC. Her knowledge and working experience of over two decades helped her become a well-rounded professional with working knowledge of the entire business ecosystem. After her successful stint with various industries, Simpsy took over the family business, with the spirit of solidifying the legacy of her father.
Simpsy Teckchandani engaged in an exclusive interaction with Women Entrepreneur Magazine, let’s get to know more about her.
You possess about two decades of experience. How has your path to success and what is your success mantra?
Much like anything in life, a career requires focus, hard work, and a set of mentors along with a lot of 20-hour days, and lots of nights where I burn the midnight oil to get better each day at what I do. Most of the time it's about being at the right place, at the right time, and having the right support. Also, working across multiple cultures and countries has really helped me evolve both personally and professionally.
Having a family business, on the other hand, has exposed me to the life of an entrepreneur where the mindset is different, models are different, and the attitude needs to be different. However, the thing that has stayed common regardless of the roles I have had in my professional life is my experience as a woman in the professional world.
Being a woman in a world that continues to be inherently patriarchal, comes with its own set of issues but I have to say that, while it’s been hard and a whole lot of work, I have also been extremely privileged. My family has always supported me, and my parents’ careers have inspired me to live a large but humble life.
My success mantra in life is to start every day as a new day with a fresh set of challenges and absorb all the learnings from those difficulties to grow in life.
How would you define IAC&S- India Aviation Consulting and Support as an organization and its position in the market?
IAC&S started in 2006 as a Sole Proprietorship and essentially built its success primarily from the strength of its people. With my father Kishu Teckchandani at the helm, a team started to come into place with a focus on recruiting three types of professionals over time that are highly experienced retired industry experts, midlevel experienced operational and functional professionals, and one or two years of experienced young minds. This allowed him to build a good mentor model as well as an excellent leverage model allowing for a career path to emerge for all with the partnership being the end goal.
The Aviation industry is a govt-regulated sector that is 100 percent compliance-based and as such, offering services in a specific technical area makes it more demanding. Today we have over 450 years of experience in total and have successfully delivered projects both domestically and internationally. We are confident that we are one of the first firms that come to mind when the need for a consulting partner rises for any effort in the Aviation sector.
Tell us about your flagship offerings and what value additions customers can expect from your services.
IAC&S started off as a boutique consulting firm serving the Airport Design, Management & Operations, Airline Operations, and Cargo Operations value chains in the Aviation industry. My father, Kishu Teckchandani, had been the biggest advocate for the privatization of airports in India. With privatization at our doorsteps finally in the early to mid 2000s, there was a huge focus on modernizing Tier 1 cities' infrastructure and getting Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities ready for the increase in passenger traffic triggered by economic growth. As such, he set the foundation for IAC&S to thrive and create its own brand in 5 key areas that are Compliance &
My success mantra in life is to start every day as a new day with a fresh set of challenges & absorb all the learnings from those difficulties to grow in life
My success mantra in life is to start every day as a new day with a fresh set of challenges and absorb all the learnings from those difficulties to grow in life.
How would you define IAC&S- India Aviation Consulting and Support as an organization and its position in the market?
IAC&S started in 2006 as a Sole Proprietorship and essentially built its success primarily from the strength of its people. With my father Kishu Teckchandani at the helm, a team started to come into place with a focus on recruiting three types of professionals over time that are highly experienced retired industry experts, midlevel experienced operational and functional professionals, and one or two years of experienced young minds. This allowed him to build a good mentor model as well as an excellent leverage model allowing for a career path to emerge for all with the partnership being the end goal.
The Aviation industry is a govt-regulated sector that is 100 percent compliance-based and as such, offering services in a specific technical area makes it more demanding. Today we have over 450 years of experience in total and have successfully delivered projects both domestically and internationally. We are confident that we are one of the first firms that come to mind when the need for a consulting partner rises for any effort in the Aviation sector.
Tell us about your flagship offerings and what value additions customers can expect from your services.
