Benoy C.S., deputy director, information and communication technology (ICT) practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, believes that developing and maintaining a stable and competent team makes it easier to meet deadlines and execute work schedules. “Being in the consulting industry, it is important to give the team space to innovate and experiment, and help them grow. This, in turn, helps our business unit to grow,” he comments.

 

In his current position, he is accountable for the overall performance of Frost & Sullivan’s ICT practice in South Asia and the Middle East. This includes growing the organisation’s presence, service revenues and reach in the ICT domain for the region. “I work closely with clients to understand their challenges and help them grow their businesses with the help of our consulting, research and growth team membership services,” he says.

Benoy has 10 years of experience in the telecom and IT industry. He started his career in the area of marketing and business development and worked with several IT services and product companies before moving to the research and consulting industry. Prior to joining Frost & Sullivan, he was working with IDC India. “Throughout my career, I have been actively involved in the area of business development,” he says. “From the research and consulting viewpoint, my focus areas are the enterprise telecom and mobile sectors.”

Benoy clearly finds his job challenging and interesting. He says, “The consulting industry throws up a new learning every day. So working on such assignments is always interesting.”

Consulting, though, was not Benoy’s first choice of career. In his younger days, he aspired to become an engineer, but he stopped planning his career after entering the corporate world. “Instead, I chose to focus on the task at hand and give my best to every assignment,” he says. Going forward, he has set clear targets: “The most important target before us is to establish a strong ICT practice for Frost & Sullivan in South Asia. Besides, a key challenge is to sustain high top line and bottom line growth in this hugely competitive consulting and knowledge industry.”

According to him, the next two years will be very dynamic for the Indian telecom industry. “Currently, this space is in a transitional phase. We expect a lot of action on the regulatory, technology, M&A, and new players’ fronts. As the telecom ecosystem is evolving, we will see increasing competition from over-the-top players, and it will be very interesting to watch the evolution of new business models and partnerships. I expect the Indian telecom industry to be more stable and mature by the end of next year.”