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News round-up: January 20

Published: Jan 20, 2011

 Consulting       

Welcome to this week's penultimate news round-up. It's going to be great.

In India, Accenture has moved to replace its outgoing head of operations, Harsh Manglik, with a successor who can better serve the sub-continental market. Avinash Vashistha will become Accenture's new chairman and managing director in India, a move that the Times of India reports is fueled by concerns that the firm has fallen behind competitors TCS, IBM and Wipro, who currently dominate the IT landscape in India. While Accenture has indeed made India a base of its outsourcing and consulting operations, the publication asserts, the firm will aggressively seek to make inroads in the implementation market that the aforementioned competitors—IBM in particular—own the lion's share of. Enter Vashistha, a successful consultant and entrepreneur who also oversaw Nortel's entry into the Indian market in the 90's.

Infosys is absolutely fed up with its engineers quitting in order to pursue higher ed degrees, so it's turning to a new plan to keep them onboard: turn them into consultants! "Every quarter, a lot of people leave us for higher courses like MBA and MTech," said TV Mohandas Pai, the firm's human resources head. "We have also seen a rise in the interest level of our employees for consulting work." Put two and two together, and what do you get? "We will conduct a test for the employees and if they pass the test, they can join our consulting team," Pai announced. Sources suggest that the test would be similar to a business school entrance exam.

As reported in depth earlier on Consult THIS, BCG came within one spot of topping Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list, out today. Proud BCGers took to Facebook to hail the achievement: "I am excited to see BCG get recognized for what most BCGers already know...that this is truly a great company to work for," said one. "Proud of my company today. Well, proud of my company every day, but especially proud today," added another.

Last but not—well yes, probably least—PA Consulting Group today announced that it had struck a strategic partnership with Denison Consulting, which calls itself "the world's leader in organizational leadership and culture assessment solutions." The partnership will see PA consultants analyze their clients' cultural structures quantitatively using Denison's proprietary modeling techniques. Lots of quotes about "passion" and "commitment" later, the marriage is official. Cue the Fat Lady!

For more information:
Accenture seeks bigger India play with Vashistha
Infosys plans to stem MBA-MTech attrition
Hub firm is 2nd on Fortune's best places to work
Denison Consulting Announces Partnership with PA Consulting Group

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