IAC&S started off as a boutique consulting firm serving the Airport Design, Management & Operations, Airline Operations, and Cargo Operations value chains in the Aviation industry. My father, Kishu Teckchandani, had been the biggest advocate for the privatization of airports in India. With privatization at our doorsteps finally in the early to mid 2000s, there was a huge focus on modernizing Tier 1 cities' infrastructure and getting Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities ready for the increase in passenger traffic triggered by economic growth. As such, he set the foundation for IAC&S to thrive and create its own brand in 5 key areas that are Compliance &
Regulatory Services,Mobilization Services, Airport Master PlanningDesign & Deployment Services, Airport Equipment & Engineering Products & Services, and Voice Products Deployment.
Could you tell us about your leadership approach and the guidelines or methodologies you follow to lead your team?
With about 20 years of experience first in consulting and now as an entrepreneur, there have been so many leadership lessons. First, I want to make sure I state that Leadership, in my mind, is not beholden to a title or a level in one’s organization but it’s a skill that one demonstrates and develops. I learned early on, observing my father in my younger years that leadership is about two big things that are having a growth mindset and instilling empathy internally within our being. Apart from that, simplifying and promoting transparency enables trust and empowers decision making which is an extremely important trait to have.
What is the future destination you are heading towards?
Professionally, I see the future of IAC&S with me at the helm, having a very simple two-prong approach. First, continue to build and enhance IAC&S in its current form, and second, be a part of the future of Aviation and even drive its disruption by investing in the future. In its simplest form, the way forward is by acknowledging the legacy of my father in the way he founded IAC&S and made it successful and, leveraging it as a spring board to usher in a new era for IAC&S.
Simpsy Teckchandani, CEO, India Aviation Consulting & Support
From starting her career with a boutique consulting firm in the USA, Simpsy Teckchandani went on to work for the big 4 consulting firms with a focus on strategy as a competency within the Pharma and Industrial Manufacturing sectors. After having over a decade of working experience, she got her calling and started her journey from being a consultant to an entrepreneur in the Aviation Industry.
•Hobbies: Sketching, Designing, Gardening, Watching National Geographic & other documentaries.
•Favorite Cuisine: Mexican, Asian Thai & Indian.
•Favorite Book:
•I'm OK You're OK(Thomas A. Harris)
•How to win friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
•Favorite Travel Destination: In the hills or by the quiet beach with the sound of waves
Awards & Recognition:
•Ranked IIIrd in 1997 Batch of Interior Designers
•Employee of the Year 2010-11, Mesirow Financial Consulting
Could you tell us about your leadership approach and the guidelines or methodologies you follow to lead your team?
With about 20 years of experience first in consulting and now as an entrepreneur, there have been so many leadership lessons. First, I want to make sure I state that Leadership, in my mind, is not beholden to a title or a level in one’s organization but it’s a skill that one demonstrates and develops. I learned early on, observing my father in my younger years that leadership is about two big things that are having a growth mindset and instilling empathy internally within our being. Apart from that, simplifying and promoting transparency enables trust and empowers decision making which is an extremely important trait to have.
What is the future destination you are heading towards?
Professionally, I see the future of IAC&S with me at the helm, having a very simple two-prong approach. First, continue to build and enhance IAC&S in its current form, and second, be a part of the future of Aviation and even drive its disruption by investing in the future. In its simplest form, the way forward is by acknowledging the legacy of my father in the way he founded IAC&S and made it successful and, leveraging it as a spring board to usher in a new era for IAC&S.
Simpsy Teckchandani, CEO, India Aviation Consulting & Support
From starting her career with a boutique consulting firm in the USA, Simpsy Teckchandani went on to work for the big 4 consulting firms with a focus on strategy as a competency within the Pharma and Industrial Manufacturing sectors. After having over a decade of working experience, she got her calling and started her journey from being a consultant to an entrepreneur in the Aviation Industry.
•Hobbies: Sketching, Designing, Gardening, Watching National Geographic & other documentaries.
•Favorite Cuisine: Mexican, Asian Thai & Indian.
•Favorite Book:
•I'm OK You're OK(Thomas A. Harris)
•How to win friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
•Favorite Travel Destination: In the hills or by the quiet beach with the sound of waves
Awards & Recognition:
•Ranked IIIrd in 1997 Batch of Interior Designers
•Employee of the Year 2010-11, Mesirow Financial Consulting